3rd Quarter Collapse

If you can show me data that shows that Birch presents a significant upgrade over Bamba, I’m open to it

Bamba’s ceiling is a unicorn that shoots threes, runs the floor, protects the rim and can be relatively elite defending smaller players as a big man. I don’t think he gets to some elite level, but I think a Clint Capela that can shoot ok from 3 is within the range of outcomes. Bamba athletically is one of the best combine testers since Gobert. Right now, I think it’s mental quickness rather than physical quickness. You hope for the proverbial “slowing down of the game” that comes with game reps. His issues is with timing his blocks and lapses in defensive positioning. I do think those are fixable with coaching and a large amount of reps.

Shouldn’t the argument be that Birch is better than Bamba? If they’re equal, then why the hell would you play Birch when Bamba is younger and has drastically better potential than Birch? Birch averages 4.5 points and 4 rebounds a game in 13.3 minutes a game over his career. Bamba, through three games, averages 4.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 13.7 minutes. He’s in our best defensive lineups. In three games where Bamba has been arguably at his worst, he’s still drawing even with Birch. If you extend it to include Bamba’s rookie season’s averages, he has a stat line of roughly 6 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block a game. I understand being frustrated by Bamba, but putting in Birch wouldn’t change anything that isn’t completely marginal. Right now, Birch is at best equal to Bamba, and at worst marginally worse than Bamba. Switching them out would hurt Bamba’s development with no significant uptick in production

We held the Raptors to under 40% shooting. We held the Cavs to under 40% shooting. We forced the Hawks into 18 turnovers. We’re 2nd in defensive rating, and we’re tied for 11th for points in the paint allowed. We’re in the top 5 for steals and defensive rebound %, and top 10 in blocks. There’s some things here and there to clean up, sure, but our shooting is the reason why we’re losing.

Glass half full: We were a few plays away from beating a quality team in the east while shooting 38.6% from the field Glass half empty: We shot under 40% from the field... again. Gotta hope it turns around sooner rather than later, especially for Gordon, Ross and Vuc

Through the first two games, we’ve given up 98.5 points per game. I take that number every day of the week. If you haven’t seen all the missed lay ups and wide open jumpers, you haven’t been watching the past two games. If our players shot their career averages, we’d be fine. Look at the box scores the past two games, and look at the career averages for Ross, Vucevic, Gordon, and you’ll see what I mean.

Our shooting percentages have been absolutely terrible. I think you can expect them to improve to a more realistic output. Our defense has been good, and our offense is generating quality shots. We’ve just been shooting way too poor to be successful. You can project some deviation back to the norm

“I’ll have to watch the film first”

Hey, Isaac at center!

Missed layups and wide open shots galore

Our shooting is comical right now

Gordon can’t even pass right now

On the bright side, Toronto just did a tribute for T-Ross

Outside of Isaac, we’re shooting 4/19, or 19% from the field. Some credit to Toronto’s defense, but that’s just some terrible shooting

We’re getting good shots. Just really bad shooting

Vucevic having two bad shooting games in a row, at least so far

I thought he was also a culprit with some of our rebounding woes, where he watched the ball instead of boxing out. Whenever he drives, he becomes a black hole where the only possible outcomes are a crazy layup made, a crazy layup missed or a charge— I can’t recall him ever passing out once the defense collapses. He’s a good player who contributes a lot on defense while also hitting the three at a decent clip, but he also seems like a player that will perpetually annoy me when I watch lol.

Lol. When Ross, Vucevic, Aminu, Gordon and Isaac all put up bad games offensively, we’re going to find it very, very hard to win. All of those players struggling in the same game isn’t going to happen that often. We’ll be fine, just sucks we couldn’t pull this game out at the end

Some rough officiating there. I thought Vuc got fouled on his put back, and Fournier got fouled on that last shot.

I don’t know the rebounding number, but for a team as long and big as we are, some of these offensive rebounds are really bad

That MCW-Fultz lineup was terrible offensively for the majority of their stretch. And then MCW hits a 3. Welp, weird game lol

Yeah. Us being completely cold from anything outside the paint doesn’t help matters, though

Fultz is a sharpshooter now, I guess

If Bamba works on his hands, he’s going to get buckets with Fultz on the floor. He’s dropped a few close range passes from Fultz

YESSIR