JeffS17

I want the highest potential players available but I agree we do not need more guards (unless theyre big and can defend or play SF). Give Quin and the staff guys with upside and marinate them in college park — I want long term guys with higher ceilings

Edey is going to dominate Burns lol... that guy has fulfilled all his potential but he's not a special basketball talent. My guess is NC state will be put away before half time. Purdue has enough tape to not double Burns and let him kill you with passing and Edey will be able to handle him fine 1on1. Love NC States run but I'll be shocked if they win the next one.

lol Boston is going to get exposed, again, in the playoffs for what they are. They might make it to the finals given how weak the East is currently, but I doubt they give the Nuggets or anyone else a run for their money. Their best shot at a title is the TWolves somehow getting to the finals and putting up a bunch of three because Towns/Gobert can't guard the perimeter.

I think this has been the biggest boon for us, considering our whistle has not been friendly, to say the least. Guys effort increase because they see the fruits of it now -- before increased effort just meant a quicker two foul calls on bullshit. Let's hope the league continues to call games like they are now and equitably across all teams/players

The reason is they do not fit together on offense or defense. Neither have good movement skills on offense, they both want to be the primary ball handler, and they both are high usage guards. On defense, neither can be POA defenders and both need to be playing on the weakest shooter to be successful. Frankly, this game, if anything, was evidence of how much better Murray is without Trae on the floor. We've seen the inverse be true as well -- and it shows up in the stats. It's a completely emotional decision to want to retain the both and has zero evidence to support it. Murray himself pushed hard to get traded this deadline... why would you guys want and argue to keep him, particularly given the flawed fit?

I trust Landry to take someone with high upside and let our staff develop them. I don't know who that is in this draft, but we have leeway with the rotation next year to let guys develop in college park. Look at Vit recently, looking like a serviceable bench piece on both ends. I'm excited for year 2 under Snyder, even more excited for years 3 and 4.

I do think a big reason our defense has improved is the rule enforcement changes, but I also think DJ is a much better defender at PG... so it's really both. What we've been able to accomplish on offense without Trae has been impressive to say the least -- feels like Quin's system is starting to take hold.

This is what I'm most excited about. Still crossing my fingers Mo can be serviceable next year. AJ too. Not really apples to apples. Trae went out exactly when they started letting dudes play defense and not calling everything a foul. His whistle would have dried up significantly, probably having a big impact on his production and efficiency scoring.

I don't have a dog in this fight but I enjoy the back and forth, love the Edey passion from @NBASupes

This is what gives me hope. I think OO is going to get better, too, wish he didnt get injured right when they started letting guys play defense. Ticky tacky fouls were his only problem when he plays aggressive and they’re not calling those right now

I really wish OO was healthy right now -- I think the narrative around him would do a complete 180 given how much the refs are letting guys be physical and play defense. His biggest issue has been ticky tacky fouls that imo are not getting called at all right now. He would be locking guys up like he did in the '21 playoffs if he was on the court. He was still acclimating to Quin's system but I'm not worried about that. A little undersized centers can work if they space the floor well, so a lot of OO working on defense depends on his 3 ball continuing to get better. If teams want to go really big on him, he can space it out on the other end and let our wings/guards feast in the paint. Golden State has done this for years, Miami does this, and even a lot of Boston lineups. With that said, Lakers are a team that still would have done well because AD is an anomaly how well he moves on defense for his size.

No choice but to chuck threes because Laker paint defense is so good. That's also usually what guys do when they're tired, so this was kind of an expected result. Hope JJ is good.

Love the comradery, this should increase their value as a package deal when we ship them both off for Zion in July

Read through the game thread before checking the score this morning (missed the entire game last night), so that was a fun (read: not fun) roller coaster to see if we won or not. Sounds like we had a few positives-- Bruno playing decent(?) and Garrison Matthews played alright? Box score looks atrocious for Bogi and Hunter. Murray looks like he chucked for 40 and had the lowest +/- on the team... did I miss anything?

