There is no possible fit with 2 negative shooters on the floor. None. It’s a fantasy that some people want to play out and they hope that we prove a historic thing. We’ve got no business disproving historic things. We should build a team with what we know works 99% of the time. The only question is whether you want to sacrifice yet another season to the coin flip of “Will one of them learn to shoot this summer?”. Sengun has shown hardly any progress. Amen has radically improved his FT shooting which is usually (not always) a precursor to an improved jump shot but his form is pretty bad still. I think it’s time to break these two up. I think regardless of which one you keep, you need a stretch 5 who can protect the rim. That kind of player usually costs almost the price of an all star because of their synergistic qualities and high two way impact. We’re talking at least two first round picks kind of value. There’s no one who will give up a successful rim protector who can shoot for just one FRP and a filler. JJJ was acquired for 3 first round picks and his salary is $49m. The Bucks waived Damian Lillard to be able to sign Turner. A very old Brook Lopez replaced a prime Zubac and the Clippers won more (also Kawhi instantly caught fire). What’s important is that we don’t need Adams. Like Zubac, he’s a very good player who fits neither with Amen or Sengun. We don’t need Capela either but at that salary he’s worth keeping as a 3rd C. If we want immediate results, I’m sure JJJ can be had. It looks like they acquired him to flip him and he’s the gold standard in rim protection here. We would immediately compete for the top defensive team in the league. If we want to grab an up and coming such player who is on the cusp of breaking out, it’s Isiah Stewart (elite wingspan, rim protection, defensive fg%). Myles Turner will be available too if they are trading Giannis. We should unquestionably acquire one of these guys regardless of whether we’re keeping both Amen and Sengun or just one of them. We are always going to need it. It’s a great asset to invest in so your picks are not going down the toilet. It’s time to start building a roster that fits together rather than trying to make random good pieces work by some miracle.
Or... they are young and have no competent coaching to put them in a position to compliment one another
Yeah I go back and forth on this. There is a part of me that thinks "Sengun can hit those 3P shots damn it, he just needs a coach who puts a very strong emphasis on it". Hitting a wide open three might actually be easier and higher percentage than those contested, falling away "flamingo" middies he takes and hits around 36% of them. I think it was actually you who made a similar point about Amen one time? Or am I misremembering? But I do also get the thought of--okay, it's been five years, and he hasn't meaningfully improved as a 3P shooter, odds are he never will. I really don't know. But if he could somehow hit 35% on 4 three point attempts per game--if he had a coach who demanded that he do so as the top priority for development--this roster construction immediately looks a lot better. But if Ime Udoka isn't fired none of this matters, I don't think it will ever happen under him. In that case yeah just go ahead and trade Sengun I guess, it's not working under this system with this roster construction and this coach who doesn't value spacing.
I could not agree more. After I liked this post I considered unliking it just so I could like it all over again.
I’m all for Ime being gone, but spacing will always be an issue when opponents know they don’t have to respect your shot enough to guard you or close out. I don’t think that’s going to change with a new coach.
Is the idea that Amen will remain a joke of a shooter forever? If not, you have to consider moving away from him because it's a lot harder to cope with someone who pretends to be a guard not being able to shoot than it is a center that isn't a great shooter. I would give Amen another season to show that there's cause to think he'll one day only be a kind of terrible shooter rather than a complete joke. I just don't think it's time to bail on the 4 quality young guys, I want to see what they look like with a competent coach.
The problem with this team is not that they don't fit well together or bc we have 2 players that can't shoot. We're simply a talent deficient team. That's why I'm opposed to blowing it all up if we can't equitable talent back in return, which I don't think we can. We can't afford to trade Sengun or Amen and get back lesser talent simply bc they fit better. The mistakes we made last offseason were bc we added redundant players to our roster. Sengun can't shoot? Why TF did we bring back Adams and sign Capela?? We should have brought in a back up center that can shoot Amen can't shoot? Having Tari and DFS as his back up was what killed us. We should have got a lights out shooter as his back up
The issue isn't a lack of talent, it's the lack of a competent head coach. He has no clue how to put players in a position to do well, he has no clue how to adjust to matchups. That level of incompetence dooms any team no matter who is on it. You could give IME the original dream team and he'd find a way to screw it up.
Not being that good makes it harder to deal with poor fit. Castle and Fox aren't great fits in the backcourt as shooters but who cares when you have Wemby. If Sengun was really Jokic or Amen was Kawhi or even Jalen Green was Anthony Edwards no one would even be talking about the rest of the guys negatively.
This is true. There are three components to being a championship quality team, in descending order of importance: 1. A transcendent franchise player 2. Fit 3. Depth of talented players We only have #3 (and only when healthy). Most champions have all three, but #1 is the most important and covers for the others. To be fair to the FO, I think they have compromised on fit purposefully, in pursuit of "finding" a franchise player by just throwing talented young guys on the court regardless of fit. That's fine with me actually, in theory. But just speaking as a fan who watches every game, you can't put out a team that doesn't fit in exactly this ugly way (lack of shooting and creation and general offensive skill) for too long. The basketball becomes so gross that everything curdles - development, culture, and fan interest. So IMO soft resetting with a young core is the right move next year, but it can't be CTE ball again, so maybe not this exact young core. My eyes won't survive.
I look at Bari stats in playoffs and remember he’s doing this with no plays drawn for him and being frozen out when he’s hot….. Amen is going to end up a small PF if he doesn’t discover some type of jumpshot … and truthfully he was better coming off bench with Eason Reed is just who I thought he was - looking back in college he would hit a few shots and stop shooting or protect his % and now in the nba when he shoots a high volume it’s puke… other problem is he’s a worse defender, creator, finisher at the rim than what we had (JG) (FVV) depending on who you looked at him replacing Alpi is great for regular season or if you build a big lead and want to slow game down - but he’s going to give up just as much as he gets 9x out of 10
Flukes certainly happen, you get in trouble when you make decisions based on flukes....like how the Rockets gave Udoka a massive contract based on a fluke.
Agreed. Please don’t blow up this group. Especially for Giannis. He only has 2 good years left if that.
There is a clear contrast between the strengths of the core and the mindset of the coach. Reed is probably the kind of player Ime would be least likely to want on his team and Ime is the kind of coach Reed would benefit from the least. The same could be said about Sengun, although Ime has at least made him a better defender than he was before. It's kind of insane that the only thing the Silas era and that abysmal basketball taught them is "These boys need some discipline" and not "We need shooters" or "We need smart players". They thought the biggest flaw of this team was a lack of energy. It makes you hate the baldy even more.
Agreed here as well. The question I have is related to our draft capital. If we can't use Sengun or Amen in a trade we like, do we consider being patient and using some of our future capital to get into the top five of the next two drafts to attempt to get a star. A different take on how to utilize draft capital for sure...
If we can get something good for Reed and Jabari, I’d do it. Could always bring back Garrison Matthews and Christian Wood, and then pay some podcasters to hype them up.
