From the Top: Um, how about dropping 118 vs. the world champs? And holding them to 101? I have to admit, when I saw that I thought “Hm, so GSW didn’t play their stars b/c ‘preseason.’ Oh well, good game anyway.” Then I saw that not only did Curry stick around long enough to go for 30, but their top 6 played 126 of 240 minutes, and left down 20. Player of the Game: Dame had 22 points, and CJ had 19 and 5 assists, but this has to go to a man who came off the bench to go 9-12 with 25 points and a massive +42. Allen (no middle name) Crabbe… He went 5-6 on threes, chipped in 4 assists and 2 steals, and played (seemingly) passable defense. Frankenstein’s Monster Game: No double-doubles or big box score blowouts, but just a whole bunch of good play from a 10-man rotation. Dame went 15-17 from the FT line… but also went 3-18 from the field. So, um, yeah. Coin Ratio: Speaking of Dame's 18 shots, he only had 3 assists to go with it (16 yucky cents), and Patty Baseball was even more of a black hole with 7 shots and 1 assist (14 cents) in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Frazier scored a nifty $3 for his 6 assist, 2-shot performance. It's crazy to see a backup PG who passes, amirite? Efficiency: Usually we'd select one player (and tonight Crabbe ran away with it), but the team should get some credit for putting up 118 points on only 88 shots. How did they do that, you may ask? Well, despite only shooting 44.3% from the field, if you look at the breakdown of the shots, tell me what you see... Paint: 15-39 (38.4%)--probably not going to happen too often Mid-range (10 to 23 feet) : 12-21 (57%) Threes: 12-28 (42.8%) FTs: 28-36 (77.8%) Outstanding shooting from 3, almost double the amount of paint shots and FTs as mid-range shots (when do you remember that happening?) Now, I know what you may be thinking..."can Crabbe keep making 83% of his 3's every night, smarty pants?" Well, no, he cannot. However, I don't expect Dame to shoot 16% for the year, either. But take a look at the shot distribution, and how great (and infrequent) the mid-range shooting was. In fact, let's break it down a bit further: Shooting by the rotation bigs (Vonleh, Plumlee, Davis, Leonard): 5-12 in the paint, 2-3 mid-range, 2-7 3pt, 5-8 FT. Kaman (1-4) shot more mid-range jumpers in his 5 minutes of garbage time than the entire rest of the frontcourt did in 89 minutes. These guys just don't take bad/low-percentage shots! Bench: Sure seemed to. 10 players played more than 15 minutes, and all seemed to be playing well off of each other. Everyone except Leonard had an assist, everyone contributed at least one rebound, and the 5 bench guys combined for a +106 (?!) in only 104 combined minutes. Moe was out with a minor concussion today, and Henderson still hasn't been back after his hip injury. If I was Patty Baseball, I'd keep trying to make my case, because the 2/3 position is going to get VERY crowded with good players quickly. Though Fort Wayne might appeal to the Notre Dame grad, he might want to keep following Dame around the locker room just in case. And Tim Frazier seems to have gotten a leg up on Phil Pressey in the backup PG/last roster spot sweepstakes. Missed his only 3, but seems to have connected on something that requires "hops" and dished out 6 assists in 20 minutes, while Phil was a DNP. This is going to be a fun battle to watch, especially as PP won by TKO last year in BOS and made Tim spend all year in the D-League. Sure seems like it. I love it. Selfless, high-energy, lots of movement on offense and stinginess on defense…this year could be fun. S2 Reviews: Already rounding into midseason form. Can’t wait for Ethan Sherwood Strauss to write up something on us. Solid work in the game thread. Questions for the Group: 1. Is there any possibility that Crabbe can with the job as the starting 2 over both Henderson and CJ? 2. Do you foresee a trade before Christmas of any of our players to clear up playing time/consolidate? See you next time Sunday Night @ SAC!
Crabbe did okay starting against Sacto, but tore it up as The Guy off the bench against GSW. I think Stotts has to make one of CJ or King Crabbe a bench spark plug, and Crabbe seems to be playing himself into that job.
How did CJ do defensively against Klay? Did Klay try to post him up? I was not able to see the game and I am curious to know if CJ's height was in any way a factor as a starter. In my mind Klay is one of the few that would give CJ issues. Did he?
#1 is my cause célèbre. With his size, range, and defensive ability, he is the perfect fit in the starting lineup next to Dame. And if he continues to play with confidence and assertiveness, he absolutely belongs. No, I don't expect him to be another Klay Thompson, but it's not an unfair comparison. And CJ, with his lack of size, has always seemed more likely to be effective as the sparkplug 6th man. If Henderson's hip recovery takes much longer, he's going to find himself on the outside looking in. Which leads into #2--if Crabbe and CJ appear to have the 2 spot handled, Henderson could/should become trade bait. I wouldn't be even the slightest bit surprised to see Henderson dealt to a presumptive playoff team to shore up their bench. What the return would be, I don't know, but a vet b/u PG wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Wasn't a factor at all from what I remember. The main concern on defense is Curry getting any sort of a window and then he cashes in a three. I'd be glad if they force fed Klay.
Hendo doesn't have trade value since he's paid $6 million this season. If he can't crack the rotation of a projected lottery team such as us his trade value would be even less. We'd have to give up a draft pick to trade him which makes no sense for a team under the salary floor. Keep him here and if he doesn't find a role let him walk at the end of the year. If he gets healthy and carves out a productive starting or backup role for us then he could be trade bait but the catch 22 is then we might be happy to keep him.
Henderson is going to thrive with this team and system. He's not old, he's talented and there's no reason to play him in preseason games...hip is fixed, he's learning..above avg defender at the 2..takes it hard to the rack. I'm really excited about him on the roster and I think he'll be great starting or off the bench with Crabbe starting either way..I feel good about the 2 guard rotation
I say no need to deal a player because they are too good to ride the pine. Just rotate more and go hard as fuck. Stuff the rock down the opponents throat.
