Mo Hawkless, mo problems! He and Vonleh are Passive Sr. and Passive Jr. It makes me appreciate Aminu and Davis. I hope it's not rubbing off onto Nurkic and Biggy Smalls or whoever that rookie is.
Yep he needs to be the 5th option with the 2nd unit. Forcing the ball into him for a post up is not working. Not saying don't pass to him when he is wide open, just don't force the pass when he is covered. or worse when he will have to dribble. Harkless setting up Swanigan to start the game was painful. He does play well when we go to small ball, as does Aminu. (at PF) But neither have the handles to play SF. The starting SF spot needs an upgrade. CJ and Dame know it and is why they were pushing so hard for a trade.
When you picked the 4th guy did you pick the 4th starter? Usually the top bench guy is a bigger scorer than the 4th starter...
Nah. Just pulling your chain. I know where you stand. Can't say i disagree with you on everything but Stotts is doing well this year IMO. He has more to work with, and is using the assets he has. He screwed the pooch on the Brooklyn game. But he seems to have done well in the last two games.
I'd be fine with that, but we'd need to get some salary relief too. Either Meyers or Turner would need to be in the trade.
I like what I've seen defensively. I don't think we'll remain Top 5 in any category throughout the season, but I'll be moderately happy with Top 15. I've always thought he's hugely overrated offensively. He is, IMO, the offensive yin to Nate McMillan's defensive yang.
Mo is the biggest disappointment on the team for me so far this season. Last year it was Ed Davis. Glad to see Ed having a bounce back year in the final year of his contract. It's not like I had unrealistic expectations for Mo. I just expected about the same production as last year (~10 ppg and ~.351 3FG%). He's playing the same minutes this year but his production is way down. It's not just his scoring. His offensive rebounding and steals are both way down. He is just way too passive. He most definitely is not a junkyard dog type player. He's just the opposite. Those guys bring the energy, go hard after every loose ball, crash the offensive glass and are very opportunistic scorers. That is definitely not Mo Harkless, especially not this year. The effort, as well as the results, are lacking. I wasn't really expecting much, if any, improvement. I've never thought Mo had much in the way of untapped potential. Any improvement he's shown during his first five years in the league has always been marginal, but I certainly didn't expect this level of regression from a guy that is only 24 years old and healthy. When Aminu comes back, I hope Stotts plays him more at the 3 next to Vonleh at the 4. If we're going to play 3 on 5 on offense, we might as well have our two best defenders be the two non-threats offensively. Chief is a better defender, a better rebounder and a better 3-point shooter. Plus, he brings the energy Mo lacks. Chief may not always play smart, but at least he always plays hard. And even though the sample size is only 8 games, Chief's decision making has been much better this year. He seems to be playing within his limitations and not trying to do too much. His shot selection has been excellent and he's cut way down on the unforced TOVs. Bad Chieef is better than Mo. Good Chief, no contest. BNM
Harkless' PER is 2/3 of last year's. The only team change is that Ed Davis is back and Aminu is gone. Same diff.
I was at the game last night and I was mentioning this to my buddy that Moe harkless does not have a go to move on offense. Is jab step is mediocre. His handles are decent but not enough to get around a Defender. The only way he scores is from cuts to the basket, fast breaks and on wide-open 3s. He's been missing those as of late. I'm very disappointed in his play for this entire season and really thought this was going to be his breakout year.
Me, too (although I'd prefer someone even better) Last year, Mo had a career year, averaging career highs in ppg, 3FG% and most other categories. Late in the season, I complied a quick and dirty spreadsheet of where Mo ranked compared to other starting small forwards and came to the conclusion that career best Mo was pretty much about as average as you can get for a starting NBA small forward. I used all his raw per game averages and shooting percentages, as well as several advanced stats. In almost all cases, he ranked in the 13th to 19th range (except for FT shooting where he was 29th). An unweighted average of all his rankings showed him to be the 16th best starting SF in the league (I only included starting small forwards, but had I included all SFs, some teams would have had two SFs better than Mo). He wasn't great at anything, but didn't really suck at anything other than FT shooting. I'm not going to waste my time compiling a similar spreadsheet after just 14 games, but based on where he ranked last year, and how much worse he is in most statistical categories, I am confident that if I did, Mo would easily be among the bottom five starting small forwards so far this season. That's simply not getting the job done. Last year power forward was our weakest position. This year, so far, thanks to Mo's uninspired play, SF is now our weakest position. BNM
The problem is who takes him? Who wants a wing that cannot shoot the ball in todays NBA? His contract is not terrible for his previous season performance, but if we want to trade him then teams will be looking what he is doing this year and that doesn't look good. He is incredibly frustrating. Maybe we can trade him for Mirotic that wants out? Chicago loves guys that cannot shoot the ball. Mirotic has a team option so if it doesn't work out at least we clear 10M and it's easier to extend Nurkic as we save tax.
