Pretty crazy that Harden and Westbrook are far and away the highest scoring duo, and Harden has been in a scoring slump since the calendar rolled to 2020. Granted, if Harden is on, Westbrook doesn't have to be, in which the numbers might normalize. But just imagine if Westbrook played this way and Harden played his usual "40 points / night" way. Dear lord.
Which is one of the main reasons people view us as a darkhorse title contender. If/when both these guys are on in the playoffs, for multiple games, it's most likely over for most teams. Now the one thing they have similar to the English/Vandeghewe & Melo/Iverson teams is their lack of defensive intensity from their star players. That will be our hang up in the playoffs.
Not if Morey adds more long athletic defensive disruptors to complement Beard and Brodie. Plus the lack of defense mantra is fake narrative. Harden may struggle on the perimeter (so do Russ & House) but he is the best post defender in the NBA as well as top 20 in steals and deflections. And Westbrook may not be able to stay in front of his man but he is a terror in the passing lanes and is much better rim protector than 6'6 House.
Agreed. Which is why I worded it as 'lack of defensive intensity', rather than just the typical, "they don't play no defense" gang. We have a good amount of great guards that will matchup against Harden and Westbrook: Kawhi, Murray, Mitchell, CP3 , Luka, and most likely Dame... could be Ja. Those are some pretty heavy hitters on top of the other star teammates on their respective squads. This isn't even including Lebron or Davis as they're both forwards. That's a pretty daunting task for either of our guards through at least two 7-game series' to get to the WCF. At the least, we'll be exciting as hell to watch this year in the playoffs.
This is really interesting, I love stuff like this. Thanks for posting. According to this our small ball lineups without Tucker have been a total disaster all season, which isn't too surprising, but I didn't know it was this bad.
Only problem is that neither center can score or rim protect very well. Some games they cant even rebound.
Thabo can certainly protect the rim. His rotations are picture perfect. High, highhhhhhh level defensive IQ. You don't need to block shots to protect the rim. Shane Battier didn't rebound much either, nor Chuck Hayes, but good positional defense and astute recognition of what is unfolding is always invaluable. It will not be easy to find a buyout player better than Thabo in this respect.
And Chandler to a lesser degree. Seems having someone 6' 10" or above does help in the rebounding and defensive dept.
Thabo is smart and still very good positional defender. But he is old as Methuselah and cannot shoot worth a damn. Not advocating to be rid of him, unless clear upgrade available. However Tyson, Harty and Clemons should all be replaced. There are players available now that are better fits and playable if injury occurs. Neither of these 3 are fits and if forced to play them would be catastrophic.
I think the reason for this is because of how Mike treats him though. He only gets a chance if the situation/matchup is deemed to be in his favor, and even then, he's on a very short leash. So if he goes into the game and things are going well, he gets to stay in, but if he makes one minor mistake, or things don't look like they're going well for 2 minutes, he gets pulled. Any player treated like this is going to have a very favorable net rating. Essentially he's not allowed to play if his net rating is going to be bad, and no other player on the team has that "luxury" for lack of a better term.
Capela was light years better as switch/perimeter defender and rim protector than Harty. So if Capela not a net positive on the floor, how in all the hells is Harty going to be better, even with more minutes?
Wait... WHAT. That data looks SO good. This other data looks.. SO good. This looks good. That looks good. WOW, WOW, WOW. Great. Great. Great. Yeeeehaaaaaw. Sefalosha? ALL-STAR. Russ? HISTORIC. Harden? HACKED the game. Meanwhile... Records record: 34-20. Kinda... lulzy. Not what this thread was about. I know. But... c'mon.
