The team that won the championship last season started Zaza Pechulia at center. The team that you think is going to pass us by, the Jazz, starts Rudy Gobert. The team you think is going to give us "a run for our money", the Thunder, start Steven Adams. Who among those "shoot, stubble, make plays, and defend"?
Can't wait until Clint retires in 2030 for Holic to claim his ultimate victory. I'm not worried about Clint, he had a slow start last year then rounded into form. The two biggest problems were Harden and Paul both looked FAT and OLD respectively. I think all three improve next game, and we remember Thursday like we remember opening night 2016, a blip on the radar. We don't need to trade Clint for Thon "DNP-CD" Maker
And with that massive 1- or 2-game sample size, these predictions are even more meaningful than the typical caliber of Holic forecasts.
They did not start zaza in the playoffs and he barely played in the playoffs. They simply used Zaza to soak up some early season minutes against inferior teams to keep their top 7 fresh for the end of the season and playoffs. And they played him with the starters to mask him even better. That was all about conserving minutes on their top 7. Nothing else. You don't pay a guy 15 million to do that. But that's basically where we're headed with Capela. We can't beat the Warriors in a 7 game series with him playing 25+ minutes. Rudy Gobert and Stephen Adams are difference making defenders. They dominate the defensive paint and glass and they do it consistently. And yet, the bottom line is both those teams are iffy at best to get past the Warriors. But as long as we're running Capela out there against Gobert and Adams they will stay within striking distance of us. Both of those men will beat Capela down. This isn't last season. This is this season. Watch it unfold. Capela's production is a by product of Harden and Paul. He got obliterated against the Pels and he hurt our defense considerably. And Davis shut him down on the PnR. It's a new season. Better recognize it quickly. And understand what has likely happened here. It's called big contract regression.
I hope zhou gets healthy. This season we need to see what he has and it would be best if we found out early...even if we had to then hide him until we moved Capela. The 5 spot is the problem on this team. Not the 3 spot or 4 spot. We simply need better play at the 5 spot.
I feel that Capela should be a main commitment in the Butler trade. His value is goes down from here. We can run long athletic youth in the paint and just play using energy to get rebounds and defense. One of them will start to show and grow.
The thing is , harden (and now Paul) should be able to help them contribute enough so we can actually win games while still giving them time. Obviously , they aren't going to be positives vs GS and the like ... but are you telling me that giving hartenstein 15 min is really gonna cost us against SAC ?
Neither Gobert nor Steven Adams have success defensively against the Warriors. That's the standard you're judging Capela on, which is dumb, because nobody in the league has success against the Warriors. However...I can only assume you watched none of the Rockets Jazz playoff series, since Capela was, quite clearly, better. Though I'm sure you'll say otherwise.
I get that you are not a big fan of Capela. However AD kills everybody on the PnR and the Pels are an elite defensive team. Nevertheless, it'll be very tough to replicate what we did last year but let's see what D Antoni pulls out of his hat.
Only thing I learned is that their frontcourt is bigger, younger, better and quicker. There is no way our frontcourt can beat them. It cannot be fixed.
I think we learned we can never underestimate our opponent and we have to prepare accordingly. I look to them to take this loss to heart and come out better prepared for the Lakers.
So we learned Capela can still be factor, youknowwho? Keep doing that, I take his 19 and 12 or what it was.
The market determined his price. Capela is the only half way reliable big man on the roster. (not counting PJ Tucker a fulltime Big) The Warriors are hardly a team that count on their Centers to bail them out. Lelz. But you got to have someone. We dun have the sharpshooters that GSW have so we rely more on the Center position. And we dun move as well off the ball. The PnR play is one of our bread and butter options. Most important actually.
He only had the highest ORTG and lowest DRTG on the team against them last year, but I'm sure once Thon Maker stops getting DNP-CDs he'll show his true potential as the black(er) AD .
