11-09-2021, 07:57 AM
The bad news:
We still haven't beat a real NBA team yet (OK, maybe Toronto)
Willie is getting worse as the season progresses.
I like Sterling's energy, but while he appears super active, he accomplishes very little
I get the KP love from Kidd (rebounding and assists and body language), but 13 shots to get 12 points isn't going to get it done.
As others have said, Luka was a mess in Q-1.
The good news:
Man the role players were on fire. Bullock 5/7, Tim, 6/9, Jalen 7/12 and Frank 4/6.
Between Brunson, Frank, Bullock and Maxi we have a bench.
Brunson 30+ minutes (3rd on the team) coming off the bench (for a team high +26)
Two centers together was not a good look. Powell + KP was -6. KP + Bobi was -6. Powell, KP or Bobi alone was just fine...Willie, not so much.
Lots of center and four guards in this one (starting to see a trend here, but both NO and Boston are light on bigs). I define this as no Maxi, no DFS and no second center. If you are tempted to say "what about Luka, he's got PF size", well, I did the math on that one too. There were 14 minutes in this game with a single center and no Luka or DFS...literally four guards. Here's what is interesting. We were +18 in those minutes without Luka or DFS and with a single center. KP was +13, Bobi was +9 and Willie was -4 in lineups like that.
Something has to give with the starting lineup. I think I try Maxi for Powell first. I get that we are light on shooting bigs if we have our only two starting together. But, there are ways to split them after the first six minutes of each half. With the emergence of Frank, I think there are bench lineups with Powell as the center that would work. Bear in mind, we don't have a single "bench". There is a KP-centric bench, a Luka-centric bench and at times (usually very briefly) a bench that doesn't include either.
We still haven't beat a real NBA team yet (OK, maybe Toronto)
Willie is getting worse as the season progresses.
I like Sterling's energy, but while he appears super active, he accomplishes very little
I get the KP love from Kidd (rebounding and assists and body language), but 13 shots to get 12 points isn't going to get it done.
As others have said, Luka was a mess in Q-1.
The good news:
Man the role players were on fire. Bullock 5/7, Tim, 6/9, Jalen 7/12 and Frank 4/6.
Between Brunson, Frank, Bullock and Maxi we have a bench.
Brunson 30+ minutes (3rd on the team) coming off the bench (for a team high +26)
Two centers together was not a good look. Powell + KP was -6. KP + Bobi was -6. Powell, KP or Bobi alone was just fine...Willie, not so much.
Lots of center and four guards in this one (starting to see a trend here, but both NO and Boston are light on bigs). I define this as no Maxi, no DFS and no second center. If you are tempted to say "what about Luka, he's got PF size", well, I did the math on that one too. There were 14 minutes in this game with a single center and no Luka or DFS...literally four guards. Here's what is interesting. We were +18 in those minutes without Luka or DFS and with a single center. KP was +13, Bobi was +9 and Willie was -4 in lineups like that.
Something has to give with the starting lineup. I think I try Maxi for Powell first. I get that we are light on shooting bigs if we have our only two starting together. But, there are ways to split them after the first six minutes of each half. With the emergence of Frank, I think there are bench lineups with Powell as the center that would work. Bear in mind, we don't have a single "bench". There is a KP-centric bench, a Luka-centric bench and at times (usually very briefly) a bench that doesn't include either.
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