People don't just say defence wins championships. Defence WINS championship. Proof => HISTORY. Every single championship winner had a great defence. If you have good offence and not good defence you don't win in this league. Only he isn't a better fit. If he was here we would have other problems.
Yes, Ty struggled on d, but I'm more concerned about or horrible... Horrible... Rotations. Sadly that starts with Brewer.
The entire team was slow on defense and sloppy with the ball on offense. Even with the atrocious defense this was a winnable game if we could actually make our open looks. It'll take some time but we'll be alright.
I don't think this was a winnable game. It was obvious from the get-go that the Rockets were not mentally prepared to play, and the Nuggets simply wanted it more and played very well. The Rockets did the exact opposite. I'm pretty worried about the Warriors game, but I have to assume the Rockets will wake up and be better prepared for that one. I don't want the Rockets to get obliterated by ESPN and Twitter and such, but that will be the case if they don't turn it up on Friday.
make him hang out with felton so he can be fat as hell and warm two benches at the same time. i've seen enough of him
Lawson's lack of D is going to be a constant theme on this message board this season....UNLESS....we get an elite shooting power forward and we become a truly elite offensive team, both in transition and in HALF-COURT sets. Because we have to have elite defense at the top for our defense to create the turnovers and bad shots that allow us to run our transition offense and get layups/dunks/free throws/ and WIDE OPEN 3-point shots. You guys do realize we are much better shooting the 3 in transition then we are when we have to set up....right? You do understand that and you understand the reason for it, don't you? It's because you have to have floor spacers on the floor to run our half-court sets effectively. We are not an elite passing/cutting team. Our offense is designed to spread everybody out and for James (or Lawson now) to drive the basketball to the rim and throw it out to ... SHOOTERS!! You put guys like Brewer and Terrence in half-court sets where they've got to spot up and knock 'em down.....they fail. One guy can't shoot at all. And the other guy can't shoot unless he's moving 95 miles an hour. Then your defense is in transition and you've got to defend and you're running out there with Lawson and Harden (2 human sieves in transition defense) and a gambler (Brewer) trying to defend the opponent in transition. So, this discussion is going to be a discussion point throughout the season as long as Lawson is running out there next to Harden. And no, the answer isn't to bench Lawson. The answer is to replace both Terrence Jones and Pat Beverley in the rotation. Hate to break it to you but Beverley is not the same. He's a step slower. His D is no longer elite like it was the year before last. He's now average to barely above average. His 94 foot digging just isn't there with the same intensity. We need to: 1. Get Dwight back in the middle with Clint backing him up. 2. Get a healthy DMo back in the starting lineup. 3. Get a backup PF that can defend, rebound, and shoot. (That player is not currently on the roster. 4. Get a quality point guard that can both defend and be a great playmaker. Lawson isn't it. Lawson is a backup to Harden. He's the second playmaker on the team. But he's not designed to play alongside Harden because he doesn't defend well enough. (But the problem is Beverley no longer defends well enough either.) So we really need a 3rd guard that is an upgrade to Beverley. A guard that can bring it defensively and can make plays. Brewer is a gambler. He's either going to be great or terrible each game depending on how the ball bounces with him. He's a tremendous variance player. But when he's off...he's awful. Yes, spacing was terrible. Gotta get a 4 man that can really shoot the ball. Won't take a month. It'll happen with the next loss.
Do you think Darren Collison fits the mold?? I can see him being on the outer in Sacramento soon. I still think signing Reggie Evans to that last spot and acquiring another PF via trade at the deadline like you described is the way to go.
Collison definitely a possibility. He's been injured though and I haven't got to scout him since his injury. So, not sold on Collison as the 3rd guard. However, offensively he's a significant grade to Bev. Reggie Evans is still an elite rebounder, and as such would be an upgrade to Terrence. But....I don't think he's really good enough to be your 4th big. This team desperately needs a 4th big that can shoot, defend, and rebound. Our bigs are all poor FT shooters. We need a big that can shoot. And our offense is fueled by the 3-ball. Evans for sure doesn't bring that. And his defense is not very good either. He's a one-trick pony on the boards. Mind you, he's elite on the glass, still. Which is more than we can say for Terrence. Terrence can neither shoot, defend, nor rebound at an above average level. At least Evans can rebound at an elite level. Although his defensive decision making and his shooting is on par with Jones. So I think there's got to be a better option through trade for a 4th big than to sign a guy like Evans.
Ty lawson has always been known for his horrendous defence. I don't understand why anyone thought that would change when he got here. He might pick it up but that's something that will not happen over night. I am more concerned with our front court. Capella is not rising up to the challenge as much as I'd hope for. If Tjones is our only front court option at the moment then we are going to have a very rough stretch. If harden and lawson don't learn to gel very soon, then hopefully we find lawson a new home and ww get the pg we really need before it is too late. Beverly off the bench was not a bad idea. Getting a pg who constantly needs the ball ti be sucessful as much as harden does and can't play d is.
I think most of us knew he was bad defensively, but the hope (mine, anyway) was that he'd make opposing PGs work on defense. Plenty more games, but that wasn't really on display tonight.
