3rd Quarter Collapse

I feel like Gordon would be a part of these talks in order for them to make sense.

Jeez, everything’s going in for both us and Indiana

Kirilenko had a couple of years in that 1.5 steals, 3 blocks a game territory. Other than AK, though, nobody else comes to mind. I think Isaac has the potential to be better offensively as well

He hasn’t. Gordon just hasn’t been very involved in the offense with the bench lineup, for whatever reason. It’s mostly just pick and rolls with Augustin that aren’t resulting in anything consistently productive. I’d like to see Gordon get more opportunities with this lineup

The bench unit kills us. Completely stagnant offensively. Not having a good Ross, or a Ross at all has hurt them, but they’ve flipped the score two games in a row. Gave up the 28-6 run vs the Mavericks, and now gave away an 11 point lead away. I don’t know how, but we gotta find a way for that bench lineup to not be completely inept offensively

By the same token, Clifford should’ve called a timeout. If he does, we’re not having this discussion

I mean, if we’re being real, we lost in the third quarter when we gave up that 26-8 run. Part of that is on Clifford and rotations, and part of that is on the bench unit just getting dominated.

Also, I think Cliff really needs to start trusting Fultz. Call this favoritism or whatever, but he’s the player I trust the most in the pick and roll. I would’ve put Fultz in the pick and roll down the stretch, rather than Clifford opting for him to stand in the corner

We’ve been there in multiple games, and have faded in the final two minutes. A lot of winning close games comes down to luck, but we’ve gotta find ways to start pulling these games out

Isaac out here getting 10 stocks

I think the question is how much of this is regression and how much of this is just cold shooting. I don’t think we’ll sustain this cold shooting, but if Ross and Vuc both have major regressions, that kind of hamstrings our team

I think you want to tank

Is Milwaukee not in tune with today’s NBA? I get being critical, but I think it’s obvious we’re molding the team with the same philosophy Milwaukee uses. Fultz, Isaac, Bamba— it might not work out, but the philosophy and logic of WeltHam is in tune with the modern NBA

Sure, but firing? It’s game 6 lol

Is that a serious question? Lol

Don’t like that shot from Vucevic. Gotta get something higher percentage at this point in the game

The best lineup is Fultz-Fournier-Gordon-Isaac-Vucevic. Our starting lineup currently has a negative net rating. Augustin-MCW-Ross-Aminu-Bamba currently has a positive net rating. We’re a better team when Fultz is starting— not necessarily because of Fultz being better than DJ, but because of how each 5 players play together. Fultz-MCW-Ross-Aminu-Bamba is -30.4. Switching Augustin in for Fultz, the lineups net rating is 3.6. The difference is too drastic for us not to make the switch. You don’t even have to change the minutes for each other since they’re typically splitting the minutes down the middle, 24 a piece. Just maximize the minutes of those two lineups by starting Fultz and having DJ lead the 2nd unit, rather than continuing to play two bad lineups

And that’s pretty much the issue in the game. After the 2nd unit came in, the ball movement stopped and our defense started to really struggle with their pick and rolls. They blew the game open with their ability to get into the paint, and our offense became entirely stagnant. Milwaukee is moving the ball and not playing iso-ball. We’re stagnant offensively and bad defensively

I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is that Milwaukee is getting into the paint and moving the ball, resulting in open 3’s. Obviously, a team shooting efficiently from three hurts, but the real issue is allowing Milwaukee to get any shot they want rather than any scheme defect

Ross destroys our ball movement

Cliff must’ve really got on them for ball movement. Offense looks great right now

I don’t know his career averages on these shots, but early on this tendency, Gordon has had a tendency to take inefficient shots like long pull up twos, and has been ineffective driving and finishing layups. Gordon has the potential to be a really good two way player, but the offense isn’t there through 3 and a half games. When he’s slumping, it might be smarter to shoot threes, drive on kick outs, crash the boards and play good defense rather than disrupting the offensive flow

Ross is frustrating, but I think a sizable portion of the success he had last year was hitting these difficult shots coming off of pin downs and such. He’s doing the same thing right now, he’s just not shooting them in rhythm. I think Ross would be smart to hit a spot up 3 first or to try and warm up by driving inside the 3 point arc first and hitting some easier shots in order to get a better rhythm . Ross not taking the shots he’s shooting hurts his game. He just has to be more aware of the game situationally and have a smarter offensive strategy to get in rhythm.

Interesting that Clifford went away from playing Fultz in the final 2 minutes. Wonder if this means anything or if it’s more matchup-based

What evidence do we have that shows our record or defensive performance would’ve been different if Bamba didn’t get injured and got those minutes instead of Birch? There’s a lot of other reasons that we went on our run aside from Bamba getting injured. Not saying you’re biased or that you’re unable to be objective or anything like that, but the eye test opens yourself to arbitrary biases and conclusions that aren’t entirely objective. I see the same things you’re seeing, but until I see data that actually supports the idea that Birch’s performance outweighs Bamba’s performance and potential development, I don’t see the benefit of putting in Birch.