Talen Horton-Tucker Discussion: Growing Pains

Saved myself the grief of this game with MN and KAT, too, like the most recent Clippers game and did not watch. Is the ankle why THT only played 9 minutes according to the box score?

 

Yep. Re-aggravated it. They shut him down.

 

Ugggh!!!

 

bummer. he was starting to get back on track, too.

 

Rescued from page 2.

:THT Heart Hands:

So you’ve all read me harp for a year or more that THT doesn’t have or know how to do a simple mid range actual jump shot, with a move to first get space, and actually get up in the air and use those long arms. Just the one legged Dirk or now LeBron fade away without any elevation.

UNTIL tonight!! That I’ve seen anyway. He broke one out in the second quarter going left from right to the center of the key near the FT line and quickly stopped and got actual freaking elevation falling back a little bit with a great short range J. And it swished! Tremendous. That will open up so much of his game if he keeps using it and can make a decent per cent. Gotta be easier than 3s until he gets better with them.

 

his confidence is just completely shot. i don't know if the contract got to him or what, but he's sort of afraid to use his abilities and is second-guessing himself on both ends all the time. you can't play like that.

i still think he's very talented. handles the ball very well, super strong, good body control, and here and there he shows some serious scoring and passing ability from all over the floor (even in bad games like tonight's).

not sure how to move forward, though, as i feel like he's had some strong supporters in his corner here.

 

He needs time. He shows flashes of all defense like ability as a 1v1 defender as well but it's just not coming together right now.
Combination of injuries, expectations, and being stuck with Westbrook who basically duplicates his strengths and weaknesses

 

yeah, i mean, the side step back three in the corner off the dribble is a difficult move that he made easy. but a few plays before that, he attacked and got stuck, then a couple plays later, he makes a nice move on the break and just has it roll out on him, then he blows by his guy and passes up a wide open teardrop in the center of the lane to pass to a semi-covered "shooter" in the corner (people chalk this up to iq, but i think that's the lack of confidence--prior plays were on his mind, didn't want to miss another chippy chance).

defensively during the same general sequence, he and ariza got confused on a corner assignment and gave up an easy wide open three. couldn't tell whose fault it was, but THT's body language was bad after it, making me think he missed it. just thinking too much.

and yes, i think just handing russ's role to THT would be good for him and probably for the team, if only because THT won't keep at it when he's not on.

 

bad season for all but i still believe in this yougin

 

It's the glimpses that make it hard to give up on him. The defense he did on Ingram was something else: Ingram had torched everybody and then THT just shut him down for a couple of possessions. Of course that doesn't account for help defensive mistakes or his offensive inconsistencies but he's so young that it's hard to dismiss the glimpses (he's what 2 years younger than Reaves!)

 

Shut him down, protect that value in case we need to lump him in a Russ deal.

 

THT is strictly an on-ball player. He can't play with both Lebron and Westbrook, only one.

 

This is like the Kuzma situation again. We have an imperfect but talented player. He needs the ball a lot in his hands in certain spots on the floor and we haven't quite figured out how to use him with other talented players on the team. He's got some ways to go catch and shoot wise but he still brings a lot to a team.

 

I will also say like Kuzma, it's much easier to put up numbers when there are no pressure and expectations. In games like today and during Wizards games for Kuzma, you'll never get the opponents best so you can float through with little resistance. When the stars are playing, the opposition gets up for the games and the pressure increases greatly.

 

Maybe an offensive minded coach could figure out how to fit him into the scheme?

 

um, no?

yes, this. as we've said all year, russ killed THT's game, too. remember the first few games he came back from injury and was essentially in the lebron role? that was his best stretch of the year.

i fear he's not great with either lebron or russ, so the answer is dump russ and move THT to the bench where he can be an offensive focal point. when he plays, he's the poor man's lebron.

as vogel indicated, he knows the role THT needs and simply couldn't provide it given our roster construction.

 

Nonsense he could have ran sets for Tucker all season when Lebron was out and Russ was on the bench. He didn't do it. We had plenty of opportunities to try different things on offense all season. I can't remember Vogel running many screens or pin downs, to free up his shooters like Green, KCP or Duke, since he got the job. We ran the same stuff for 3 seasons regardless of who was playing. One guy goes one on one, and every one else fans out around the 3pt line. Or give it to AD and he goes 1on1.

 

Bron and Russ each are VERY high usage. It's tough for any non microwave scorer (like Monk) to get in a groove and do good thing with 3 minutes here, 5 there, maybe another 3-5 minutes in another rotation if you're talking about letting him cook when one of them sit. That's not THT's game.

 

Lebron missed a lot of games. There was ample opportunity to run sets for Talen. We just didn't do it. Yes Monk can play with any lineup because he can hit the deep 3 or attack off the dribble and get up his own shot. Nunn too, which is why I thought he would make an impact. Talen is a different type of scorer, I don't think he needed to be a semi Lebron or Westbrook, facilitating isn't his strong suit, he's a mid range/ off the dribble scorer. He should have gotten Avery's minutes all season. We just had a poor offensive strategy all season outside of give it to Lebron or AD. Then its let Russ attack, but let's fan out around the 3pt line for him too. Same stuff