WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

We really appear to have won the in season tournament and just said “f it”

 

Completely agree.

Franchise can’t build around 2 generational talents and will likely have its 7th coach this summer.

 

yeah, we periodically tell on ourselves with games that show it's possible for us to win when we care. we just refuse to care and are ALWAYS trying to win with the least amount of effort. it's the nba. the teams are too good to try to calibrate your effort.

i turned this off after the first quarter, and despite our playing well on offense, i knew it was possible we'd lose to a vastly inferior team because you could see our defense hadn't shown up. once again AD trying to cover for literally everyone else.

when cam thomas came in firing, it took us way too long to bring vando in, and then when we did, we were switching screens out top on him so that he could get into isos against their preferred matchup anyway. you can't let a bench player run over you like that. that's partly on the coach. but what's new.

 

Going into last night, the only game left on the schedule this month that we should've dropped was against the Clipps. We've already beat them and they're going to want their get back.

Should've finished the month 6-1 of those final 7. We can't even beat the f***ing Nets. There's no point of beating the Mavs and Thunder if you drop games like these.

 

Team had no fire, can’t take a punch and thinks it’s better than it actually is.

Once an opponent gets hot we fold from the coaches to the players.

 

Lebron James is the greatest of all time

 

There was this Arenas shootout tournament (won by the Miracola guy, that got humiliated by Chuck and Kenny) and they were making fun of tha Lakers
When Jenna Bandy was shooting, Gil was asking for a phone call to Ham to sign her up. Sad and funny at the same time.

 

I've been very critical of the Lakers but at least they f***ing try to win.
This reminds me of last year when Mesai and everyone was making fun of the Lakers and they ended up being the second-best in the league when it was all said and done.

How many teams like Toronto just tread most seasons? Yeah great Philly is good now but how many years did they suck? Boston had to fleece the Nets and still hasn't won anything.

**and yes letting Caruso go because they were too cheap goes against that argument but again they were trying to keep up with the Nets - team gives a s*** about winning

 

as currently constructed/playing/being coached, we are not a playoff team and don't deserve to be. We may only make it as a play in team. I don't see us passing the two team ahead of us, as they are better than we are.

There is a chance we fall. Our differential on the season is -0.8. We are outscored by the competition, and are not currently in the league of the top teams in the conference.

But yet we can get up for a tournament and flip the switch? I just hate that mentality. Half of me hopes we fall flat so we are forced to make some wholesale changes. The other half hopes for a repeat of last year. But I'm not delusional enough to think exceeding that is possible. Shameful effort going on.

 

yeah, i think i was talking about it in another thread. to me, the best ball we can play with this group is maybe a 55-win pace (we were on pace for 50 before the wheels fell off the season). let's be optimistic and say we do that for the last 38 games. that means 25 more wins, which puts us at 47. if dallas/phx/sac just play at the same pace they have been, we would catch them in such a case. so...it's possible to get maybe all the way up to 5 (NO's only a half game up on those guys), but i think the top 4 are basically impossible.

and let's be honest, we're probably not winning 2/3 of our games from here on out. more likely is one of our big guns goes down for a stretch, and basically continue being a .500 team for the duration. in that case, there's very legitimate concern that two of hou/utah/gs pass us, and we're all the way out of the play-in.

i had hoped utah would decide to tank, but their pick is only top-10 protected, so trader danny might not be motivated to dump guys this year, as they probably want to convey that pick now, in a weaker draft. we know gs is going for it and will make a trade, and houston doesn't own their pick this year and didn't spend a billion dollars on veterans in FA to miss the play-in this year.

we have our work cut out for us.

just take care of business against butler-less miami at home, the nets at home, etc., and we're firmly in the mix for the 5-seed. instead, a betting man would have us all the way out, imo.

 

It's tough. I honestly like us against several teams in the West even as currently constructed. Question is can this group rally together. There's a level of accountability and humility that has to come from the staff to the players at this point for these guys to come together and make a run. We've shown we can beat good teams though.

 

Yeah, the problem is there's we're waiting for the deadline games like the Nets game and the there's no telling how soon we'll see the the next one of those. My guess is sooner than later.

 

I’m listening to Anthony Irwin and I think we’re f***ed for the immediate future with Ham in charge

 

this. we've been seeing these for a while. i think after the deadline, we'll play better (assuming health)--regardless of whether we make any trades. but we've dropped several games that are almost certainly related to a team not feeling like they're going to be together for the long haul, imo. you have to get to the deadline with a shot, and we may not this time.

i think it's bad. ham has done himself and us no favors. but he's not wrong that the effort and execution have not consistently been there, and some of that is on the front office and the players themselves, particularly the leadership in the locker room. you can't just instruct management to trade players you don't like. you have to try to work with those guys if you want to win.

 

pictionary time

 

Not nearly good enough.

No excuses to lose another one this month against Bulls, Warriors, Rockets, or Hawks

 

we needed to win 11 or 12 of these, imo. we are 6-15 on the road so far. season ended when we fell flat on our faces after the IST.

 

Unreal how we have unraveled this month.