I hear you. I had the same feeling last year anytime Aminu put the ball on the floor. At least that looks to be improved.
Aminu does seem to be doing better at that, at least if we discount the time last night he drove the ball into the middle of three defenders and promptly lost it, haha. That was classic last season Aminu. (Or "Amino" as Reggie Miller calls him, SMH)
Talkin' Ball and my fellow message boarders blowing up after the first loss of the season... Predictable. The bench is fantastic, but certainly didn't play like it. It's a process. We don't have to wait for 5 years like the 76er fans, but we might have to wait for 20 games.
Evidently It'll take Turner more time to acclimate here. He's a facilitator, not much of anything else. His jumper is über flat. He's like Draymond Greene - minus: elite defense, passing, jumper. But he's paid nearly the same. N'awesome. Crabbe is a player who'll have big games sporadically but last night is the player I think we'll mostly see - solid but minimal impact. It'd be different if he were just consistent offensively. You need him to put up around 15 ppg to take that next step IMO. You know who would've been awesome to this current core and especially off the bench? Willíam Bartón Kinda ironic thar Bartón is a piece that this team is missing.
We could've had Parsons if he didn't choose the Grizzlies. We were his 2nd option. We really should've let Leonard go, which would've left us with $26M in cap space considering the Ezeli signing. Then we could've made 2 value signings on underrated players (signings that Olshey is good at) instead of trying to make a splash on a bench player. 2 players at $13M a piece have so much more collective trade value than an $18M bench player.
We could have had Whiteside if he didn't choose the Heat. We could have had Howard if he didn't choose the Hawks. We could have had Horford if he didn't choose the Celtics. Shall we continue? They're all silly. When it comes to free agency, the old saying "second place is the first loser" couldn't possibly be more applicable. 20/20 hindsight, of course, but not a completely unreasonable position. However, rather than lamenting players we pursued who didn't choose us, would you like to point out a couple of players who signed as UFA's for 10-12m per year this off-season whom you would have preferred we had overpaid rather than paying Meyers and Turner? Then we could at least have a discussion based in a semblance of reality.
While I'm not the biggest supporter of Nards. I don't believe it's fair to harshly judge a player like Nards, after he just missed 6 months of basketball action. Nards has always been inexperienced basketball wise, and needed live game action. After missing 6 months I personally wasn't expecting much from him this season. I believe his contract reflects that. However whenever he's on the court, he will still make me wish he was plastered to the bench every possession. As far as Turner goes, I'm looking directly at Stotts and the coaching staff. To me they are responsible for Turner's struggles. Besides the body fat... there isn't much difference between how Sarge didn't understand offense enough to put Doughboy in a position to succeed.. Neither is Stotts putting Turner in a position to succeed. However Stotts is known for his offense, so there is no excuse. Eyes are on you Stotts. I'm sure Stotts is aware of this because he is not Sarge... I'm sure these upcoming games we'll see Turner setting picks trying to force switching or double teaming... Which would allow Turner to either make plays out of a 4 on 3 situation. Or have a smaller/bigger defender that he can either post up, or take off the dibble. I have faith in Stotts to put Turner in a position to succeed. He was originally bought in to put Aldridge in a position to succeed. He did. He then needed to change everything and put Lillard in a position to succeed. He has. Now it's time to include Turner in the puzzle.
Re: Turner. I saw that MKG had a big game for Charlotte his first game, so I watched it. He took about 2 jump shots (and made 1). The rest were scores on cuts to the basket and effort plays. That's what we want from Turner. He is actually good at the elbow jumper and I think he'll get there. And he should be able to play with CJ because he played well with another shooty PG in Isaiah Thomas. It wouldn't be surprising if he was a "comfort" player and just needs to settle in. He's got skills we need, though. I'm actually more worried about CJ. We're doing very poorly with him on the floor... and he's leading us in MPG.
Leonard once he gets a real chance will produce. Turner is a very good SF but a subpar SG. It's still very early and there's a lot of time to make the nessecary adjustments. Ezeli hasn't played yet, Napier played a total of one minute and Meyers played 7. Be patient
Isn't it Leonard Fifth year in the league ? At one point you just need to accept he's not gonna be a good player, or even a meh player
Nate- if you want a PG in the second unit, that means we have to play Napier instead of Turner. And we're not playing Turner over Crabbe. So I think it's time to start shopping Turner. The sooner the better.
I appreciate the things that Turner does well, but it seems like it is very important in Stotts' offensive schemes that every wing player is capable of making an open mid to long range shot. Otherwise, defenses sag off the poor shooter and kill the ball movement. Unless they have a way to avoid that, the Turner experiment will be disappointing.
