This is why I would look at trading him this year coming off a healthy full season. I did not expect that this year and think there is a lot less chance it happens next year. KD to Heat for Ware, Kasperas and likely Wiggins to match salary would be something I would look at.
Disappointing regular season mostly because the young core didn't take the overall leap we hoped for.
It's crazy because he's supposed to be a "Pop coaching tree" guy, and Popovich, while Ime was his assistant coach, pioneered the whole "load management for veterans" thing with Timmy and co. You would think Udoka would have learned a thing or two, but instead he coaches more like a Thibodeau protege.
Ime is a narcissist. He doesn’t think any coach in history is better than him. Pop gave Ime the job best suited for him. That is what good coaches and managers do. Put people in a position to take advantage of their strengths and lessen the impact of their weaknesses until they improve upon them. Narcissists, through the strength of their personality and drive can reach very high levels in an organization, but will always fail. Collective intelligence always trumps individual intelligence.
I think a lot of the blame goes to Udoka for that - putting KD on ball so much and often with no reasonable outlet was the issue. When the outlet doesn't come to the ball handlers rescue or can't dribble or shoot himself - that creates a problem and makes it very easy to double / blitz the original ball handler.
I agree. KD is Udoka crutch. He doesnt discipline him like the rest of guys and get preferential treatment and then he thinks he can just play 3 guys who have 0 offense along side him and fails miserably,
What story? Nothing has been reported and he didn’t sulk or say anything negative. It’s once again idiotic judgemental fans creating a narrative and lying again
May have had to do something with missing our starting point guard.. Let's see how they progress next year with a real point guard and them ba k in their normal position. Amen in dunkers spot.
He does while being the best player on the team. Very crazy. The fact is there literally is no one on this team that can manufacture points the way he does in terms of one on one in the paint or outside getting a bucket while drawing 2-3 defenders. They’re drawing up plays for Amen now and he’s stepped up as of late but for most of the season it’s been him.
Capela has performed admirably. Defends the paint, grabs off rebounds, gets the ball on the long roll or lob. Just doesn’t get to play much unfortunately
I don’t know what’s going on with Tari. He played the worst ball in MAR and I think it has to do with the passing of his father 1 year ago around MAR. A little disappointing of his overall play regardless. Amen’s shot has been disappointing. I thought he would have at least a 15 ft dribble pullup but I guess we’ll have to wait another year. But I do see growth in other areas like playmaking and they have unlocked him recently with designed plays. Sheppard is being developed as they’re playing him. His defense and passing decisions have been disappointing but he’s improved in shot selection, being more decisive on offense, and more intensity on defense. They’re growing. Just not at the speed fans want. People forget it’s not an overnight thing
Kevin Durant: A Amen Thompson: A- Alperen Sengün: B- Jabari Smith: Jr: B- Tari Eason: C+ Reed Sheppard: B/B- Clint Capela: ??? Josh Okogie: C Aaron Holiday: C+ Jae’Sean Tate D- JD Davidson D- Uncle Jeff F DFS: D- Steven Adams (Hurt) Fred VanVleet (Hurt) Really hard to do this as this is a weird roster and guys fit weird.
You could look at it, but Riley ain’t giving up Ware in that trade. Our best bet to land Ware is in a three way trade. Ware is a young stretch five which is in great demand although he hasn’t proven anything yet.
Reflecting on this season? hardest season to watch in over 2 decades. Maybe the Ty Lawson and Stromile Swift season but this was far more frustrating since those teams had harden and tmac
KD is averaging 36.4 MPG this season. I don't get the criticism of him playing too much...that's basically his career average and he's essentially been playing at 36+ minutes for the last 5 seasons. KD is known for wanting to play. Even at 37 he's still playing in the summer and wants to play in the '28 Olympics. And, unlike Lebron, basically refuses to load manage even after a post-30 major injury. More reason to load manage, sure. But that's not what KD wants. That's why he's ranked 30th in all time minutes played. Ime isn't running KD to the ground anymore than he is himself. In fact, Ime tends to leave KD on the bench when teams cut into our big leads and puts him back in at his usual minute rotation would be regardless of score. It's perfectly reasonable to criticize that coaching and rotation decision, but it definitely doesn't give credence to the notion that he's overplaying and over relying on KD.
Eh, despite the poor shooting, once Amen was moved off the ball, I thought he played much better .... Jabari was consistent all season, shot a good percentage from 3 and increased his scoring a bit. Reed improved even if he has a way to go, especially defensively. The shooting was much better, as was the ball handling. Sengun's shooting numbers were better than last season (except FT%) the assist numbers were up too .... defensively he wasn't good. Tari was a tale of two halves, one shooting the lights out, the other missing everything. Okogie exceeded expectations - I hope they can bring him back. I think there was some improvement, just no leap to stardom for any of them. Maybe next year ....
