I dont see reason why we shouldnt give the minutes to jimmer and thomas http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...struggling-another-season-190155217--nba.html
I dont see reason why we shouldnt give the minutes to jimmer and thomas http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...struggling-another-season-190155217--nba.html
I dont see reason why we shouldnt give the minutes to jimmer and thomas http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...struggling-another-season-190155217--nba.html
And where would all these minutes come from?
You've got 96 minutes at the guard spots. Assume 34-36 for Evans, 30 for MT, that leaves about 30 minutes to split between brooks, jimmer and IT. Someone needs to be completely out and I don't think IT or jimmer have shown enough this year to push brooks into that role.
And I don't usually mind dwyer's articles but IT has mostly looked really bad this year and nothing like a pass first guard he is claiming.
WE HAVE BEEN BETTER EVER SINCE AARON BROOKS TOOK OVER.
Get used to it.
Actually, without going into detail, the whole system stinks. If your willing to admit, that were not making the playoffs, then what are we trying to accomplish? Win as many games as we can? To what future end? Are players like Outlaw, Cisco, Salmons, and even Brooks, in our future? Will they be with the team 2 years from now? I suspect mostly not. Then, if were not going to make the playoffs (yes I know we haven't been mathematicly elliminated yet), why are we even playing these guys. I mean, which players are going to be in our future?
What management, and the coaching staff should be trying to do, instead of selling the team as a playoff team, is decide who stays, and who goes in the next two years. And after deciding that, then play the players that you think should stay, and record be dammed. If you think Johnson is our future SF, then start him and see if your right, and if your not, then trade him. If Jimmer and IT are in our future, and Brooks isn't, then play IT and Jimmer, and let Brooks get the crumbs. Or, if you decide that Jimmer's not in the future, then trade him, and sign Brooks to an extension. Or trade all three and start over. But make a dammed decision.
I listened to an interview with the GM of the Thunder, and everything he said made sense, and was dedicated toward the long range plans of the Thunder. I see no such determination by the Kings. Its as though they just throw a bunch of players together and hope for the best. I don't see a long range plan. At worse, and I've been thinking about this for a while, send Jimmer to the D-League where he can play against good competition and get the proper minutes to improve. It accomplishs two things. It gets Jimmer playing time, and it takes options away from Smart. But this whole thing is a mess, and something needs to be done. It bad enough having owners with no money, and a GM who either, his hands are tied, or he's simply has lost his ambition, but to also have a coach with his head up his you know what.
Everyone says Brooks is better than IT with Reke, but are you satisfied with losing 65% of the games with Brooks as the starter? It's better than losing 75% but I would rather win.
Everyone says Brooks is better than IT with Reke, but are you satisfied with losing 65% of the games with Brooks as the starter? It's better than losing 75% but I would rather win.
How would Kyle Lowry have looked with Reke and Cousins instead of Brooks??
I think Lowry and Tyreke pairing would be beastly. I was very much for getting Lowry when it became clear that he was available.
What does Reke being better with Brooks than IT have to do with your winning % question? If we are not going to fully commit to giving all the playtime to our young talent IT/Jimmer/Robinson/Honeycutt we should be playing the group who works the best together in hopes they improve as time goes on. Sometimes it takes a few seasons of consistent lineups for players to really get each other and have success. Consistency is something we haven't had at all.
I think Lowry and Tyreke pairing would be beastly. I was very much for getting Lowry when it became clear that he was available.
I don't see how you can say nothing has worked when the guys haven't even been given a consistent run together. Judging what may happen, on such small sample size, is incredibly short sighted. We have had runs where we look incredibly good together. Just because it isn't happening regularly now doesn't mean it never will.
You mention the Lakers which is funny. If they turn their team around and become a competitive playoff team will you change your mind on our team not having the possibility of working out? Westbrook and Durant won 23 games their first season together. Players improve and learn to fit roles. Teams get better. Rarely does any of this happen in a short period of time. We are talking years here, not a quarter of a season... Which is how long Brooks and Reke have been together.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I too thought that we should have traded our pick for Lowry & picks when Houston was bargaining to move up. I thought Lowry would be a great fit with Tyreke/Cousins.
Except with a few of us it was not hindsight! A number of us were pushing hard for it on this board. A number of us also did not think that getting James Johnson addresses the most pressing need. I thought getting Brooks was a terrible move especially considering the roster. I also didn't think Robinson was the right guy for this team.
The front office has no vision. It has nothing to do with hindsight and everything to do with common sense. Now Brooks has partially worked but money could have been used elsewhere.
