What is the biggest factor leading to the 13th Seed in the West?

FAT-CAT-ITIS and lack of chemistry.

Harden won his MVP, CP3 got paid, they are not playing as focused as last year, and the new teamates don't fill in their weakesses.

DD

 

Depth, The Raptors are a 50+ win team without Kawahi, we are a 20 Win team without Paul and a 10 win team without Harden

 

Biggest issue:
1. Horrible Camp
-This is like 2016, people didnt tske offseason seriously and Cp3 and Capela got paid so they lived it up in the summer. This wouldnt be a problem if we didnt trade away 4 guys in the rotation.

2. Age
-Ariza and Luc aged horribly. I know lots of "experts" say letting them go was a mistake but look at them on other teams now they suck hard. If we kept them Luc would still only play 4 games and Ariza would still shoot 36%.

3. Trading Scrubberson for nothing
-I was one of the few wanting Scrubberson gone BUT it was under the assumption Brandon Knight would play. It cost us two guys in the rotation I mean Scrubberson sucks but he is still better than Chriss and Melton would've been Beverly 2.0 on this team. Maybe BK comes back and save the season.

4. Giving up on Melo
-Melo hasn't been the best, but he is certainly better than House, Chriss, Green at all times and Ennis sometimes. He at least provided depth and another guy who can score the pts have no clue why we sent him away. Nobody on the team can score apart from Harden, Cp3, Capela and Gordon no wonder we keep losing.


Solutions:
1. Bring Melo back. He will bring balance to the bench. Make him Ego's role and make Gordon the starting 3.
Or
2. Wait for Brandon Knight to come back
Or
3. Trade BK, Nene and picks for Otto Porter.

Out of those options I think Option 1 is the best as it has the least cost.

 

1. Luc/Ariza replaced with Ennis/Clark
2. Harden/Paul injuries/suspension
3. Capela regression

 

We were built to win last year. The problem with going all-in is when it doesn't work you're screwed afterwards. So we're handicapped by the Harden and CP3 salaries and can't give ourselves the adequate depth needed.

Instead of listing 3 reasons why we are disappointing right now, I'll list my 3 reasons why I think we'll continue to struggle this season:

1. CP3 injuries
2. No starting SF
3. No depth

 

Easily number 1 issue is defense. When we cared about defense we were 8-2, even with offensive struggles during that stretch. When we don't care, we're 1-8. Simple as that.

Has nothing to do with who's playing, who we lost from last year, etc. We have enough talent to win most of these games. We have the best player on the floor in most of these games.

 

I think we dun have the stamina or focus to play top D in every of those 82 games.

 

Evidently not, who knows what changed from last year.

Look back at some of the 14-15 season top rotation guys and games played:

PatBev (31mpg) - 56 games
Dwight (30mpg) - 41 games
TJones (27mpg) - 33 games
Smoove (25mpg) - 55 games
Brewer (25mpg) - 56 games
KPap (19mpg) - 43 games

That was truly a rag tag team that was constantly shuffling its rotation and had many important players in and out of the lineup and missing tons of time with injuries, and they were still 8th in defense. This team has no excuse to be freaking 24th in defense. That is the entirety of our problems right there. It's an abomination. It's all about effort and focus on that end, doesn't matter who's on the floor.

 

Injuries... We need to trade for Luc after the 15th as well... He wasn't a RFA so that would be allowed right?

 

how about depth of
1 Jrue Holiday
2 Julius Randle
3 Nikola Mirotic
4. Etwaun moore
5 Elfrid Payton
6 Ian Clark
7 Darius Miller
8 Wesley Johnson
9 Jahlil Okafor

is that enough depth behind glorified MVP contender Anthony better than Harden Davis?

Yet they are 12th seed in the west on a 4 games losing streak

 

Injuries
Other teams got better while we regressed
Michael Carter Williams

 

I'm going with the bad freezer smell one. not sure entirely what it means, but i like the sound of it.

 

I agree with DaDakota.

Hard to win with FAT-CAT-t***.

 

Yet the Pelicans never announced that their goal would be a championship. Short term.

 

its because they know they have no chance and rockets proved they are the favorites not just contenders

 

Imagine if rockets started 15-4 but CP3 or Harden suffered a huge injury?
who would you have blamed the most for the entire season lost?

 

It's the bench. Our starters can compete with anyone.

Nene, MCW, Chriss, Hartenstein, are either unplayable, injured, or not very good. Add in the injuries and suspensions to our starters and the failed Melo expirament and you get where we are.

If we had last years version of Nene, Ryno, Luc, and Ariza we would be much better off. Its a long season. You need depth.

We will be ok if Harden, Capela, CP3, EG, Ennis, and Tucker get healthy and play well. We still need 3 other guys to be serviceable though.

 

Money. Or more accurately the unwillingness to spend money on important cogs on the rotation. If your boss fire everybody and only hire minimum wage guys, that company is gonna tank.

 

No bench.