At the end of the day, it’s one game. Yes it was disappointing to open the season like that, but there’s no reason to believe that such bad play will continue.
Livingston is good to very good from mid-range. MCW is awful, you don't want him taking one dribble pull ups. Teams will play off him and hope he takes one dribble pull ups or wildly drives to the basket, so that's not a valid solution. He's not that likely to get much better from 3PT than he's been, though it's not impossible. If he's a spacing liability, then he has to be in lineups where everyone else is a shooter, but realistically with the ball in his hands, but you don't really want him as a decision maker, so I don't know. There's a reason the guy was available for the minimum and has been a <100 Ortg player through his career, so expectations need to be tapered in general anyways. He's still a third string player until he proves otherwise, but he got minutes that suggests more, but we'll see if he can live up to it.
Once the intensity when up on the second half we look ok defensibly, But there was a lot of confusion on rotations and switching defense. It looked like these team need a few more games to get it together, but is the West and you will have to do it while playing playoff caliber teams. BTW getting Capela in shape is a most, he looked heavier a step to slow.
I keep reading posts like this like as if the Pelicans weren't working in Elfrid Payton and Julius Randle.
That's true , but maybe the style the Pelicans play it's easier to work in new pieces . If the pelicans play up tempo , randle and Payton just have to be athletes and find spots . For us , we really are trying to teach guys how to play as a piece in our system . I think we could use a little more tempo and freelancing ourselves ...
When you have a frustrating/oddball loss it leaves you searching. So, Will, really appreciate this post.
People saying we paid Capella too much, need to slow their roll big time. Jeez, dont even try to understand.
MCW has never been able to shoot. A lot of fans were deluded into thinking that he could suddenly become a decent shooter just by playing with CP3 and Harden in MDA's system. Melo has never been good at defense. A lot of fans were deluded into thinking that he could suddenly become a decent defender just by playing with CP3 and not with Westbrook. But I agree with Will. No need to freak out. We don't need MCW's shooting and Melo's defense to win, just like we didn't need the shooting of Bobby Brown and the defense of Ryan Anderson to win last season. But can we beat the Warriors in the playoffs with these same weaknesses?
True, but you have to remember, Most NBA Teams run set plays. The Rockets on the other hand, play a read and react offense based on CP and JH. This is going to take some time to learn....now the Defense on the other hand....
The Rockets replaced 2 studs in Luc and Ariza with career losing scrubs. It's NOT just losing two really good role players, it's replacing them with steaming garbage. People are not realizing this. Green was NEVER good. Hartenstein, Clark, Michael Carter-Williams, are you kidding me? Carmelo Anthony hasn't had a good NBA season in at least 3 years. This cheap off-season slammed the title window shut.
Man, I think the worst part is, I'm not sure if Luc or Ariza were here, we still would have one. Like, idk man. I really wish Jeff didnt retire this is ridiculous.
I learned that Roy Rogers might be fine for Dale Evans (think Zombies with a basketball), but he's no Jeff Bzdelik. We need a replacement as our defensive coach who's of the same caliber as our very lamented, suddenly retired former defensive guru. I'm not terribly surprised that we have a way to go to gel as a team. I am surprised that we were as disjointed on the defensive end as we turned out to be. I can't help but think that Coach Bzdelik would have had us better prepared. We still might have lost, the Pelicans were on a mission, but we wouldn't have looked this bad, in my opinion. Morey needs to explore a possible change there. Defense simply isn't MDA's forte. He needs a strong, highly experienced coach to handle that end, and we don't have that solved, not yet. My apologies to Coach Rogers, but the breakdown at that end can't be entirely placed at the feet of the guys on the court.