(10-27-2025, 11:21 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: My whole thing is AD has to move better. I know most think he is a center, but he needs to be able to play PF minutes. Or else, there are just too many moving parts needed to make this team good in the next year or two. Lively (if healthy) is just way too good to play only 20 minutes a night. I think how he plays and injuries that 30 minutes is too much, but 26-28 minutes sound right. More importantly, those minutes have to be important minutes. He impacts games. Gafford is probably expendable, but he is a good player and he needs minutes as well. We will see how clunky it looks when he returns.
The first glipse of Cooper and PJ continued devleopment is really promising. It will be interesting to see if Marshall can also fill in here. If so, you have two large wings who can do a lot of stuff on a basketball court at all times. Even with Kyrie, they are a creator or two away imo. Max looks good. He won't hit such a high percentage all year but it will be interesting to see if he impacts games when he is off. He is the type of role where he may get 20 or he may get 4. He needs to find a way to be a factor when he is not scoring. Maybe one of those creators is Dlo, but I am guess I am thinking future. Add 1-2 good sized creators and you start seeing something. Of course, AD will be a year or two older by then.
It is not a good team now. I can see a route, but first your best player has to look better. His stats are fine (even good) but he does not feel like a top 15 player now. He needs to get there if this team has any chance to make waves over the next few seasons.
I think there needs to be almost a half season before this looks fluid.
Dan mentioned the rotation of Klay\Christy and eventually the Irving problem. That's not really a bad problem, but it's going to be challenging when Irving returns. The Dlo problem is one of consistency, and the AD problem is one of being out-of-shape. These problems likely won't get fixed in the first half of the season.
I agree about Lively's impact. He moves very well and seems everywhere. He fits almost every type of rotation.
Kidd will need to make Flagg more of a focal point without using up most of his minutes at PG (in my opinion).
Outside of these players, I thought Marshall was making the most of his minutes. We expected PJ to be good, and he really is. On both ends. I think the rest of the players just need to find a rhythym to their minutes.
The problem is that this team has been asked to speed it up. But you can't just turn the dial. I think it's a bigger adjustment than we imagine. The first two games looked a little helter skelter because of that. Sunday's game was more fluid. OKC will really test that with their defense. Wallace on Dlo will be particularly interesting.