I've never been a fan of Stotts' system (Been wanting a change for a few years now). He Does seems like a good guy. He's had a very generous tenure by NBA standards, however when does enough become enough? We're playing very mediocre. Look at the guys during timeouts - they look spaced out, and not engaged. A whole bunch were looking into the crowd that last game. Everytime I look at the starting lineups (that Darkwing displays in his excellent game threads) I think we really have a good chance against most teams rosters. But the effort on the court, the execution and the commitment is just not there. Decision making is flat out lazy and our body language is terrible. This roster could be playing MUCH better than it is. Either Terry is just not as good as his reputation or the players ( a roster of good guys right - they'll do the right thing) are lazy and/or tuning out the coach. I think it's a little of all. This team needs a new coach either way. Even if there is massive roster overhaul you'll still see anemic play in the post, very little development from our front court players and terrible effort/execution - there is very little downside to replacing Stotts at this point.
We complain about our offense, but now people want to throw out an Aminu-Vonleh-Nurkic frontline...lord. There's a reason we haven't seen that alignment at all this year. I don't think you guys understand how ugly that would look offensively. The reason Aminu isn't a disaster offensively is the space he's provided to shoot going up against traditional PF's. I'm all for trying things but until we can get more skill on the floor at the 4 and/or 5 position, Aminu at the 3 is not a long term solution. Basically, this roster isn't balanced/skilled/good enough yet to where we aren't having to take a bunch off the table on one side of the floor w/ any one alignment. It's why we are just a meh team overall.
Our starting line up during Nurkfever last Year was Dame-CJ-Moe-Noah-Nurkic and we had a top 10 Offense and top 10 defense, so why we shouldn't bring that line up back and put Aminu at the 3 instead of Moe? Or Maybe Turner at the 3 who is playing good the last few Games and Aminu coming of the bench? I think Aminu is same productive at the 3, his only Job on Offense is Shooting 3s, our bench would also be Stronger. If im Stotts that's my rotation PG: Dame 36/Napier 12 SG: CJ 36/ Pat 12 SF: ET 26/ Aminu 22 PF: Vonleh 28/ Collins 20 C: Nurkic 30/ Davis 18 But fucker Stotts is to stupid to see
Sounds weird but maybe Zach gives hin Confidence on Offense, when Zach has the Ball and in good Position, he is Not afraid to Shoot even he's Rookie. So Maybe if vonleh saw him Shooting he says: "fuck it im doing the same now". If vonleh hopefully is starting to play again i like to See him taking some shots, his midrange Game is so underrated
Or Maybe he get's his playing Time back when Davis is tradet at the Deadline. We could also try this line up After the All Star break: PG: Dame 36/ Napier 12 SG: CJ 36/ Pat 12 SF: ET 28/ Harkless 20 PF: Noah 26/ Aminu 22 C: Nurkic 30/ Collins 18 Our starting 5 would be the same, Aminu coming from the bench and still playing at the 4, and all bench Players could hit the 3 and Aminu and Harkless can Switch anything on Defense
And also Remember how often the opponent PF got hot because Aminu could not defend him because he was to small and to skinny. Aldridge is a good example.
I think there is something to be said for a flawed roster... but I think it’s too easy to play the flawed roster card. I do see 3 primary flaws with the roster... Redundancy with Dame and CJ, SF in particular starter and lack of bench scoring, though Napier is helping there. To be fair though I expected progress from Harkless this year not the complete egg he has paid, that guy is just not mentally right
The roster might be flawed but Stotts is artificially making it even more flawed by refusing to play Aminu at the 3
It's not even about Aminu at SF - it's more about Vonleh at PF. IDGAF whether it's Aminu, Harkless, or Turner at SF - they all have massive issues. But Vonleh/Collins at PF is the only thing that makes sense.
Aminu wouldn't be that much of an asset at the 3--his three-point shooting isn't consistently good enough when compared to other wings. What gives him value is adding some spacing from the 4 while being able to defend most 4s. That type of player is what every team is trying to find. Aminu isn't amazing at it, but he's capable. Honestly, if Collins were ready for it, the ideal alignment would be Collins at the 5 and Aminu at the 4 and <player to be determined> at the 3 (if Harkless had just continued his play from last year, he'd have fit in relatively nicely at the 3). A stretch 5, a stretch 4 and a three-and-D wing at the 3 is the ideal alignment these days. Nurkic is an out-dated center--that still could have worked if he were actually as good as he looked last season after the trade, but now that he's regressed to career norms, he's the kind of center that's slowly becoming extinct. I don't think Stotts is a great coach; average, as Nik dubbed him, sums it up. But the Aminu hand-wringing is way overdone and isn't remotely an issue that makes Stotts a problematic coach. That's one of the things he's doing right.
Im done with the Nurkic slander. Not only that, but this is a false statement as there are more high quality traditional centers starting in the NBA now than five years ago. The only reason this myth exists is because the top two teams don’t have one. Collins will never be able to bang with the Cousins of the world. And if he does, that’s YEARS away. Nurkic is an anchor defensively who plays well against literally every single high quality “traditional” center in the league. Then as soon as he has a bad game against a team without one we have the fools fire up the trade machine. I’m not saying Nurkic is the best center in the league, but his replacement isn’t in house and finding someone better than him, for less money will be difficult. Another guy that Nurkic routinely kills is Steven Adams, and he just got $100m. Nurkic won’t get that much, and if he wasn’t asked to be the third, sometimes second, option offensively, people would appreciate him equally.
Nurk is gonna be awesome. I almost want them to trade him just to see the bitching when they see what he can become. Get him a fucking coach if not.
I feel like I’m literally the crazy one when I see these Nurk takes and proposals. It’s not his fault we rely on him so much offensively. He’s still young, especially when you consider his background. He’s not a stiff. Hes 280 pounds but can move laterally. Look at him in pick and rolls. Most centers can’t move like that. I’d rather have him than Adams. Does he do dumb shit? Absolutely. But trading him isn’t going to solve anything unless we’re getting a Cousins caliber player in return, and that ain’t happening.
