2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

Houston Russ had 34ppg James Harden getting doubled at half court and a bunch of wings that could shoot at worst decently from three. They played with zero bigs clogging the paint. In Washington he got to run and gun playing the fastest pace in the league where he dominated the ball as much as he wanted (especially after Beal got hurt) playing in a low pressure, low expectation environment.

Lebron James is best playing at a slower pace where he controls the tempo and dictates the offense in the half court. His teams typically capitalize in transition after getting stops and forcing turnovers. The paces of all his title teams are #16 in 2012, #23 in 2013, #28 in 2016, and #11 in 2020.

Westbrook does not fit with Lebron. It is almost a guarantee that Russ's man will again, be leaving him open from 3 and doubling down on LBJ/AD. That made the spacing inoperable and life difficult. He cannot play in a slower pace offensive. He needs to dominate the ball in an up-tempo one. He needs to be the PG you know and we all know, Lebron always ends up wanting to run the point on the team. Best case, would be to run him at point when Lebron is on the bench but starting him alongside Lebron and AD would be dooming the team from the start.

 

He got bored with the stripper rotation in New York.

 

He needs to play in Shanghai. He’s worn out his welcome in the NBA with his uncompromising attitude.

 

I don’t get our fascination with Hield but I guess. I like Turner if healthy.

 

it's the relationships again, i think. now--why that matters here? no idea. rob must believe in his character or something?

i just know we dodged a bullet not trading for him last time (only to walk into a bigger bullet).

 

Lebron was scoring 30 pts last season, and wasn't getting doubled. We played at a slower pace last year too. All true. So my question is why doesn't the coaching staff instil a play style and/or individual plays to get more out of Westbrook? There was times during the season where both Lebron and Westbrook were sitting on the bench together - why? Why not let Russ run and gun during those moments? How much did Russ impact Lebron's resurgent offensive season? Why wasn't Lebron in positions where the defence had to double him? Why can't Lebron play in an uptempo offence?

If Lebron is going to play 30-32 minutes this season (as Ham is preaching load management). That affords Russ 18 mins when Lebron is sitting, we also have a much younger team now - lets get into transition where Russ can cause damage. Then it's not unforeseeable to give Russ another 6 mins or so minutes of on ball time with Lebron and some of the young athletes. I don't accept that Lebron and Russ can't work full stop, I do believe that our coaching staff last season didn't know what to do with Russ as he was thrown into their laps like a hand grenade and proceeded to have his worst ever season.

Russ' man doesn't technically double off of Russ, he drops deep to protect against the drive and to be closer to a rotation. Last year to end the season, Frank changed the spacing when this happened by moving a corner shooter out and letting Russ walk into a post up without any help defence on the weak side - which yielded great results. I just don't accept these black and white facts that nothing can be done to get more out of a player. That's ludicrous.

Lebron is 39, we want him to dominate the game for 26-30 minutes. We want AD to be the focal point. And I believe playing a bit more to Russ' play style could also help AD.

Worst case, none of it works out and Westbrook expires. I'd rather that then Hield for 3 years personally. If we can though - get Kyrie.

 

it's weird because as much as fans endorse such things, you don't see it a lot in action. i think it has something to do with guys (especially old guys) liking stints of certain lengths, etc. it must be hard on the body to go in and out of games in short intervals? plus, russ clearly insisted on starting, which complicates things. best i can come up with.

but even when lebron was with wade in their respective primes, it was obvious that they needed to spend less time sharing the floor to maximize team benefit, but it was rare that they weren't in together. some of that is, of course, just math: both need to play a lot. but really, both lebron and russ should be playing 30mpg, ideally. across 48 minutes, that should only require only what, 8-10 minutes of overlap as a necessity?

always harkens back to "sacrifice" to me. manu ginobili came off the bench when he was a top-20 nba player for years. russ can't do it when he's not even top-50.

 

I also think it’s the prior relationship but at some point the film and scouting on these guys has to matter right? Lol. Especially after the train wreck last year.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d be taking a break if we gave up picks for Hield and I’m pretty much of the same frame of mind.

 

the lonnie walker signing is the same to me. people they trust think he's got untapped potential or is a good guy or whatever. this is clearly how the lakers operate from top to bottom at this point. it's yielded both incredible and incredibly disappointing results at various time points.

 

All great points, I'm unsure of how to make it work. But I don't get paid to think deeply about this, if anyone is willing to afford me a coaching role and wage - I'm sure I'd do my best to figure things out.

Russ and Lebron are redundant, and we are going to pick Lebron obviously. Makes little to no sense to have Russ walking about the court pouting because he is being used as a glorified bring the ball up and pass it off guard. They should really only overlap in the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes.

 

They already did us a favor with the $500,00 tampering fine.

 

Does something like this work?



We are really just missing a 3&D wing in the starting unit to provide spacing and defence. It's the disappointment of the offseason to me so far.

I think in this scenario you play your set plays for the first few possessions. Then you let Russ take the reigns around minute 4 and let him be aggressive for the rest of that first half as the second option, trying to feed AD (the first option) and get out in transition.

Then to start the third, you have Lebron assume more control as Russ ramps up his defence and focuses on attacking secondary if Lebron's plays fall apart. You let Russ start the 4th to hold the lead and if he is playing well, you potentially ride him a little longer and then bring him back in for only last 2-3 mins as Lebron closes.

That leaves about 33 mins for the guard spots (hopefully Reaves takes the majority of that), 30 mins combined at the SF and PF spots and 18 mins for Damien Jones at C.

Russ (33) / Nunn (15)
Reaves (26) / Nunn (15) / Walker (7)
Lebron (18) / Some kind of combo of Brown, TJA, THT and/or Stan (30)
AD (34) / Lebron (14)
Bryant (30) / Jones (18)

I hope we look into trying to trade THT and Gabriel plus a first or two for a 3&D wing. That would mean they'd take the starting SG spot for about 12 mins and about 20-22ish minutes at SF. Reaves would be around 24 mins which I think is perfect at his current development. It also means one of Walker, Brown, TJA and Stan would take up the last 10 mins at SF.

We wouldn't be overflowing with shooters, but we'd have enough to get it done with Nunn, Reaves, new wing, Lebron and Bryant.

 

That could work, it depends on what happens with Talen, but I expect Walker and Brown to play more.

 

I feel bad even posting this fraud, but it’s a slow news day so what the hell

 

Well..there's your 10 min a game wing shooter.

 

You guys really are still trying to convince yourselves that Russ can work?
Hilarious.

 

wouldn't mind melo back in a limited role

 

I doubt AD sees 0 minutes at the 5.
There's also guys playing 1 and 2 minutes in that schedule. But some good ideas there

 

I did it during a quick lunch so didn’t have time to sit there and think things through. It was more just trying to figure out for myself if splitting Russ and Lebron is a tenable idea with both starting and closing.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with AD. I quite like both Bryant and Jones, more so than some of our guards. So I’d rather they get those minutes and we play big. But AD at the 5 during the playoffs will be of importance as always.