I am not sure if this experiment will end up working, but one thing to keep in mind is that a couple of years ago, when we had the best record in reg season and almost beat the Warriors, we played small ball a big chunk of the time (especially in the playoffs against said Warriors). As others have said ad nauseam, we replaced CP3 with Westbrook, so were in need of a lineup adjustment, and Convington fills that need better than Capela can. Now we are very similar to that small ball team from a couple of years ago. We know Thicc is a championship player, we essentially replaced Ariza with Convington, and as mentioned, CP3 with Westbrook. Whether those 2 replacements can take us over the hump remains to be seen, but we also don't have to contend with an all time team, as the league appears to be a bit more wide open for the taking right now. I believe we could use another good 3&D wing defender over just getting a big man. If that is a big man, then great, otherwise, somebody like Markieff would be great to add the depth we had with Luc during that regular season. Bottom line, having a big that can shoot would be great, but not absolutely necessary. Getting another 3D wing is probably more important in the long run.
"years ago" you mean last season? From watching a ton of film of him on the Vipers last season, I don't have much hope for Bruno...seems uncoordinated and lost on defense. Plus, keep in mind, Bzdelik could have insisted on him, instead of Gary Clark. MEM demoting him to G-League makes 4 NBA teams (including Ujiri) who have given up on him.
Rockets gave up on Covington, Whiteside, Carroll, Christian Wood, James Johnson, Garrett Temple too. Just saying. I love the Bruno pick up and if Morey believes he is one of 10 playable players for MDA then that is good enough for me.
I dont get what you are trying to show, the warriors still played traditional bigs for 20 + minutes a game ....
We had him just last year until like December, and clearly Bzdelik chose Gary Clark over him. But I'm most concerned because of watching him myself. You can't teach coordination, smarts and desire to play basketball. I think he lacks all of those ... and MEM did too this year....and well as Ujiri after watching him for 3 years.
I understand but his role will not be Capela-esque. Bruno is more of a perimeter offensive player and help defender. Rotation guy right now.
And he got beat out by Gary Clark doing that last year. Bruno was a 1st round pick, developing on an NBA team for 3 yrs ... a very good development team -- Toronto. Then dumped as a bust. Now being bounced around the league ... declared bust two more times. he looks uncoordinated, not smart and like a Thabeet kinda of disinterest in the sport...from my viewing. And MEM apparently agreed.
We will see who is right this season. I got to say, I hope I'm right and you are wrong. Just glad Morey and MDA agree with me.
The point is that the Warriors mostly played small, especially in the playoffs and in crunch time. Of course, pre-Durant, the Warriors had the very capable Bogut for when they needed to go big, and then later had Durant. So their "small" lineup was not nearly as midget as ours. Also, they had an all world, unique defender in Draymond, a guy that could nullify many teams inside game by himself. PJ is pretty darn close as a one on one defender, but not as good a help defender, lacking the shotblocking and length Green possesses. I think there are some similarities in styles between those Warriors and these pocket Rockets, but Westbrook really is the wild card here. His skills are not really analogous to anything they had, which makes him, dare I say...the wild card, especially if he keeps punishing opponents when they double team Harden as soon as he crosses mid court.
I think we are a hell of a lot closer now than we were at the deadline. As much as I loved Clint we did not truly need him. Robert Covington fills a void that is much more important. That is why I really was hoping for Jimmy B to come home. We still get to keep eric Gordon though with Covington instead of Jimmy. Austin Rivers is also still here. Tucker is still here. We just need a serviceable not elite bigman to take some minutes during certain mismatches. If we can just get that one guy this team I dare say can be better than the 2017-2018 Rockets. I am hoping Tristan Thompson gets bought out.
I agree that we can win playing small for The majority of minutes . But the fact is , those guys getting 20 min between the two of them meant that some level of big player was necessary from time to time . It’s possible our smalls are better than theirs , but I still think we need a big guy . I don’t think we need a big guy because we will play better big , I think we need one because I don’t want PJ playing 35+ mpg vs centers for the rest of the season and in the playoffs . Also , as we saw from the last game , one very good strategy other teams can adopt is to try and get our “bigs” aka pj and rob in foul trouble . Getting just one of them in trouble puts us in a bind because beyond those two guys , we don’t have anyone that can stop an athletic forward or center from scoring in the paint . And I’m not talking about post ups . Im talking about simple cutting or dribble penetration. If we can get another Covington , don’t get me wrong , I’d take that as frontcourt depth... ur outside of that I think you can bet that James or Russ is gonna make any 6’10 athlete look good . Or you get a big that can shoot . There are a number of players projected to be on the buyout market that I would take ... but I think we really need one .... otherwise I think MDA will continue to play our best guys heavy minutes and we will run out of gas in the playoffs .
