The great start is starting to completely come apart

not shocking ...eventually no Ingram on zion this would start to go left

Ingram needs to get back on the court

They could very well be in the play in with another bad week

Yea the roster wasn't built to withstand losing our 2 best players. Most teams can't really deal with that kinda hard luck.

Flipping Devonte and picks into a Jordan Clarkson type scorer would really help.

Brandon ingram needs to return before the break.

Also I'd like to see Dyson use his go-to spinning floater more often. This is his chance to do more than play D and facilitate.

Yeah, shocker that losing about 50ppg on high efficiency from everywhere on the floor, from two guys who also happen to be two of your best playmakers, has cratered the offense.

Let face it. Our top 2 stars are nice guys but fragile and soft. We need to trade for one of the Bogdanovics who could provide consistent shooting and scoring with and w/o Zion and BI.

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Originally Posted by Impose

Also I'd like to see Dyson use his go-to spinning floater more often. This is his chance to do more than play D and facilitate.

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I prefer his floater over his layups. He badly needs to work on his layups and finishing up close in the offseason

Im actually on board with a trade, even though I think our team is already built to contend for a championship when everyone is healthy at this point I have no reason to believe that Zion and BI will both be available in the playoffs.

Devonte and a pick or two for Jordan Clarkson, I'm so down for this.

Gary Trent Jr went 6-10 from 3 last night. We need to figure out how to acquire him without giving up the farm.

He's basically an expiring, we'd need to work out an extension.

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Originally Posted by redboy0125

Gary Trent Jr went 6-10 from 3 last night. We need to figure out how to acquire him without giving up the farm.

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He's looking for $25 million plus a year on his extension. So, he may only be a few month rental. He's a tough one.

Let's not totally let the Pels off here. Ideally, your roster is deep enough to hold down the fort (play .500 ball) when you're missing a couple of key pieces. Memphis, famously, went 20-5 without Ja Morant last year and did that with various other key guys in and out of the line up as well. The formula should be CJ/Jonas two-man game with role guys (Trey, Naji, Herb, Dyson, Jose) attacking open looks coming off that two-man action + super-intense defense using our long wings to disrupt the other team and generate take aways which result in easy points going the other way. That should be enough to beat weaker teams + knock off a few good teams at home. It probably won't work agains the top 10-12 teams with elite players.

Problem is role guys haven't been up to the job. Our defense has been pretty mediocre (which is genuinely surprising. Neither Zion or BI are defensive stand outs) and guys haven't been able to knock down open looks consistently or get to the rim and finish on close outs (with the exception of Naji and Jose sometimes). I'd have to call our performance without Zion and BI a disappointment. Losing six straight is terrible and no I don't think you can just shrug your shoulders like "of course we are going to lose six straight without our top two guys." Says who? That kind of losing indicates a deeper problem if you hope to be a top six team in the west at the end, which is what I think we should realistically be able to expect from this team this year...

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Originally Posted by new city champ

Let's not totally let the Pels off here. Ideally, your roster is deep enough to hold down the fort (play .500 ball) when you're missing a couple of key pieces. Memphis, famously, went 20-5 without Ja Morant last year and did that with various other key guys in and out of the line up as well.

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This is being, I think, unfair to the team. The reality is we lost nearly 50ppg on high efficiency, and both of those guys happen to be our best facilitators too. The offense, predictably, crumbled. Nobody can be surprised by this.

The Grizzlies did have a 20-5 record without Morant last year, but that is by far the exception rather than the rule. Compare us to other teams which spent significant time without their top offensive players:

For the span between 2011-12 and 2017-18, their peak years as a team, the Warriors went 34-53 without Curry. So that's even when they still had Green, still had Klay, and for some of those years, still had Kevin. This was the dynasty Warriors at the peak of their powers and without Curry alone, not even their top two players - just one guy - they were significantly under .500

For the entirety of Lebron's second run in Cleveland (which contained all-star trips for Love and Kyrie, Kyrie on all-NBA teams, multiple finals runs, etc), what was their record without Lebron? 4-23. Yes, that bad.

Historically great teams, without their number one guy, crumble. We've been missing both of our top guys, and as optimistic as we are about this season I don't think anyone thinks this team is the equal to the 73 win Warriors. If they can suck without Curry, we shouldn't be shocked that we suck without both Zion and Ingram.

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Originally Posted by new city champ

Let's not totally let the Pels off here. Ideally, your roster is deep enough to hold down the fort (play .500 ball) when you're missing a couple of key pieces. Memphis, famously, went 20-5 without Ja Morant last year and did that with various other key guys in and out of the line up as well. The formula should be CJ/Jonas two-man game with role guys (Trey, Naji, Herb, Dyson, Jose) attacking open looks coming off that two-man action + super-intense defense using our long wings to disrupt the other team and generate take aways which result in easy points going the other way. That should be enough to beat weaker teams + knock off a few good teams at home. It probably won't work agains the top 10-12 teams with elite players.

Problem is role guys haven't been up to the job. Our defense has been pretty mediocre (which is genuinely surprising. Neither Zion or BI are defensive stand outs) and guys haven't been able to knock down open looks consistently or get to the rim and finish on close outs (with the exception of Naji and Jose sometimes). I'd have to call our performance without Zion and BI a disappointment. Losing six straight is terrible and no I don't think you can just shrug your shoulders like "of course we are going to lose six straight without our top two guys." Says who? That kind of losing indicates a deeper problem if you hope to be a top six team in the west at the end, which is what I think we should realistically be able to expect from this team this year...

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Another problem with this is we've also been out some combination of two or three of the role guys you listed, so its not really two, its five. (Naji and Herb both missed multiple games)

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Originally Posted by Speakthetruth

not shocking ...eventually no Ingram on zion this would start to go left

Ingram needs to get back on the court

They could very well be in the play in with another bad week

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The play in has arrived..n

Not sure how many teams would win without their top 2 players out at the same time.

Hopefully, BI can rose to the occasion while Zion is out.

Cj is one of the best number 3 options any team has and was a top 2 option on a Portland team that always made the playoffs

They still have talent

But zion ..I don't know if he can stay healthy so this could be long term issue fans may have to used to

I think CJ has looked pretty bad for the most part, but people are enamored by a guy who can score but does nothing to set up his teammates. He definitely doesn’t make them better.

This team is quite simply bereft of confidence. We don’t have a Zion to whip us back into shape after that Nets loss. I’ll be honest I’m a bit disappointed in Willie that he let it get this bad. But- on a high note we have guys getting plenty of minutes and they will be more prepared once the postseason comes. As much a shame as this is potentially costing us a championship opportunity, it may help us in the long run. And the Lakers are still clownshoes thank the lord