I just need to know, was that Stone’s call as a tanking tactic or really a coaching decision that Silas made?
Definitely Silas' call. There was an interview he was talking about it and he said something like "and I'm going to play a 3 man rotation at C" as though he was insisting on it. Wish I could find it but I distinctly remember it. In any case it was so dumb to give minutes to Bruno this season with Garuba shooting 40%+ on 3's, grabbing rebounds and playing great defense. The org probably wouldn't complain if Silas did something stupid and it generated losses (I don't know if it did).
prolly a consensus between the coaching staff and higher management. they know better so i fully trust their decision
Sengun seems like the obvious choice (from the outside / as well as hindsight) but seems internally the coaching staff got confused. At the time; Bruno being physically present in summer camp likely helped him. His work ethic Impressed the staff. And Sengun being away in summer at Europe. It's an explanation more than a valid excuse. There was also the archetype mislabling. Bruno being more defensive, maybe more rim running and lob threat. How much of that vertical threat translated to better synergy basketball. Did team's defense actually got better? Was KPJ's pick n' rolls better? The mere fact that the coaching staff was trying to figure out their strengths/weakness, while also prematurely label Bruno to be an archetype is a problem. He wasn't necessary excelling at the archetype but got starter minutes. Bruno is now on the Hawks behind a rim runner who is Capela. He's not in danger of taking Clint's minutes. If it's earning playing time... then fine, but don't play favorites. If you are playing favorites; then choose the right prospects. For example I'm a fan of Jabari and would have continued starting him despite his bad 1st half season; but did Jabari earn to keep those starter minutes (no he didn't). Point is if the org knows the people they're investing in; then commit and not be wishy-washy. And do it across the board. Mis-step in talent evaluation; indecisiveness, results in 'wasting' evaluation time. Seems like the staff is tunneled visioned and is often confused by recency bias with things like summer camp. The people there are supposed to be professionals, we as fans come to assume they know what they're doing. Things like who to play, lack of hierarchy and structure, read n' react with young guys ... these are things this forum was mentioned last season (year 2). But it took an extra year 3 for the org to finally realize (and give in) to the fact that the stuff they were doing wasn't working. All the while other teams like Magic and Thunder (both teams who were in the bubble playoff with us), entered the bottom 5 record with Rockets in 2020, but this year already started to pivot before us. It's not just Sengun. Freezing Jalen in his year 1; he wasn't even in the convo for ROTY. Jabari probably won't even make all rookie 1st team this year. Some of that is on the talent but a good deal of it is on the coach and how those guys were used in the system. Sengun wasn't the only victim of bad evaluation and development.
if it wasnt silas' call i would be pissed he just let stone run his team. Silas going to get cooked either way.
I'm afraid it was Silas AND Stone. Silas alone would likely not have started a concerted media campaign (including informing @Clutch beforehand) to get writers to endorse the decision.
I’m ambivalent about this. I originally thought starting Bruno over Sengun was dumb, but it also made sense to bring him off the bench to give him more opportunity to handle the ball. He was still going to average 25 min per game. Bruno’s injury followed by him being bad upon his return makes it a bad decision in hindsight. I still think it boils down to the poor roster construction so I think Stone is mostly to blame: KPJ/Green backcourt needed a lob threat and rim protector and Bruno was to help with that. Even though Sengun is a good playmaker, he had defensive limitations. Bruno showed promise as a rim protector in limited play last season. You still had to start Eric Gordon and Jabari, and Sengun or Fernando weren’t three point threats, so you couldn’t experiment with a Sengun at PF, and Fernando at C lineup I thought Stone should’ve done more to address the center position. He could’ve been aggressive to go after someone like Nic Claxton, or in the draft targeted Duren, Williams, or Kessler. Even though Sengun is good, we still desperately need a defensive center that’s a rim protector.
By the way Silas spoke of Alpi, I 100% believe it was that clown's decision. Don't be too proud of what you did here guy, a consequence of it will be no head coaching position ever again.
Who cares? Season is over. Sengun is a big part of this core moving forward and the intentional tanking is over. Everyone should rejoice instead of continuing to look for reasons to be upset and point fingers. Time to mend fences and heal.
I think it was Silas' call because why trade away Bruno? I liked him coming in just slamming into anyone like a true Ray Lewis with a basketball. A change of pace. The three center rotation was a joke, could be it irked Stone to and tried to stop it. But then it continued after Bruno was traded. Also notice how things weren't ran through Alpi once EG was traded. They preferred running it through Nix even with Green implying he liked playing through Sengun including every other opposing player.
silas is also in a position to expose what happened but it'll cost him another job in the nba this is the interworking of the nba this is how it always goes everybody knows silas didn't make insane decisions like bruno over alpi on his own he's not r****ded
