12-24-2020, 04:36 AM
My take away:
1) Luka looks brutal. Can´t get by anyone. Has issues finishing at the rim. And most of all he still takes those insane threes and they are way way off. CP3 knows how to handle clutch situations. As soon as we were down three with 1:06 to go, I know Luka was going to take a step back three. And of course he missed it. Absolutely no need for that. And the reason is, as I´ve said many times, he isn´t in shape and I´m happy some around here don´t like the stupid "I was never a muscular guy."-response either.
2) Our defense looked improved. Richardson does wonders for our wing defense.
3) The big elephant in the room: Powell looks absolutely unplayable. The defense is even worse than before his injury and the lob threat isn´t there anymore. Don´t let Followill and Harper trick you into believing he looks the same. The elite-athleticism is gone and will never come back. This is brutal contract to have on the books. At least RC went with WCS in the end, so he seems to have noticed too.
4) Brunson was great, but still the bench didn´t have great synergy. Many empty possessions, that led to nothing.
5) Was expecting more from Johnson, but it seems like he´s simply washed.
1) and 3) are major major issues which can´t be improved quickly. Such a shame Luka didn´t have a full off-season. Still it´s just professionalism to deal with what you´re facing. If you want to be a MVP, you have to put in the extra effort. If he just had 50% of Lebron´s mindset, I´d not be worried. But it seems like he´s either too young (let´s hope so) or too dumb to realize that. So here we are. Let´s see what the season brings, but Luka´s coming back way worse than last season doesn´t bode well.
1) Luka looks brutal. Can´t get by anyone. Has issues finishing at the rim. And most of all he still takes those insane threes and they are way way off. CP3 knows how to handle clutch situations. As soon as we were down three with 1:06 to go, I know Luka was going to take a step back three. And of course he missed it. Absolutely no need for that. And the reason is, as I´ve said many times, he isn´t in shape and I´m happy some around here don´t like the stupid "I was never a muscular guy."-response either.
2) Our defense looked improved. Richardson does wonders for our wing defense.
3) The big elephant in the room: Powell looks absolutely unplayable. The defense is even worse than before his injury and the lob threat isn´t there anymore. Don´t let Followill and Harper trick you into believing he looks the same. The elite-athleticism is gone and will never come back. This is brutal contract to have on the books. At least RC went with WCS in the end, so he seems to have noticed too.
4) Brunson was great, but still the bench didn´t have great synergy. Many empty possessions, that led to nothing.
5) Was expecting more from Johnson, but it seems like he´s simply washed.
1) and 3) are major major issues which can´t be improved quickly. Such a shame Luka didn´t have a full off-season. Still it´s just professionalism to deal with what you´re facing. If you want to be a MVP, you have to put in the extra effort. If he just had 50% of Lebron´s mindset, I´d not be worried. But it seems like he´s either too young (let´s hope so) or too dumb to realize that. So here we are. Let´s see what the season brings, but Luka´s coming back way worse than last season doesn´t bode well.