I think we're in a position where internal development is going to be the only thing to save us, outside making smart trades for better on-court fit (i.e move DJ). No single draft pick is doing anything for us next year, with the exception if we win a top 4 pick (unlikely).

Joe Dumars on January 31st: "We’re going to see offensive eruptions with this kind of pace and the amount of 3s people shoot. But there’s no push here at the league office from me or anyone else that we want to see a certain score. I left that Boston-Denver game saying, ‘wow, great game.’ That’s what fans want. Fans want to leave a game or watch a game and at the end say, ‘that was incredible.’ The score is secondary to that. Fans just want to see great games." Since then, we've seen games be more physical, less ticky tacky calls, and lower FTAs per game and lower scores. So a lot of the reason our defense seems to "look better" recently is because the refs have been shifting their calls a bit. Our offense certainly looks worse too, and this is one reason why (makes Trae that much more important imo). I see this shift, if it lasts, as a very good thing for us. The league has gotten to the point where any bum ass PG can generate huge offensive numbers, which makes Trae relatively less valuable. So I hope this second half of the year allowing defense continues into next season. Also: would love to see offensive ratings before and after the all-star break if someone knows how to pull that data.

These are the types of nagging injuries you can play through until the offseason if you're a serious contender. I'm not questioning the injuries -- just the urgency at which they needed to be addressed. I agree with the decision to address them immediately and hopefully get a decent draft pick.

It feels like we are reaping bad karma for being very conservative shutting Trae down for his finger and then OO for his toe. We immediately then got hit by a flurry of discrete injuries with Kobe, JJ and now Saddiq.

I would love to lock him in on a multi-year deal at $10M per or less. ACL tear means he won't play next season, or at least most of it, so I feel like that's a fair compromise. I really think Bey is the perfect bench player in Snyder's system, so I would like to see us try to keep him on a bench deal like that. His poor defense shouldn't be exploited as much by second units, and his energy off the bench is nice, and his one-dimensional play can still work in limited bench minutes (especially if he gets hot shooting)

Guessing this secures a lot more playing time for Vit/Forrest. Would love to see AJ/Gueye get into the rotation before the end of the season.

Yes, we're all aware of the big complaints -- they're posted in every thread. But yes, they are illogical in this case. No amount of spending is going to overcome 3 key rotation guys being out (Trae/JJ/OO), 2 of which are your 2 best players. It's so tiresome -- just create a mega thread where everyone can type the same complaints and memes over and over. And yes, it's still amazing to me you guys are still under the impression this roster is a Shake Milton away from doing something meaningful, injuries or not. The irony in all of this complaining about spending in our current situation is that a bunch of guys being out is probably a favorable outcome for us at this point, given the teams performance and this being our last draft pick. It's horrible that Bey has a more major injury, though, and I truly feel for him.

Tough man... absolutely hate it for Saddiq -- I still hope we extend him on a reasonable deal. The guy is such a hard worker and puts in serious effort every single second he's on the court. He's always been a strong bench piece to me and this injury will not change that. And as a side note, this is not the thread for more Ressler bashing, a guy gets injured and we start going in on Ressler? Come on... yalls agenda against Ressler is like a virus infecting and derailing every single thread.

The offense is beyond pitiful without Trae and JJ. Our 2 best playmakers being sidelined is quite painful. The defense was bad, but not sure how it wouldn't be when OO/Kobe/JJ are out and Hunter is on minutes restriction. No conclusions or discourse around Trae are particularly impactful right now, positive or negative, with the number of injuries we have. This is just a G league team trying to remain competitive.

Has anyone seen a time table for JJ?

Always surprises too based on how quickly some of these guys assimilate even if they weren't projected to have an impact. Lively comes to mind there as typically centers take more time to develop and he has surpassed most peoples expectations (definitely mine) for a late lottery selection