Worse FG%, 3p%, FTA, FT%, assists and defense than last season. This was supposed to be a slump. People were on me about how it was just a slump. I wonder if those people realize there's only 30 games to go and he has to be blazing hot for all of those 30 games to match last season's production. Just a slump huh. The dude is not happy and I don't know why but we don't have time for it. He slumped and grasped his knee during the Butler talks, and now he's doing it during the deadline talks. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say it's a total coincidence, but we need to get moving. If his slump/injuries are legit, all the more reason to trade him. We had some good times Eric, but James Harden's window is priority #1 right now. Gordon and 1 or 2 picks can net a starting front court player. Considering the garbage we're trotting around at Forward, it won't be that hard to find an upgrade. Rivers, Knight and Green are more than capable of handling the backup guard minutes. As things stand, our defenders against the Warriors will be: Cousins > Capela Green > Harden Durant > Tucker Thompson > Paul Curry > Gordon Ideally you put Paul on Curry but they probably want to save him from foul trouble and exhaustion, easier for Paul to just stick to Klay. Which means the player we're acquiring will guard Curry. Maybe that's why they're allegedly considering Beal, though I don't think it's smart to go all in on Beal when we are tied to Paul.
I'm sure Morey is open to moving EG, but who would replace him in the rotation? Rivers is slumping worse than Gordon ever did, CP3 can't stay healthy, Knight's a bust, and Green is a defensive liability.
And Harden is a bad defender and Lebron James is a ball hog and Steph Curry gets abused on switches. We can't look at players as only their negative attributes man. Rivers is a decent passer/shooter/defender and he will get the bulk of the backup minutes, Paul's minutes will be restricted, Knight will hit some 3's and Green is Green. This is still one of the best backcourt rotations in the NBA. If Harden is playing 34 minutes, Paul is playing 28 minutes, that leaves 34 minutes. Let's say Rivers gets 24 minutes. That leaves 10 minutes for Green and Knight. IMO Rivers will improve, and he would see a bounce back without Gordon the way Lou Williams did when he was here/traded. Gordon is a great bench player when he's carrying the bench, but everyone around him is typically watching him launch a 3 or attack the basket with no awareness of who's around him. Equally important, if we're picking up players off waivers, we are way more likely to find a suitable 4th guard than we are to find a starter-level forward. Just makes more sense imo to restrategize that way. Knight and a pick seems to be getting poor return, so let's make him an 8 minute player. That's a better risk than letting Gordon play it out or crossing our fingers that a starter level forward will land in our laps. Also, we might very well acquire a 4th guard in such a trade as a filler or throw in. We just need 10-12 minutes from someone. Rivers can handle the rest. We honestly need two big wings. Even if one of them is House. But this playing small while not being faster/quicker than the other team is killing us. Athleticism is the #1 factor we struggle with, it explains a lot of our inconsistency beating good teams and losing to bad teams.
Well if Morey can replace EG via buyout candidates, that's fine. The problem is the trade deadline is fast approaching, so he'll probably have to trade Gordon before he knows who he can plug into the rotation in place of him.
I would say that's not relevant to performance, unless he took a substance that directly affected him, which I doubt. Probably a combination of past injury and his training, which seem to include a lot of lifts that lock up thoracic rotation and promote spinal compression. And it doesn't help that he looks for contact on drives and can land awkwardly.
