Probably has something to do with Moe and Ed being injured. Ed is the best rebounder off the bench in the entire NBA and has great chemistry with the rookie Collins. With Moe out, Turner is starting, which weakens both our starting lineup and our bench. BNM
You base your decision off of the small sample size of the last 10 games? I would say that this thread is crap.
Stotts has trotted out the 3rd string due to injuries.....all of them pretty rusty...let em break a sweat. I'm just glad Ed and Mo are healing before the playoffs...Ed and Mo are game changers for the team
The problem with our second unit has been that we’re too reliant on CJ. Our offensive game plan is pretty much give the ball to CJ and let him hopscotch around until he decides to shoot it. I don’t completely blame CJ though. I mean who else on that unit can score? But some more ball movement would be nice. Moes return will help the bench just as much as the starting unit. And with Lillard probably missing a couple of games, maybe Baldwin shows his value. He’s a better creator than Napier and gets to the line (easy points.) Might be too late this season, but it’ll be something to watch next year.
I felt like the bench was really starting to gel the last month or so. Ed and Zach seemed to really be working well together. Bazz was playing pretty well and ET seemed to be finding a groove with the 2nd unit. Losing both Moe and Ed has really messed up the chemistry.
#trusttheprocess? Davis...enough said. Bazz is hit and miss. Love his game when he's on. If he focused on drive and kick he would be a more complete Point guard. He wants to be Dame/CJ and he's just not. Zach looks like he might be real good soon. He is struggling with his shot, to be fair to him he is forced out (coach) at the 3 point line, his shots are hitting inside the rim and popping out. That to me means he is soooo close to dropping those. Practice will fix that. If he was air balling or just missing badly I would be worried. His size on defense makes up for his struggles on offense. Wade hasn't seen much time yet, but he showed some promise and has good size for a guard. I think he could take the backup spot by next season. Biggie is just not someone i'm not willing to give up on. He has been down before and worked his ass off to make the adjustments needed to be a productive player. We don't need him to be a star. ET gets to much crap and will be a big help in the post season. Pat and Meyers ?? We could use some more vets. The playoffs may amplify that by a thousand times. The game will probably slow down during the post season. Hopefully we are healthy enough to get through the first round. This team is close to being a legit contender. I didn't think that at the beginning of the season. Paul Allen is ready to pay again.
Maybe, but last night this was not the problem. The ball movement was pretty good. Meyers and Zach went 0-7 from deep, but they were wide open. And inside the 3 pt line they were a combined 7-8.....again all with good ball movement. So maybe don't have our bigs 24 feet from the basket? Of course neither CJ or Dame helped from deep either going 0-5 and 2-10. The biggest issue last night was their lack of defensive intensity on the smallest players on the court. Yogi and Barea combined for 12-18
OMG.... The sky is falling.... I thought you were only this kneejerky in the OT forum.... Injuries, once healed will prove you wrong.... End thread. This is stupid.
For those screaming "small sample size!" or "it's because Ed and Mo are injured!" Here are the +/- numbers for the whole season: The bench is still significantly worse than the starters. Also, Mo is a starter, and who knows how Ed's injury will affect him in the playoffs? Contrast with San Antonio's balance: Now, you could say "but our starters are better than theirs, and that's a plus, right?" Sure, but note the minutes distribution. Our bench players are playing fewer minutes, and likely only against the opponents' bench players - so they're worse than the other teams' benches. San Antonio has also been riddled with injuries, so their bench players have been starters more often. Maybe this is mainly an indictment of Turner: he's our highest-paid non-starter and he's been crap.
While we're on the subject: which teams have the BEST benches? I want to say the Raptors (VanVleet in particular has been great). Also the Warriors, especially now that they've had to play them as starters so much.
Sidenote: CJ has pretty terrible TPA numbers - perhaps a big reason is that he's in with the bench more than any other starter.
So, what's the point of this thread? I don't think that anyone is saying that the bench is as good as we'd like it to be. Personally, I think +/- stats are stupid, but if you want to use them to show that the bench isn't consistent, I'm not in the mood to argue about it. At this point, the bench is what it is. There aren't any trades or other roster moves that can happen now to change it. They'll either get healthy/play better or the playoffs will be brief. Let's hope for the improvement.