All of our aquisitions are cheap swing for the fences type moves which rarely work out. Two seasons ago we had a team that needed a couple of good signings and a new coach and we would be set for a while. We had a very good 3 guard rotation in Evans - Beno - Thornton who all showed a bit of chemistry and played well with each other. Then there was the 3 big men rotation that was kicking butts towards the end of the season in Cousins - Dalembert - Thompson. All that we needed to do was re-sign our own free agents (Dalembert and Thornton) and sign one of many available defensive SFs that could shoot a spot up 3.
What we did was pick up Westphal's option for next season (he was gone less than 10 games into the new season). Trade Beno for Slamons and trade down in the draft to pick Jimmer and blow a good portion of our spending money on Chuck Hayes. We didn't address one need but created 2 or 3 more in the process. Absolutely terrible decision making and we carried that into this off-season with extending Smart for another season on top of this one and getting JJ, Brooks and Robinson.
Like I said Brooks sort of worked and if push comes to shove, I still take Beno over him to play with Reke and Thornton. We still have no interior defensive presence and while Salmons has been servicable at SF, we still don't have a SF that can match up on the bigger SFs in the league and shoot a spot up 3. Oh and in the process we have blown all of the cap room we did have still have pieces that do not match. Its depressing. It has nothing to do with hindsight and everything to do with vision and basketball smarts. The teams that are smarlty run in the NBA would NEVER do what we did.
OKC burned Harden to keep Ibaka. If that were up to us, we would have kept Harden and burnt Ibaka despite the fact that you can get a scoring punch off the bench for far less money than what Harden costs. Our front office no longer has the smarts to runn the show and they do NOT know what it takes to win. They continue to undervalue the very things that differentiate winners and losers.
Want to see something pretty amazing?
I went and did some hard data crunching, taking a look at each game in which the Brooks/Evans/Salmons/JT/Cuz quintet has been together as a starting unit, then going through the play by play and checking the scores when the group was broken up by subs, or put back in. Here are the results:
Game 1: vs. BKN -- 23-15 (18-13 first quarter, 5-2 after half)
Game 2: vs. LAL -- 24-22 (11-10 first quarter, 13-12 third quarter)
Game 3: vs. UTH -- 58-44 (27-18 first, 6-5 second, 25-21 third)
Game 4: vs. UTH -- 38-30 (16-16 first, 22-14 third)
Game 5: vs. MIN -- 27-27 (21-20 first, 6-7 third)
Game 6: vs. TOR -- 58-53 (21-25 first, 10-5 second, 18-19 third, 9-4 fourth)
Game 7: vs. OKC -- 26-23 (8-10 first, 18-13 third)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total score: 254-214 +40/7gms = +5.7pts/game
Look at those numbers. Look at them. And you wonder why some of us have been calling for MORE of that five some? Why we are so pissed at the coach for not putting them back in on schedule, not lettig them close games? Look at the numbers! Six of those seven teams are likely playoff teams too. That group of starters has been matched with Kobe, Durant, Westbrook, Deron, Love...huge stars. And its won, handily. So you know how good a +5.7pts a game margin is? Let's put it this way: Miami only has a +5.0. It would be the 6th best +/- in the entire NBA.
The problem is not that lineup. The problem is everything BUT that lineup. That lineup has been doing great. if guys are healthy and not suspended, its won almost every encounter. Smart is an idiot for not just playing that 5 some 35 minutes a game with each other. its been working.
P.S. Somebody please forward this onto Dwyer. Somebody else over to Smart/Petrie. I don't trust any of those nitwits to figure it out themselves.
All of our aquisitions are cheap swing for the fences type moves which rarely work out. Two seasons ago we had a team that needed a couple of good signings and a new coach and we would be set for a while. We had a very good 3 guard rotation in Evans - Beno - Thornton who all showed a bit of chemistry and played well with each other. Then there was the 3 big men rotation that was kicking butts towards the end of the season in Cousins - Dalembert - Thompson. All that we needed to do was re-sign our own free agents (Dalembert and Thornton) and sign one of many available defensive SFs that could shoot a spot up 3.
What we did was pick up Westphal's option for next season (he was gone less than 10 games into the new season). Trade Beno for Slamons and trade down in the draft to pick Jimmer and blow a good portion of our spending money on Chuck Hayes. We didn't address one need but created 2 or 3 more in the process. Absolutely terrible decision making and we carried that into this off-season with extending Smart for another season on top of this one and getting JJ, Brooks and Robinson.