That is basically just saying they can hang with the opponent for most of the time but cannot close out. The NBA does not just roll out starters, this is the case in the 1st and 2nd Q but lineups are mixed in the last half. The Magic just rode Cole Anthony to death......and their 3rd stringers were talented lotto picks. Cole Anthony played better than any of the Rockets starter at that point not named Sengün. The intricacies of lineup changes are never explained fully.
I think the main take should be our starting lineup is doing much better than last year's starting lineup. And I am certain they will continue to do so.
Well, you paid 80 millions for that obviously........this is like me buying a sports car that is broken. It will run again after I pay another large chunk of repair fee. Teams are just running their 2nd Unit microwave scorers at us.
Sengun is taking the leap and it’s not just the usage, his 6.7 assists to 2.3 turnovers (3:1 ratio) really stands out, that’s good enough to run the offense through. His efficiency really isn’t down. His efg% is up slightly from last year on higher usage. The only reason why his ts% is down is because he’s shooting 57% from free throws, which will revert back up. His numbers this year are in the context of a team and coach trying to play the right way, as opposed to last year where the players just went and “got theirs”. For his minutes, production, and assist to turnover ratio to increase, as well as defense that anchors the starting lineup (99 DEFrtg) shows that his game is translating to a winning style of basketball. That’s also what Green and Jabari are struggling with right now, adjusting to a coach that demands playing the right way. Green in particular had free rein to take any shot last year, and this year he is going from playing too deferential in Orlando to now at times hunting the long 2 too much. Green’s production and efficiency have plummeted and that has people down on him as a player right now. But he always was going to have the biggest adjustment to Udoka and playing the right way because he never had to do that before. It is going to take time for him and he will struggle at first, but as one of his skeptics the last few years I’m pretty comfortable with how he’s playing right now. He’s making a lot of the right passes, he just needs to turn some of these long 2s into 3s. People are overly pessimistic right now because team is 0-3, even though there are many positive signs. Just like the last few years people were overly optimistic that just because we had a 2nd and 3rd pick that they were guaranteed to be stars. Go look in history and see how many of those picks actually turn into stars and you will see how lucky we would be for any of them to hit. Through 3 games people should be ecstatic that there’s a 21 year old on the team putting up 19/9/7 that Udoka trusts. We have found the thing every team is looking for and that’s a star player.
Very well put. I am completely satisfied with Green's offense. Less so with Jabari's decision making. Both need a good time to improve on offense though imo. And that's totally fine. This year is for that. Our youngsters are probably not aware how lucky they are to get Ime. He will have a huge positive impact on their careers. So it actually evened out, going from the absolute worst to almost absolute best.
This is what I said after we first interviewed Udoka: When it looked like we would hire Vogel I said that was a cop out move for Stone to maintain control. I am very thankful that Tilman seemed to have stepped in to choose Udoka instead. It was so depressing to watch games the last few years, not just because of the losses, but because how misused the players were. Believing we have something in someone like Sengun and then watching him marginalized. It’s so refreshing coming into this year knowing that even if Sengun was playing 25 minutes a game or being benched that it would be based on his own merits and faults instead of organizational bias. But it’s extra validating to see him earn the coaches trust so early. (Even after not getting able to make a shot in preseason!)
Our starting 5 still goes strong at 12.4 net rating over 72 minutes, 13th best in the league among 5 man line-up that played 20 minutes or more. We still don't have a another line-up that we use on a regular basis. The next 5 man line-up is at 10 minutes. Every game, I like Ime more and more. In the Charlotte game, he overplayed the 2nd unit. Even after being 0-3 he did not really care about the win directly that much. He gave the minutes to the second unit because it was a good opportunity for them to play. Ironically, after all those franchise player threads, we found a franchise coach!
