Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

I'm almost positive that's the lineup they'll go for.

Try to see if a) Nance can hold up against starters and b) what the guard play looks like without Randle. Are they good enough to get by without Randle's unique skill set? I'd like to find out. If they are, a package built around Randle and maybe that Top 3 pick would look pretty damn nice to Indiana and then we bring in a more traditional PF or maybe even Ilyasova or something to space the floor.

 

Hm...

 

I think they all know what's happening; this is just something that needs to be said in case someone thinks we're tanking on purpose. Which is totally what we are not doing.

 

Randle and Russell really played well against the Clippers last stringers.

 

I would say all three kids you mentioned could easily fit his description.

 

Randle and Clarkson, should be obvious.

But look - Luke can't say this after the game: "I am pleased with how our tanking is going, we're hoping to get Ball, as you all know, and all our young guys know this as well, so they are giving ~60% effort, which is obviously not enough to win games. But yeah, everything is under control."

 

Yeah what I did get to watch was late in the game, but it was all the same sort of junk like you said. Russell and Clarkson defensively are like hamsters on wheels. Russell overplays way out on top and gets beat, then lays on the easy screen which puts either one of the bigs in a huge bind either forced to help, foul, or get beat themselves. Clarkson seems to be constantly running nowhere as he gets beat the same way. Randle is consistently late rotating and his body language off the ball is preposterously bad. Zubac was put in positions to fail consistently either in isos against quicker guys or in the pick and roll like you said.

Randle had one of those first halves that I said were unacceptable just looking at the stat line. It was something like 2/2/2/0/0 which is embarrassing for a player with his skill level. I'd have to watch it unfold to see exactly what happened but if I had to guess: he missed an early shot and then refused to shoot it, his lack of shooting stalled part of the offense, he quietly moves into the background putting the rest of his team in a tough position playing 5 on 4 offense.

 

According the Ringer article here, it's 121.4 points per 100 possessions.