Philly is a broken team that just makes no sense. Embiid and Simmons don't work, Simmons is worse than Westbrook since he barely shoots at all and in order for him to drive Embiid has to be outside of the post for an outside shot (which, he can do) so yeah, they won't work as constructed. And I like Simmons, but this team isn't right for him. And yeah, you do need to know how to pass for being a low post threat since the double will come and you want to exploit that. All I'm saying is that low post is efficient, you just need the right player, yeah it's rare...low post skills are some of the hardest skills to develop but once you have them they are invaluable. I think if you surround him with shooters you could, Philly just borked their team entirely man. Horford makes no sense next to him, Simmons and Tobias...they were just throwing talented players together and hope it works out, that team needs a major overhaul but that's besides the point. I don't know if they will run their offense through him but over 30% of it will be run through the post when he's out there and in the playoffs? All that matters is buckets, if your team is down and you need to get your way back you're going to go to the safe low post, try to see if he can get good position if not draw the double for an easier shot. Harden I think could have used it a lot more in this series. I checked, actually, it is. They didn't run this lineup at all in the regular season. I checked... .L. James, .D. Green, .M. Morris, .A. Davis, .K. Caldwell-Pope (ran 4 games in the playoffs...hmmm) Then of course really small... .L. James, .R. Rondo, .M. Morris, .A. Caruso, .K. Kuzma With Morris playing center I guess or Lebron, they never did that before, they literally just threw those two lineups out there for the first time, saw it worked, rolled with it. They basically said we could play your style of ball better than you can and of course they can because Lebron-AD better than any big men we could ever hope to play out there. I think there is a lot to be desired when it came to coaching. MDAs style is it style, he was never going to try to work with Russ and see how can we make Russ more comfy, how can I get the best out of him and his style of play, that's why Russ struggles here. We know he can't play off ball, everyone knows that. So why do we have him standing around off ball so much is a mystery for me...wlel not really, knowing MDAs time in NYK and LAL shows me why, because he will not adjust. Once he's set, he's set, and Russ has to adjust to the team. Good coaching does not expose your players faults. I honestly have no doubt in my mind had Russ went to Miami he'd be tearing up the league because Coach Spo is MILES ahead of MDA is and he wouldn't be exposing Russ and even putting him in a position to jack up threes because he'd give the ball to russ, run PNRs with Bam, he'd showcase his strengths which he certainly has. Now, I've already said it was a bad trade, obviously not because I think Russ is a trash player, because we have no assets now to even add players to help out Russ, no way to improve the team to add Russ that safety valve, we gave up too much for him clearly. And I'll add too I just don't think MDA is going to win a championship, maybe he'll prove me wrong, but there will always be another coach that makes adjustments he won't react to...and when the games are THIS close and THIS competitive, every bonus you can get is a goldmine. You can't just settle on "Well, we just have to play better..." And even though statistically Harden played well, I hope he doesn't think that. I hope he's wondering what he can do better to help his team out and wondering what the team could have done better because it wasn't good enough. If this was his best post season performance then it'll be very forgettable. I'll never forget Game 1/2 when he played the Warriors in the WCF the first time, how he almost willed his team to victories and how aggressive he had been trying to steal a split. That was one series where I saw HArden and thought you can't fault that man, he put it all out there and his #2 didn't even try and got owned by Bogut. I see Russ out there the dude looks lost but he's still giving his all, I think Russ is going to play a lot better under a hopefully better coach (if we keep him.) but you are right, this has gone on for too long lol.
Okay I know I said you could have the last word here but just because they rolled a lineup like that out there, doesn't equate to Harden getting in the post for inefficient shots.And it is, going into the post 4% of the time is literally just noise. It woulndt work at a higher frequency. You can make most lineups work when you have Lebron and AD. That's not a risk. Harden doing post ups was a risk for turnovers we already did not need. Ittl be forgettable because we lost in the second round in 5 games and we got blown out in game 5. Like you sit here and blame Harden, blame Dantoni but know blame goes on Russ. We traded our center because of Russ. We went small FOR RUSS. And he was still bad at it. That isnt Dantoni's fault. Harden played really well, he didnt choke or wilt. He was doubled the whole game. Russ went out there and lost us pretty much every game in the series because he sucks. He repeatedly broke plays to play in his own selfish manners. And Im 100% certain he did it multiple times in the Lakers series. That is on him, not James and not Mike. He didnt give up yea but he was bad no matter what happend. If Harden really gave up, you would see awful stat lines from him. Russ's mentality didnt matter now and didnt matter the last three years when he lost in the first round. There is no coach out there who could make him good. All of this is just story book stuff. Now...carry on
Again, the sample size being small meant it could work. Instead, we did nothing else. You say MDA should have made adjustments but you always turn down every single adjustment that regards Harden. I do blame Russ? Just right now I'm defending him because you think he's the reason we lost the series when almost every person watching mentions how MDA didn't adjust after game 1 and the Lakers did. Russ could have played better but how we used him STILL was wrong, using him off ball is flat out stupid. It's like telling Shaq to shoot threes and then going "Hey, why is Shaq sucking? I don't get it." This is VERY common man lol. In fact, Lebron does it for almost an entire game. If Russ was doing this all season long that likely means he got the green light from 'players' coach MDA. Harden even does it, he'll call off the play, go ISO, step back jumper. That report there even says the team let him, that was a complete non-story.
I’ve been his biggest defender but this guy has no business running the offense with his incredible low iq decision making.. The lakers entire game plan was to get the ball into Russ hands so they can thrive.
Dude can't shoot, can't playmake and just goes 100% on every possession, which should be a positive, but ends up hurting his team because his team doesn't know wtf he's gonna do with the ball. I'm not sure how to fix his game, and being on a team like the Wizards definitely doesn't help.
You can't fix him. He is convinced that he plays the right way. You are not going to get through to someone with that huge of an ego.
Prevent him to dunk the ball is ok. Just let him shoot the open 3 and go to grab the missing shots is ok
He looked really unhappy on the court tonight too. Like genuinely miserable. Glad to be rid of that dude!
but but we could've traded him for young assets and draft picks!!! stone is an idiot!! the john wall trade sucks!!! russ is the healthier player! ... you know who you are. go suck on a fat L. russ is one of the worst players in the nba now and there was no way in hell we could've traded russ for anything better than john wall + a future first. if we held on to russ, then we'd have to attach 3 first rd picks just to get rid of him even while taking on bloated contracts.
I think Russ could’ve been a great receiver in the NFL or something but he has no business playing with an NBA team. The year he won a triple double MVP is one of the biggest blunders in sports history
The Wall for Russ trade is likely to be the Aaron Brooks for Dragic + 1st rounder but on steroids with 40 mil a year contracts. It’s early and Walls health is still a question mark long term but so far this looks like a career defining trade that Stone made when he made it.
