. |
![]() |
Kushner calling him out
Every game like this I think back to David Griffin's preseason press conference when he said a top priority of this offseason was building a team of elite competitors.
— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) February 20, 2021
It just didn't happen. Period.
They're talented. They're not anywhere close to elite competitors.
The biggest proof of after a turnover or bad play, Chris Paul sprints back and is trying to steal the ball or make a defensive play immediately.
Lonzo Ball just stood around and was the last man back. I used to see Zion do they. Not so much but he needs to step it up as well.
Whole team needs an injection of someone who refuses to “bow down” and is good enough to do something about it.
They are absolutely mind boggling, no question about that. Friday night was the kick in the face for me. It's tough.
That said, I am not sure why anyone expected any better after 29 games. I would have been happy with 15-14 and we are 12-17, lumped in with the 6 teams you'd have expected us to be around. Maybe their plan sucks but you have to give them time to execute it.
I get the frustration but let's see what happens with any trades and the rest of the season.
I survived Katrina, but nothing I owned did.
That's my plan.
We suck. I expected us to be not-great, I didn't quite expect us to be this bad, but it is what it is and we're terrible.
Part of that has been due to bad luck. We give up about the same number of open 3s per game as the Knicks, but opponents are shooting 31% on those shots against NY while shooting about 40% on them against us: that's just bad luck. They're both wide open threes, it has nothing to do with defensive scheme. If we had the Knicks' 3pt opponent efficiency, we'd be 16-13 or something lmao.
But beyond that luck, there is the practical on court element: we are just not a very good team. Serious problems in terms of both roster construction, effort, and coaching. The end result is that we aren't very good, which is fine at this point in our re-structuring of the team around Zion. The concern will come more strongly if nothing is done about it.
There has to be moves. If there aren't at least two trades of reasonable size at the deadline, then I'm going to switch from concerned to genuinely annoyed. But I've got to give it until then.
Cade Cunningham/Usman Garuba/Scottie Barnes/Moses Moody/Brandon Boston Jr endorser.
Eye test people: analytics people watch more basketball than you do.
We can't just assume it's bad luck. It's not just a matter of leaving a guy open it's a matter of who is being left open. Maybe the Knicks leave marginal shooters open and that's why their open 3pt makes are so low compared to ours. That why stats without some serious context can be very misleading.
There is absolutely a degree of bad luck to it. We've been lit up by guys like Coby White, who was shooting 34% from 3 on the season coming into that game. Meanwhile the Knicks have given up 14 three point attempts to Steph Curry and had him shoot under 35% (I think he went something like 4 of 14?).
I'm not saying it's all bad luck, of course that's not the case. That's why I said ''part'' of it, in the initial post: even accounting for bad luck, we play awful perimeter defense. But there definitely has been an element of bad luck, as there basically always is when you're so outlier bad at a particular thing. We are currently giving up the most 3pt makes per game in NBA history by about 2.5 makes a game: we're bad, I don't think we're bad enough to be considered the worst perimeter defense of all time by such a huge margin.
My worry is that, as always happens with bad luck, the law of averages will come into play and we'll have a few games where everyone shoots below their averages and people will declare the defense improved and move on, when in reality that won't be the case.
Of course I hope the FO won't be so quick to fall for that mistake, but who knows, honestly?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pelicans are waiving Sindarius Thornwell, a team source confirms.
Pelicans are making the move for tax line reasons with the guarantee date on his contract looming - team is $502k below the luxury tax.
Also frees up a spot for possible trade.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
whats the deal...trade or bringing someone in?...
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)