What is different compared to last year?

Wasn't completely the same players. DMo and Pap had hustle and ball movement when key players were out. That there accounted for 20 wins or more.

 

In before the only difference is DMO, our lord and saviour.

 

Players are not as hungry to win it all, do not trust each other, locker room issues

Slacking in the offseason

Overall a down year

 

I think the combo of bad densive and low IQ players, lack of leadership along to go with a ****ty system ran by a bad coaching staff did it, it finally blew up, everybody got WAY to comfortable ****ing around it ruined the team.

 

Unmotivated. Try to stat that.

 

We've replaced defensive minded role players like Dorsey and Papanikolau who played off the bench in the first half of last year and Paglioni in the second half, with offense oriented guys like Thornton and Lawson.

OTOH those defensive minded role players were willing passers and always hustled down the court on both sides of the ball, and we miss their energy.

Terry seems a step slower and a year older.

Jones regressed while Beverley took half a season to return to form.

Brewer suffers from not playing the up tempo style of last season.

DMo is still on the mend. Capela is still figuring things out.

We have few options for the holes in the frontcourt, which forces JB to go small too often. It also forces Ariza to play out of position and will wear him out in the long run.

That's about it I think.

 

We don't have any grind it out type players

 

no #Pursuit but #Broken

 

mental side of things. that's where the difference is. starting from harden.

 

we had a lot of injuries last year. at the time i figured we would be even better if we could be healthy this year. but now in retrospect i think the injuries actually helped us a lot. the big injury obviously was that dwight was injured most of last year. james was dominating and the team was successful. so when dwight returned he didnt want to be seen as a selfish player who screwed up the rhythm of a good team by demanding a lot of post touches or whatever. he tried to be a great support player instead of a primary option. that was a lot better because thats really his ideal role at this stage of his career. also because its the only time that james and dwight really had complementary roles. this year they have each done pretty good from a narrow individual point of view, but they havent complemented each other at all. when one is playing well i often perceive a vibe of 'see im holding my end up but youre letting me down' between them. especially if one is on the bench. sometimes it feels like suddenly there is an energy in the team to prove they are better with that guy on the bench.

 

One word: Harden.

This group of players has never been a mentally tough bunch, even last two seasons. But Harden was motivated last season and he carried them most of the time.

I suspect that the chemistry was broken early in the season, or maybe in the preseason, and they don't care anymore.

 

Trust was lost early.

Harden regressed badly. Early on, coaches allowed him to take so many shots just to get going. Then he wouldn't play defense. It snowballed from there. No accountability. Teammates started complaining. Players-only meeting. Trust in McHale was lost. JBB is too raw. As Terry asked, do they like to play with each other?

 

honestly, unless there is a big shakedown in our roster before trade deadline, we're probably going on a losing streak with how bad the chemistry is.

 

We wanted Harden to be Jordan but instead it turns out he's actually Pippen.

 

At least Pippen played defense

 

Mchale was partially r****ded, JB is full r****d

 

Success has gone to harden's head... He's being an aloof ass who doesn't respect his teammates so people aren't hustling to grab grab rebounds and defend just to have him freeze them out on the offensive end and not work on the defensive end...

remember when parsons/Lin/Harden had that whole pregame ritual... you don't see anything like that now...

"those that matter don't mind and those that mind dont matter..."...screw his narcissistic ass! ....imo...

 

Our defensive role players stopped being good at defense.