I honestly think we will be fine

We may not win a title this year , but if we don't .... I think it will have come down to chance and not because we haven't put ourselves in a position to compete .

The NBA is a bit strange this year . There are a lot of blowouts . Top teams like the celtics and warriors have had blowout losses to teams that going into the season looked to be bad .

One of the main reasons for this is like popovich alluded to , the 3 ball . Attempts are way up , and with that , the variance has spiked . Is this spike permanent ? Who knows .

I think we have enough players and assets on our roster to create a team with enough talent to win it all . Will we be the most talented team in the league ? No . But we will have one of the top top players ... and a coach , system , and roster that revolve around 2 of the smartest players in the league . To me , that's the real advantage . It's smarts . Harden and Paul are a cut above. I would say that we plainly outclass teams in terms of our playmakers' IQs .

Do changes and tweaks need to be made . Yes . Not all threes are equal , and despite the math saying 3>2 ... we have to be able to find ways to get better looks . And in terms of maintaining momentum I would rather have a 2 that goes in at 48% vs a 3 at 35 . Sometimes you just need to keep the scoreboard moving .... but that's besides the point . I don't want Ennis or tucker or Gordon trying to create for themselves and pulling up in midrange .

I think there has been a lot of vitriol towards MDA and his system . His overall philosophy is unquestionably correct , perhaps he just needs to instill a bit more discipline.

We have a few legit areas of concern no doubt , but there is a decent chance that players already on the roster , or players we could acquire would help shore up those weaknesses.

For example defensive rebounding. But I also don't think that getting some prototypical backup C is going to help us there . Nor is getting a bigger PF . Clint usually isn't in position to grab the board because he's been switched out onto the perimeter. PJ is able to box out most bigs . I think Bzdelik will help us clean that up .

I just don't think we can take too much from this first quarter of the season . A lot of good teams have stumbled out of the gate . And for all the love the clippers get , if they do anything in the playoffs this year it will be the first time in FOREVER that a team without a true star makes significant noise . Morey's hard on for stars is a bit excessive , but in the end he's right ... you don't get anywhere without a star .

My only consistent gripe with MDA is about minutes . I understand harden and Paul wanna play , but the dude needs to put his foot down . We were up 20+ last game and he still has our guys in with 4 minutes left . He waits until 3 min to pull them . Sure that's just one minute , but that's creating a chance they get hurt when there is none on the bench . Plus , they aren't playing hard . It reinforces bad habits and purposely playing with lower effort .

I know this post is long and is a rant in both directions , but even given tonight's game ... I think we will be fine . We looked explosive and great in the first half . The second half was less a case of thibs making fest adjustments (the guy everyone on here **** on for being an outdated idiot ) and more of a case of us going cold and MIN getting hot . I'm not saying we played perfectly and just got screwed by the 3 point gods .... but that had a lot to do with it.

We will eventually find our full rhythm . The main reason for this is that Paul and harden are probably the two smartest players in the league .

The final word . In tonight's loss , CP3 1-7 from 3 . PJ tucker who is shooting like 50% this year 1-6 . Green 1-4. Gordon 2-8 . Green and Gordon are streaky . But even if you think CP3 is washed ... his shooting should still be intact . PJ had like 3 that were in and out . Oh and also the refs ****ed us . We might go down to that .

 

If you really wanna know how I feel CH ...., it's really that cheapskate Tillman making me look bad .

 

I don't think we will make a move then . It will be a tough choice . We really only have enough ammo for one rotation caliber player ... and we might want to see what knight has left .

We have 3 main areas where our roster could be improved and possible internal options for all of them .

1) 4th guard . Important because depth for harden and Paul and Gordon ... manage their minutes . Allows you to play 3 guards if you want . Think like how we played with James , Lou Williams , bev , and Gordon in 16-17 . Can Brandon knight be a poor mans lou Williams (he's having a fantastic year btw)

This is probably the biggest luxury if things are going well . But if harden or Paul has to miss 5+ games in a row then having this role filled is HUGE

2) 3/4 wing player in the mold of a 3 and D guy . PJ is playing 35 min a game ; Ennis is foul prone , green is streaky . We could use help here for sure . But ; now house and Gary Clark could be guys that step up and hold the fort down for this role .

3) backup C . This is our thinnest position . If Clint goes out we are ****ed ... the good news is Clint is 24 . However , we also want to not make Clint play 35+ a game ... and ideally have a game or two off if need for nagging injuries/ to rest for playoffs .

It's possible one of Nene / Hartenstein/ Chriss could step up here , my money would be on Hartenstein then Nene then Chriss a distant last . Nene will the next crack , we will see how Hartenstein does in his second audition . He has B2B's for sure


Now . Our only ammo for a trade (if we don't want to give up a player already in the rotation) knight + picks + filler .

That means we can really only do one option through trade .

My gut feeling says that assuming knight is physically able to come back , we are a bit patient and see how he plays . Both from a perspective of seeing if he can fill our hole and also to see if he can build value .

While role #2 seems like the biggest concern ( in that we have the least amount of talent at that position ) ; role 1 and 3 are more dynamic and could be either not that important or very important. Also #2 has a couple of decent players already on the roster that might step up .

TLDR .... I don't think we make a move on the 15th if knight is able to play . We want to see how he does first and guard depth is really important with harden/paul

 

Kevin love is not the player we need . He's locked up long term at a high price and would basically be like Ryan Anderson for us . Sure he's better than Anderson , but still Love is no 2-way player .

Our defense becomes irreparably broken if we start Kevin love .

Hood is cool , but he's basically a bit better Gerald green .

That trade would be a waste of our one bullet .

And how you gonna just slot in knight for EG and assume he's going to be fine . I ****ing hate EG this year ... but even so , he's still a lot more reliable than Brandon knight at this point