I am not expecting huge minutes from the guy if everyone is healthy, but we need the depth. Against the Jazz, we had one healthy guard on the floor. (Besides Sharpe who right now is more of an SF) That was crazy. There will be games, especially in the playoffs, where we will need him to slow elite players down. So yes he will need a while to get his timing back and to get some chemistry going with his teammates. But right now our best defenders (Grant and Winslow) are better suited for defending forwards.....not guards
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-3-kinds-of-defensive-players-now-running-the-nba/ bottom line is GPII in GS was one of the best point of attack defenders in the NBA. Remains to be seen if this was somewhat a function of the system in GS or if it's his natural talent. I also think his presence will help Nurk's rim protection numbers. We currently have Grant guarding any and every lead guard we have faced. Letting Payton handle that role for 20 mins every night should also keep JG fresher to close games on offense if needed.
Bro every other post on here for the past 2 months has been, “wait til GP gets back”. As if they already expect him to make a huge difference. He is only going to take our Savior sent from above…. aka the future HOF…. aka Baby Jordan’s minutes. The guy got cut last season and now he’s gonna turn our team around?
Some slippage the last 2 weeks. no practice time for the team to build counters to the counters, injuries to key players, etc. And the ranking is a bit misleading because if we simply stop 2 more points per 100 possessions, we would be 10th instead of 24th. https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?dir=D&sort=DEF_RATING
Well, that's bullshit. But, god forbid people have the slightest bit of excitement about adding a solid defender to the team without you coming in and shitting on them.
Maybe he fully participated in parts of practice? Like McDonald's using 100% real beef ... making up the entirety of the beef portion of their lab experiment product.
GPII was signed to fill a niche on this team. His role that we're missing outweighs his individual talent. That's why his absence is so much more important than, say, Keon Johnson's. KJs role can be done by others. GPII's is unique and needed more with Nas' injury (moving Hart to the 3).
Shams: https://theathletic.com/3992371/2022/12/12/bojan-bogdanovic-jae-crowder-shams-charania-inside-pass/ Gary Payton II close to returning Trail Blazers guard Gary Payton II is targeting his season debut in the next one to two weeks, sources said. Payton, who signed a three-year, $28 million deal to join the Trail Blazers in July, has been sidelined due to offseason surgery on a core muscle injury. Payton was a key rotation player for the Warriors‘ 2022 championship team and should assume a similar do-it-all role for the 14-12 Trail Blazers.
