I know it's a precarious time to comment, after the sacrificial killing that the NBA league office just performed on us as their way of celebrating MLK Day, but think about what really matters: 1. Making the playoffs - almost certainly 2. Top 4 seed - likely once we get healthy 3. Not being on GSW's side of the bracket until the WCF - a definite goal; we'll see how much control we have over this by March 4. Being more prepared to face GSW than we were last year - Now obvious this is not the perspective the team can take...they need to worry about making the playoffs and winning two playoff series first. But, Ben du Bose on his podcast brought up the idea, and others have as well. This team in the playoffs doesn't necessarily have to be automatically worse than last year's. 2018 Harden -> 2019 Harden - UPGRADE 2018 CP3 -> 2019 CP3 - Downgrade, but it remains to be seen how much. Rest should help him a lot. 2018 Capela -> 2019 Capela - Upgrade 2018 Gordon -> 2019 Gordon - Even 2018 Tucker -> 2019 Tucker - Even 2018 Nene -> 2019 Nene - Maybe even an upgrade frankly 2018 Green -> 2019 Green - Unusable, but probably the same So what it comes down to is 2018 Playoff Ariza being replaced by some combination of minutes from Danuel House, James Ennis, Austin Rivers, Kenneth Faried, and Gary Clark. Of course, this functional depth, the kind that can actually garner minutes against a team as wing-deep as GSW, will also be able to spell CP3 and Tucker to make them more able to expend all their energy in fewer minutes than they did last year. With LMM washed by the playoffs, and Ariza undoubtedly having tired legs contributing to his .360/.286/.742 numbers in last year's playoffs, there isn't a tremendously high bar for this year's supporting cast to meet. As any intelligent Clutchfan can tell you, House can be written in ink for a postseason roster spot on this team. It's guaranteed to happen unless we trade him first for something better. Eyes on the prize, we're still headed in the right direction.
It's pathetic how some people think every time we lose a game or get fouls called against us "the league is out to get us."
I’m as optimistic as any fan within reason. 4-6 weeks without Clint is a devestating loss. Not just for playoffs seeding purposes, but also the additional strain it puts on James to have to carry the team. EG is back, and CP returns soon, but do we really want this much on them as well? With our current lack of size, defense and rebounding James, CP and EG will have to carry a tremendous load for the remainder of the reg season if we want to stay out of the 8th seed or worst. We need help now. We need size and rebounding now. Even with a House and a healthy roster, I just don’t think we have enough quality depth at the 3,4 or 5 to make the type of run we did last year. We still lack “nba professionals” at too many role playing positions. For all of Luc and Trevor’s faults, they were high end professionals who did just enough on both ends last year to make us nearly unbeatable until CP went down. If We start EG at the 3, and House is available, our bench would consist of Rivers, House, and Faried. GG may get spot minutes during the playoffs. I just don’t think that is quite enough. Morey still has time to make a move can help our chances, which is why I am still optimistic about our finished roster come the trade deadline. I’m not quite as optimistic if we stand pat.
The goal is to stay in the mix of the playoff race and hope to get fully healthy. By the time the playoffs start we can make a solid run for the title. Starting lineup Harden Cp3 Clint Ego PJ And our bench will look better with our additions Austin Rivers and the Manimal, still having GG....it's not the worst 8 man rotation.
EG this year seems like a downgrade. Nene is an upgrade, I agree with that. Fully healthy, I think we can compete with anybody, but seeding matters and it seems like the health is finally catching up to us.
Gordon since returning from injury has shot 44.0% from 3. Maybe there was something else wrong with him that the rest for his knee allowed him to fix as well. He turned 30yo 28 days ago. He'll be in tip top shape for the playoffs. Clint Capela got hurt January 13 in Orlando. 4-6 weeks from that is February 10-24 in that time range. That would put him on par to miss 9-13 more games. Amongst those games I would pencil in @NYK, @phx as safe wins and TOR, OKC, GSW as safe losses. Capela isn't affecting the outcome of those games I don't think. So you've got 4-8 games that are toss-ups that his absence could affect. Right now we are on pace per ESPN's playoff odds to get a 6 seed with 47 wins. It's a pretty safe distance away from the 9 seed which is projected to be NOP at 42 wins. With CP3 coming back next week and Faried in to patch up the rebounding hole while Capela is gone, we are virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs. The question to ask is whether or not we might prefer to shoot for a 6-7 seed rather than a 4-5. ESPN's odds tracker currently has DEN and UTA projected to be the 2-3, with OKC and POR 4-5. I don't know about you, but coming up as an underdog at the 6 seed wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to me. Some good history there to be gotten in the 6 spot! Let OKC and GSW slug it out in round 2: that's my biggest hope.
I agree with you. But EG has been back for like three games, right? He was fantastic in the Brooklyn and LAL games, but pretty terrible last night (so was everybody else though). I hope he can keep this up going into the playoffs, but I look at his playoff highlights from last season and I don't know that he can replicate that, so I still think he is a bit of a downgrade as of now. That's all I'm saying. I'm not worried about making the playoffs, but I think a high seed is important for home court purposes.
Yeah, but Clint's health is nothing more than a freak accident. We were like 10-2 in our last 12 games and steamrolling the league before Clint went down. My theory is that if he hadn't hurt his thumb we wouldn't even be making such panic threads. CP's hammy and Gordon's knee are certainly 'health' issues that legitimate concerns. But hopefully Gordon is past all of that
GS isn't the same either . We will have to play a different game vs them if cousins can be serviceable . I think we will know a lot more about this team and our realistic chances about a month after ASB Agree with the point about rivers , house , Clark , and Ennis bring
