With AD back and Rui here choosing to DNP Gabriel and leave Bryant, Christie and Brown on the bench while he plays 3 guards is going to make poor muzzled Kurt stroke out.
I think y’all are being way too critical of Ham’s lineups. Before the Spurs game injuries decimated this team and the player composition was imbalanced to begin with. Now in the Spurs game you get AD back but on a minutes restriction, and a new wing that doesn’t know the playbook or defensive schemes. Of course he’s not going to play them big minutes yet. You don’t want to try to integrate two new players and greatly disrupt the lineups at the same time all of a sudden in one game. That would be trying to do too much at once IMO. Then you have complaints about that 3 guard lineup that had gotten us playing 500 ball since AD went down. Of course Ham’s going to go with it. He knows what they’re going to do out there. They’re going to push pace down the opponent’s throat. Offensively we play at the second fastest pace in the NBA and that 3 guard lineup is one of the reasons why. Ham wants to preserve that pace. Defensively it’s not great, but let’s be real, Russ can competently guard SF without getting abused most nights, and both Schroeder and Beverly will never quit on plays or lack effort. We’re most likely to get killed on contesting shots and rebounding, but we’re not going to change lineups that drastically all of a sudden AD’s first game back. We’re going to integrate AD and Rui while maintaining that fast pace. I have confidence Ham isn’t going to run 3 small guard lineups much once he finds combinations where we have length and that fast pace at the same time because playing at pace is a huge part of our identity.
Thank you Barnstable, I thought maybe I was going mad seeing it that way. Our 3 guard lineup was competing the whole game. And you could see that the additions of AD and Rui changed rotations and threw everyone off. Lebron, Russ, Schroeder and Bryant all had off games to various degrees. Gabriel and JTA were totally out of the rotations. But there was a lot to like in individual plays. I imagine the addition of Reaves and Walker will further complicate things before they get better. And if we do a trade to balance the roster, I imagine the part we receive back will struggle for a little too. Hopefully post All-Star break we can really gel and go on a strong last 20-25 game run and get into the top 6.
I'm not too worked up about last night given the AD/Rui situation. The part that did bug me was going to the 3 guard lineup to close the game after the Schroeder/Christie/LeBron/Rui/AD lineup broke the game open. He should've just left them out there for three more minutes and then cleared the bench to finish. The 3 guard lineup is a gimmick. Sure it may have helped us tread water while AD was out due to sheer randomness/chaos, but let's not pretend its actually a good lineup. Against the Clippers we started off guarding Kawhi with Bev and he immediately hit multiple jumpers right over him. We adjusted by doubling Kawhi off the catch and they pinged the ball around for wide open threes. Trying to defend with three guards was why we lost that game. Going forward, there's no reason to see those lineups anymore. .500 ball isn't good enough anymore. If Schroeder/Reaves/Walker/Russ are all healthy Bev shouldn't be playing at all.
Our 3 guard lineup had us struggling to beat the Spurs… When Ham put size in we pulled away, it’s not being too critical, the lineups are nonsensical. If you want to play 3 guards make one of them Christie. Russ, Schröder, and Beverly playing together on a regular basis is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve defended Ham plenty this season, but I’m sorry there’s no defending that. If it continues once Walker and Reaves are back I will be beyond words. I award Ham no points, and may god have mercy on his soul.
I hope you are right, but I don't have your confidence. The man ran out a lineup not long ago of 4 smalls + Lebron when there was no reason or need to do so. He said it was to scramble to get back in the game but we had competent bigger players like Gabriel and JTA cooling their jets on the bench at the time. We got destroyed on D with that lineup. I was yelling at the TV, but Ham kept them on the floor.
The lineups are kinda weird and I think they'll continue to be for a few weeks. Even more injured players are coming back. Integrating new pieces and keeping the existing players happy will probably have us complaining about rotations in the near future. But I tend to agree with @Barnstable , Ham's used a limited roster to play .500 basketball. I don't always want to go small, but he got to .500, so I respect his decisions to a degree. I also don't think plugging in Gabriel is the answer to some of those situations. I love the kid but I think he has some limitations on the floor, same with Toscano. I do think Beverly will continue to get run, much to you guys' chagrin. I sense that Ham values his aggression, wants the younger guys to follow his lead.
We did what we had to do, in order to stay afloat. As pointed out above, the 3 little guard lineups unlocked beastmode Lebron. I don't think anyone expected us to play 500 ball without AD. Not to mention the amount of time that Lonnie and Austin have missed. I gave credit to Darvin, he found a way to keep us competitive, I give credit to the players too, they scrapped and clawed in just about every game. Hopefully now with AD back and some more help on the way, we can go out and start kicking some a** moving forward.
