2-4, time for everyone to jump off the ship right? Wrong!! Harden had a couple off games, it happens. Of more pressing concern, we really haven't been that healthy and have had a lot of players missing games due to injury and covid protocol etc. We're also kinda stumbling and bumbling our way trying to figure out which players fit our depth chart and what role they will fill. List of new players, coming off major injuries, and/or are relatively unknowns: Wood Cousins Wall Nwaba Brown Tate ...and missing McLemore So basically our entire roster, minus the usual suspects Harden/Gordon/Tucker, we really have/had no idea what they can do on the court. There are so many unanswered questions we are still trying to figure out. Are Boogie/Wall still all-star calibre players? Is Wood the real deal? Is Harden gonna get traded? Can Nwaba shoot? Who's Jae'Sean Tate? It's kind of unrealistic to expect us to throw a bunch of guys in the water and expect them to be an elite team in addition to many injuries and absences. However, what we are doing is gathering data among the players that are getting playing time. For instance, I think we've learned that Boogie might be done. He's really slow, has 0 lift, and is a defensive liability. I think he's good for a backup center and that's it. John Wall is every bit as good as he was. Maybe lost an inch or two off his vertical, but looks just as fast and is doing great attacking the basket. Christian Wood is the real deal, but we still don't know really what his potential is yet. Tate is a great young rookie, but probably not a guy you want as a major rotation player for any top tier team just yet. Nwaba and Brown look good, but we don't know what their true 3-point shooting ability is. We still have a lot of work to do figuring out our rotation. A lot of guys fighting for minutes, it will take time to determine what our best lineup is. McLemore will really help for shooting off the bench, since that appears to be our biggest weakness. I'm not sure what the true talent level of this team is, but we still have a lot of potential to unlock. And I hope we can figure things out over the next couple months.
seems like we have had a “don’t panic” thread for every single season (including the 17-18 season when we lost to the Grizzlies early on, I believe). It’s just a sports fan thing, I guess. Panicking is pretty fun sometimes tho ngl
i'm not panicked because harden is obviously hurting and can't push off that ankle. and of course we've had a ton a players out. on the plus side boogie looks like after he gets into game shape he can be a major contributor. and if worse comes to worse and we have to trade harden, both ego and wall are rehabilitating their trade values in the right direct now. we may be able to do a full and proper rebuild with a ton of assets for the future
The reason why people are jumping off the ship is because every single loss we currently accrue while 'trying to figure things out', puts Harden closer to the door. Your list of relatively unknowns is a whopping 6 people. That is a monumental amount of question marks for a team wanting to do everything they can do to convince their ticked off franchise saviour to stay. Do I think they have a good coach? Yes. Do I think they have foundational rotation pieces in the young guys? Yes. Do I think they could mesh and eventually equate to something special with Harden? Define your definition of special. Unfortunately, everything comes full circle back to my first point. Harden ain't waiting around for any of that to develop any more.
I think Tilman still has a yacht he's hiding, and trying his darndest not to sell to raise capital for his debts.
I wouldn't necessarily say panic but a certain melancholy sets in every time when the team is having up and downs.
I’m not worried, only about what Tilman will do with Harden and how cheap the return will be. Silas and these new guys will be fine.
I like OP and I like this thread. But actually think about what we are doing here.....does it look like this group of guys has championship aspirations. Does it look like management and ownership did it everything it could for that? So far...it seems like they tried to have their cake an eat it too and its failing. I hope for the best OP...I really do.
