2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

But that being the case..we had a ton of open looks down the stretch in almost every single game we lost to Denver. We just didn't make the shots..Lebron old, tired and all..was still our most reliable shot maker. The Nuggets hit thier shots we didn't. Denver had the 15th ranked defense that season. Didn't stop em tho

 

Denver also did not make all their shots the problem was they got more possessions and easier looks when they had loose ball that they get into bad spots.

Shotmaking tends to even out. Overall their percentages weren't bad.

 

what was Atlanta thinking not drafting Castle 1??????????

 

They also had Michael Porter Jr. who crushed us from the 3 point line. And who crushed us from the perimeter.

you have to remember we were dealing with Murray Jokic Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon. It was impossible to guard. Impossible to defend.

 

I do think if you essentially put Giannis in the role we're asking LeBron to perform defensively now (low-man/helper - provide some supplementary rim protection and help on recover on drives) the defense would be better. He's just a bigger body that can clean up mistakes by everyone else through shear athleticism. When LeBron has been locked in defensively for stretches over the last few years that's more or less how he's done it.

But you're of course right that the biggest issue is containment. Our perimeter defenders are actually pretty strong across the board (Smart, LeBron, Rui, Jake, Austin doesn't really get bullied by guards, Gabe is pretty strong for his size) but no one can stay in front of anyone laterally.

 

Is that why we've lost 3 straight playoffs series tho? Lack of containment on the perimeter. It's definitely not why we lost to Minnesota.

Something can be a problem, but not the fatal issue.

 

Lol you like Porter Jr huh? Someone else around here thought he was the key for Denver beating us too. I can't remember who at the moment

I say that Murray and Jokic just hit a lot of big shots, tough contested shots, down the stretch of those games. And Lebron and AD came up empty on a lot of the same. Most of those games were close

 

Well first of all, anything pre-Luka/AD trade isn't relevant. It doesn't really matter why we lost to the Nuggets, the team is profoundly different now. But to address it nonetheless - our poor perimeter defense was mitigated by AD being both an elite rim protector and an elite P&R defender. Even if the guy guarding the ballhandler on a screen died on said screen, AD could hedge just enough to impede the ballhandler's progress but also not commit too much such that he was out of position to defend the rim. AD is a truly elite defensive center and those guys can cover up deficiencies like no one else defensively. But we no longer have that, we have Ayton who is just okay defensively. So barring us bringing in an AD-level defensive anchor, yes we need vastly better perimeter defenders that can reasonably stay in front of ballhandlers and navigate screens so we're not relying on Ayton to erase mistakes like we asked AD to do (because Ayton can't do that).

Now going to Minnesota, we had to play this switch-heavy, rotate and recover system because we didn't have defenders who could contain the ball OR an anchor big. It was the only way we could prevent Ant from calling for a screen and then blowing by an ill-equipped hedge defender every single play. At least the switch heavy scheme forced them to make the right passes when the rotation came, which they eventually figured out and did. But it did also have drawbacks. Austin got buried on the block guarding Randle and their other forwards because we were so committed to switching. Gobert murdered us on the offensive glass in the closeout game because we were switching so much. We desperately needed a center and better perimeter defenders so we wouldn't have to play such a gimmicky form of defense.

And I guess finally, the Nuggets and Wolves are not the only teams in the conference. OKC is built quite differently and you're f***ed against them if you can't contain the ball. Same with the Spurs. The Rockets are a little different as they don't really rely on Amen to generate their halfcourt offense in P&R or iso as much, they're running a lot through Sengun and KD. Now that we don't have AD to erase mistakes for us, we absolutely need a good POA defender that can help navigate the Jokic/Murry two-man game.

 

I kind of agree, dude looked like Kevin Durant against us lol, then s*** the bed vs. Minnesota. Guy been producing all star numbers this month leading the poor Nets to a 7-2 record in December:

It's pretty crazy to see him used as Curry/Ray Allen shooting after some screens, making him so efficient. Nets have done well to mask his below average ball handling and play making. Better than Lauri at this point. I think the price is going to involve multiple FRPs since he's been so good.

 

I don't know..the numbers say we pretty much stifled Minnesota's perimeter game. They shoot poorly against us. It's the bigger guys that killed us in that series. I think if we had decent bigman or a better game plan, we could have beaten Minnesota. Yet LeBron did get injured in the last game, so there is that.

Okc, Denver, San Antonio, Houston..we are definitely going to have a size, length and athleticism issue against them too. Nobody is containing SGA, but Indiana could have beaten them without doing so. They were knocking down tough shots in the clutch, against the best defense in the NBA.

I don't think Denver lost to Okc because of their perimeter defenders either. The Thunder just outmatched Minnesota pretty much across the board. I would like more size myself Ayton and Lebron aren't physical enough, to dominant any of these teams, but we have a Luka, whose capable of going nuclear. And if Austin upped his game more, we have a legit shot against them all.


If it were the role players, killing us on the perimeter, I would think differently maybe. That really wasn't the case against Minnesota. I'm interested into what we actually do, the FO might be seeing things in different way. Long season tho..we might get to the trade deadline and not view anyone available better than Smart in that role. Idk.