3rd Quarter Collapse

Bamba had maybe his best game of the season. Other than that, I’m not sure

We’ve just been terrible offensively this half... 25 points in a half is crazy bad.

*NBA career tbh

Clifford must’ve had the pep talk of this century for Bamba lol

Against Drummond of all people lol

I mean, they’re different players. We shouldn’t expect that from Gordon in the same way Bulls fans shouldn’t expect Lavine to be a defensive stopper. Gordon’s defensively gifted while Lavine is offensively gifted; doesn’t make one better than the other.

The 2nd half against Indiana last night was his best half of the year imo. Created a Fournier three by running to the rim in transition, hit a pick and pop three and seemed more active on defense and on the boards. He’s still having his lapses in positioning where he’s in no mans land, and he got caught by a couple of shot fakes by Sabonis and McConnell where you wished he stayed on the ground, but overall, it’s improvement from his previous couple of games. Hopefully that half is a catalyst for Mo and he starts stringing together some games here

Inching closer and closer to actual starter minutes lol

Went completely cold after Fournier and Ross came back in. Fultz and Isaac steals were the only plays that really kept us in the game in the final three or so minutes

Another clutch Fultz steal and dunk. Making it a tradition

Clear path?

Eh, the bottom of the east is super weak. We just need to stay in the midst of things and go on a run down the stretch.

Ross ignored a wide open Isaac in the corner for a difficult mid range shot— a play we’ve seen way too often from Ross

I think Bamba accidentally set a good screen and got rewarded with a dunk lmao

Nah, he was leagues better last year, at least from my recollections. He’s unplayable right now and looks like he’s never played basketball; last year, there were mistakes, but he belonged on the court

He wasn’t a stiff last year or at Texas. It’s either heavy, heavy regression or injury

Birch did better than what I remembered, but it’s at 5:33 on this video: Birch cedes deep positioning to Gasol in the paint, and then gives up ground to Gasol pretty easily once he starts backing down. He’s not dominated by Gasol, but he’s outmatched by Gasol’s strength here and gives up an easy bucket. Post ups are inefficient so I’m not worried about it since that kind of play will be a pretty rare occurrence, but strength can be an issue for Birch against centers in the mold of Gasol.

Gasol also only attempted two field goals, one of which was a three— Gasol isn’t a prominent part of Toronto’s offense, so him having that line is as indicative of Birch being good against traditional centers as it is the amount of opportunities Gasol gets within Toronto’s offense. Either way, I was just pointing out a specific play where Birch struggled against size. Teams don’t use post ups since they’re typically inefficient and all that, so it’s not a concern for me, but I don’t think we can definitively say Birch isn’t going to get bullied or pushed around by more traditional centers.

Birch got pushed around pretty easily by Gasol in the post. I’m more worried about spacing with Birch, though, and that’s somewhat compounded by Iwundu being on the court as well. We’ll be fine defensively with either, it’s about how we replace Vuc’s shots and efficiency. Playing at a higher tempo will help, but it’s going to be a cramped paint.

Eh, I don’t know. I think playing Indy is going to be trial by fire for Birch and Bamba. Sabonis had a good game against us last time, and I feel like Turner usually is pretty good against us. I could see Indy just destroying us at the center position.

Who he plays with does though. Offensively, he plays a lot better with Fultz as the ball handler in the pick and roll than Augustin. Turnovers is Bamba’s biggest issue right now imo, and an issue that’s mostly popped up since we moved Fultz into the starting lineup. I think that’s moreso on Bamba than DJ, but it’s also apparent to me that Bamba and Fultz have really good chemistry in the pick and roll/pop, a chemistry that DJ and Bamba don’t have. On the other hand, Birch can fit in pretty seamlessly to either the starting lineup or with the 2nd unit. Clifford is just going to have to see which combinations work best and contribute the most to winning games. Birch isn’t ready to go up against starting centers either. For all intents and purposes, we’re going to be without a starting center until 2020. It’s going to be about finding the right combinations of players to make it work. I’d split Birch and Bamba right down the middle with 24 minutes a piece— if we’re better with Bamba having most of his minutes with the starters and Birch playing with the 2nd unit, so be it; if it’s vice versa, so be it.

The concern here is Bamba not being able to lower his fouling rate and consistently being in foul trouble if he plays starting minutes. I would like to see how he does with the starting unit, though— Bamba played a lot better offensively with Fultz as his PG, so it could make a difference on that end.

That stretch was probably the most balanced our offense has been so far. Each player getting a good distribution of shot opportunities

He’s not dumb, he’s probably the most eloquent and intelligent player on the team imo— his interviews are usually pretty impressive. He hasn’t had the mental reps everyone else has, and he’s obviously not playing at the same speed as the other bigs. That’s not effort since Vuc isn’t renowned for diving on the floor— it’s knowing what to do and converting that into muscle memory. Playing defense as a guard and center are completely different, so comparing Fultz to Bamba is apples to oranges for me He could rim run more, definitely. He could have a higher motor, and there’s plays that annoy me with him that come down to his effort. However, my point is that if he was playing at the same speed everyone else is, his lack of effort wouldn’t matter— his play would more than make up for it. If he was being the dominant rim protector he can be, nobody would be complaining about him not chasing down fast breaks. I think the things you’re highlighting are basketball plays that annoy you a lot, but don’t really have too much of an impact on the game. Ross chucking and the bench offense being stagnant is of a lot more concern than Bamba being extremely up and down. As a fan base, I think we disregard Bamba’s good plays and over exaggerate Bamba’s bad plays. For instance, Bamba had a great defensive possession vs the Wizards, but he followed it up with a botched dribble handoff. We’ll remember the turnover, but not the effect Mo had on defense. The biggest thing Bamba should stop is the turnovers. The botched hand offs, the turnovers in the post— those are the plays he should cut out. On offense, it should be lobs and 3’s. Past that, though? Keep playing him and hope he improves with time, or trade him.

I don’t buy that Bamba’s issue is that he’s lazy— that shows up on some plays, sure, but that’s only 5% of the problem with Mo, if that. If he was playing defense at the level he’s capable of, we’d brush over him not running back for a chase down block since he’d be more than capable of it. His motor is more of an annoyance rather than a legitimate reason he’s not playing well. When I watch Bamba, he looks lost on the defensive end. He’s tentative and often looks unsure about his assignment and defensive positioning. He’s late on rotations and on help defense, which is where Bamba derives so much of his value. When defending players outside the paint, he’s hesitant to use his length to defend jumpers out of fear of fouling. His inconsistency comes from a lack of mental understanding— when you watch Vuc, regardless of his athletic limitations, he’s always automatic in regards to knowing his assignments, pick and roll coverages and when and how to rotate. There’s no peeking back over his shoulder to see if he’s wrong in the way that Bamba always does. If Bamba played with his balls to the wall like you want him to, he’d foul out in 8 minutes and give up several easy buckets because his understanding of the defense just isn’t there. When Bamba stops thinking and just starts to react, he’ll be fine. I’m not sure if he’ll get to the point like Vuc or Birch where playing defense is like muscle memory, but it’s fairly obvious to me that Bamba’s extremely tentative on the court with making decisions, and it’s extremely detrimental. On defense, you don’t really have time to think— it’s react and make a play, and Bamba can’t really do that right now, certainly not in the same way that Birch or Vuc can. If he could, we wouldn’t be talking about his effort. I think benching Bamba would be the worst thing. Give him every rep possible and hope he turns a corner mentally, or trade him and play Birch or a center you acquire. Benching him would make him even more tentative, and that’s something you don’t want.