What is this team's greatest individual basketball skills deficiency?

In my opinion, last night's game showed where our real weaknesses lie. We just didn't have quite enough going down the stretch with Harden dinged. We have to have another real good playmaker/passer/ballhandler that can take the pressure off Harden and get our guys better looks than we got last night. Terry was just terrible trying to make plays. When Ariza puts the ball on the deck baaaaad things happen every time. We only had 15 turnovers but really we could've had closer to 30. We simply managed to recover the ball and get off a lousy contested look.

The vast majority of our troubles came when Harden was off the floor and then when he ran out of gas in the 4th. It was obvious to me that Harden was out of gas and done very soon after he reentered the game in the 4th. We're asking too much of him. He still gave a great performance. Especially playing all those minutes dinged. But....it wasn't enough.

Canaan's presence would have helped. But there's a reason we need 3 playmakers. Canaan goes down, you gotta have that second guy.


This team needs 3 things in my opinion:

1. another playmaker that can split defenders, run the pick and roll, keep turnovers down and deliver the ball to our 3-ball shooters after he collapses the D.

2. A backup bench-warming 7-footer with long arms that can give us some paint protection in the event we lose one of Dwight/Donuts. We simply can't afford to run Black/Dorsey out there against the better teams in the league. We need one more 7-foot bench warmer.

3. We need a longer PF that can shoot the 3-ball effectively and play in bigger lineups. I'm talking at least, at least 6'9" tall, Patrick Patterson size or bigger.


I don't think DMo is going to become real effective from the perimeter shooting the basketball this year. And I'm honestly wondering if he ever is going to be effective out there at all. His shot is a zip line. He so badly needs to learn a dip.

And even when Canaan comes back...we still need another playmaker/passer/ballhandler in case either him or James gets dinged. Terry and Bev have both played great this year. But they cannot run an offense effectively against the better defenses in this league.