WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

those are fair points. but as we're already seeing, injuries will probably handle some of it for us. lonnie's already out. bevs misses half the year most years, it seems.

sadly, only russ can be counted upon to show up nightly.

one of the major issues with the guard acquisitions is that reaves is just too good to sit. i was wondering if he was going to get lost in the shuffle with all the new guard talent, but he's still among our best players and has to have minutes.

i guess the silver lining is that if we have to send russ home, we won't have to worry about filling the minutes with reasonably good guard play.

 

I said something in game thread. Issue is none of these guards complement each other.

We need a trade. But we can't just make one for the purpose of making one I know, but something has to change.

 

i think nunn and reaves (and maybe walker, actually) are pretty versatile on offense and can play with lots of different guys. russ, bev, and schroder are tougher fits in some units.

 

Russ being durable which used to be a big plus for him is now such a detriment!

 

Yeah, my mistake.

Nunn/Reaves would work, IMO.

Nunn/Lonnie.

Bev needs to be relegated to the bench, but he can fit in some instances.

Now that I think about it? It may just be Russ that doesn't fit. Lol. Schroder is another clunky fit. Although, he shot 40 percent? On bove the break 3s last year?

 

Is it?
Our entire wing depth is out (JTA, Brown and Lonnie). We were running 4 guard line ups and at one point played Russ at PF...

 

More imperative to play big with the Centers plus Gabriel. Lakers still have options (not great but still better than small ball with the injuries.)
Cavs did a good job of this last year

 

you partly answered your question. the two offseason wing pickups were out.

and again, my point was that nothing minny was doing was about capitalizing on size. it wasn't like their sgs were going over the top of ours. guys were just beating guys to the ball. that's not a size issue. and nobody was shooting over the top of anyone, either.

 

I'm looking at our first 10 games and I honestly feel like we only win the two games against Utah and one of the games between POR and NOP. This could get ugly quick. We just have way to many things going against us:

- New coach, which means new system. It'll take more than 10 games to gel.
- We already have injuries.
- Too many guards, not enough wings.
- Westbrick

 

I'm not liking what I see so far. We're just not very good. We're way too small and can't shoot. We have a ton of mediocre at best guards.

I don't get why we traded for Beverly. Besides being an unlikable dirty player, he's just not very good. Russ, well we know. Nunn has been meh so far. Same with Schroeder. That is mediocrity on top of mediocrity.

As currently constructed with a sea of average at best players, we'll be lucky to win 30 games.

 

After 5 games, we are 58-198 from 3, a healthy 29% exactly Russ Westbrook's percentage last season btw

 

After our 2 bigs. LBJ and AD, the only position I feel comfy with is PG. We have enough good players to compete at that position. I feel good there, it's great depth. Even if you want to take Reaves out of that group and count him as a passing SG, then my estimation of our SGs goes up, Lonnie as backup, Russ off the bench. I like the idea of Austin matched with a scoring PG like Nunn and/or Schroder.

It's just the 3, 4 and 5 I worry about, LBJ and AD aside. We have no depth there. We have bodies, but no real pencil-in-on-the-roster guys. We need guys to start showing up and proving that they want to be here and play champ-ball. Otherwise Rob's got himself a busy trade deadline and waiver deadline.

Where I would like to see improvement is a gritty PF who can shoot the 3 (Gabriel is our best fit?) and a gritty large wing for the 3 (Toscano-Anderson can fit the bill both on size, scrappyness and the 3-ball). If Ham can make a few of these guys into these things, then we know he is a great coach. I don't want Ham worrying about what to do with that jacka$$ Westbrick all season.

 

Maybe we can get Russ to hang out with the Ball bros, and suddenly contract mysterious ankle issues that make all of this so much easier. The problem with signing a new crew of people every year is you can't trade them right away. You have to wait until later in the year to make moves with over 2/3 of your roster. Could be a long and frustrating year.

 

First words out of Darius mouth in LFR podcast reaction to the game: " we look small.". LFR agreed.

JTA was hurt. Hoping Brewn comes back soon.

 

Yeah. I agree.

Maybe shooting over us was the wrong term, but we definitely looked small.

Hoping that improves when our other guys get back.

 

I agree we need to be a top defensive team to overcome Russ on offense. The problem is with Russ playing it is hard to be a good defensive team. So we have to also be a good offensive team to overcome Russ on defense. It seems to me that the obvious solution is to not start Russ and give him a limited role. He won't like it but everyone else will. I think it will become hard fast to be taken serious as a defense first coach if you continue to start a guy that can't play defense. I don't think it is a question of does he want to play defense. He just has always overwhelmed other players with athleticism and now he can't. He doesn't know anything about rotations or helping. We have so many other players that can do better.

 

Yeah, all good.

See how it goes tonight

 

I may watch tonight just to see the new strategy. Love to see it work out. One game isn't a fair look to give anything, but let's see what we can see.

Does Schroeder get the start at PG? (Not healthy, so then who?)