Glad they are beating the teams they should beat now. Toronto will be a good test. One of those things is not like the other. Nurkic is playing this year....and their defense 'magically' got better the few games he played last year.
No matter who we acquire someone will complain. Honestly the only two players I’m attached to are Dame and Nurk. Everyone else can go for all I care. Sorry but if you really don’t think Dame and CJ have improved their individual defense this season, then you either; 1) have an agenda 2) aren't watching the games 3) just blind Or all three. Nurk has helped. But he’s not the only reason.
Hmmm. I think Harkless is more likely than Turner. Here are some more thoughts: 1) Our 3 most dubious contracts are Turner, Biebs, and Harkless, in that order. 2) Harkless is not playing and there are rumors of grumbling in the clubhouse. Harkless and Biebs are undoubtedly not happy. 3) Harkless, according to rumors of the past, has some other teams interested. 4) Stotts likely campaigned Neil to draft bigs so he wouldn't have to play Bumbling Biebs anymore. Olshey obliged. Time to move Biebs along. 5) Turner has the worst contract, but he's playing, and been playing better recently (my eye test, not stats). There are teams that value him, and we only need one to be interested to make a deal. As I said before... It's possibly that there are 2 trades (I'm probably just hoping): 1) Biebs + pick + whatever (Aminu) for rotation player (Bazemore?) 2) Harkless for cheaper player + 2nd rounder (cap move)
I don't worry about trades. Unless some guy is a real locker room cancer I feel every guy who signs an NBA contract has the talent to contribute. For some reason Stotts has shortened the bench to 9 guys. And Z-n-P-C are way more effective attacking the rim not shooting 3's. But they keep shooting them. They're open for a reason. They're both shooting 36%. But Stotts never says anything. I'd be yelling at them for taking those shots. It's a bad habit.
Stotts starts a rookie or two early in every season...he plays pretty much the entire bench up to January..after the allstar game he always goes with a solid 9 or 10 man rotation....his teams are usually better in March than November...I see this season as the same other than he just got Baldwin 4 and Swanigan back
I do realize that they've improved but I also saw what a quality full sized 2 does to them when we played Minny and Jimmy Butler. Even as much as they have improved they're still extremely undersized. I also think that they are redundant on offense and we might be able to get a better fit.
Here's a look at their points per shot for Pat and Zach: Pat: PPS (3 pointers, 36.4%) = 0.364 x 3 = 1.092 PPS (2 pointers, 52.8%) = 0.528 x 2 = 1.056 Zach: PPS (3 pointers, 36.7%) = 0.367 x 3 = 1.101 PPS (2 pointers, 43.6%) = 0.436 x 2 = 0.872 Both guys are producing more points per shot by taking 3 pointers. If they have the open 3, right now they should take it. Once the defense starts clamping down on them, take it inside. Pat has a very good balance in his numbers, and I've been impressed with his game this year. I thought he would become a one dimensional player only shooting 3 pointers. But to my surprise, he developed a penetration game this year.
Really interesting dilemma. We can legitimately climb to the 3rd seed with some sustained strong play and more luck. Kawhi/Cousins/Roberson are huge losses to their respective teams. Then again, one injury to our squad or a slight losing skid will send us back to 7th or 8th. I wonder if the recent uptick has PA's juices flowing again and he'll go all in to bring someone in instead of worrying about luxury tax. Ideally we accomplish both in the same move, but we know that's far from reality.
