we won't be able to swap knecht for seconds at this point, imo. our only hope would be to move him for a vet min guy who still has something in the tank or similarly underperforming guy on a rookie deal (perhaps who's a better fit for us). i actually think bronny could play his proper role in a pinch. having him try to be a pg continues to be a silly idea, imo. gabe can play off the ball; he just doesn't look as good doing it. i think jj was hinting at that the other day when he said gabe can basically do anything here (paraphrasing). i think he's going to be worth his contract this year, and it makes the smart injury less ominous. obviously, we'll need smart if we want to compete at the highest level, but gabe could be enough most nights. and most teams's last 2-3 roster spots aren't guys you want playing if you're trying to win. ours just happen to be even more disappointing than many. separately but relatedly: is there a reason manon and marciulionis aren't playing in the preseason but nate williams and anton watson are? manon, in particular, is the two-way guy i'm most keen on long-term. is he hurt? underperforming in practice? because i'm pretty sure those other two have no future here (or anywhere).
I believe Manon is hurt. Would like to see him since he could be a nice pickup just like Goodwin was. Gabe has had decent stretches for us, when healthy he tries hard on D and can be a decent man and help defender. When his 3 pt shot is falling he outdoes his contract. Having Gabe, Smart, Vando and LaRavia is a lot of defensive firepower off the bench. I wouldn’t play them all together as a full bench lineup, as I believe in staggering the stars. But in a worst case scenario you could have all 4 guys play defense and have Kleber carry the offence for a few minutes.
I get it- Dalton hasn’t looked great, but it’s been two ugly preseason games by just about every player not named Gabe or Vando. I think he can still turn it around. I think both he and Rui have to be playing with our defense collapses in order to be effective. They both are pretty much just catch and shoot guys who can only excel when given great passes by Austin, Luka, and LeDrama.
I’m really not worried about Rui at all. He has developed into a finisher and not a creator, to me that’s where his value comes from. He’ll finish catch and shoot 3’s at a super high level, he’ll make cuts and finish them, he’ll catch the ball with 5 seconds left and go into a midrange shot and hit it. With Luka, LeBron and Reaves, we get a mismatch everytime down the floor, and usually teams are going to sell out defending those 3 guys and we need to rely on our 4th and 5th starters to finish our offense.
I have very little faith in this roster after these games. Yes, I know we’re missing our 2 stars and some bench guys, I’m not saying this because we lost the games, and there were positives for sure like Gabe, Vando, and Ayton on defense and the boards, but I just don’t like the roster makeup overall. We sorely lack speed and athleticism across the roster, and one guy we’re counting on for major defense in Smart is dealing with an old man nagging injury already. We don’t have any quick defensive or playmaking guards, and I realize that’s because our SG, SF, and PF are the playmakers, but it also feels like a glaring hole for some scenarios. I think we’ll be a good team, a playoff team, but the reasons Minnesota beat us are still here, and we just are not on the athletic level of some of these other West teams. We are going to get out-rebounded, out-quicked, out-played in a number of those games and there really isn’t anything the team will be able to do about it, it’s how the roster is constructed, we are still playing catch-up in a number of areas. I’m not even sure how we’d fix it now, it’s likely not an option until LeBron is gone.
Also, this. We don’t take this stuff seriously enough, and then wonder why we don’t come out as sharp as some other teams. We essentially don’t have a preseason as our real team isn’t playing together yet like they intend to
When you're at an athleticism disadvantage, you have to make up for it with skill and execution. Those Spurs team last decade is the best example. A team with Luka Doncic and LeBron James is well positioned to do that...but to out-execute and out-smart teams you need reps. Every 5-man combination needs to know exactly how it wants to play and what their strengths/weaknesses are. How the opponent wants to counter your base looks on offense and defense and what you go to in response. The only way to build up those habits is to take training camp, pre-season and regular season seriously. We're a week in so I'm not going to panic, but yeah it's not a great start from what I can see.
i think we can win without the athleticism, but i agree that starting the year with zero cohesion is going to be a problem.
Just feels like the last couple of years: looks like a solid team and you can see a window but always just 1-2 pieces away.
