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The Neighborhood Bully

2018-19 Official Season Discussion Thread

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4 hours ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

Alright, I can't hold this rant for much longer. Nikola Vucevic isn't a bad player as an individual, but he's playing in the wrong era to maximize his talent. Nowadays teams play with amazing pace on offense and defense, that's why the post game has basically been eradicated. If you dump the ball to your 5, use him as the #1 option on offense and the other four guys just stand around (the biggest issue we have), the big guy will get his stats but the rest of the team will be miserable. Basically the opposite of a motion offense.

To create better looks from 3 and from everywhere on the court you need to have great ball and player movement. The 14 Spurs and the pre-Durant Warriors are the biggest example of this.

Most great teams have Centers that get out of the way on offense, get putbacks and protect the rim (Vucevic has been underrated in this department) AND are able to switch or follow guards (he's not good at this part). Clint Capela, Damian Jones (who?), Serge Ibaka (great option at Center that Nick Nurse is taking advantage of and we squandered), Al Horford, Myles Turner, Brook Lopez etc.

The Nets aren't a great team yet but Jarrett Allen is pretty much the ideal Center for this era who gives you the bonus of shooting the occasional 3.

Al Horford and Domantas Sabonis are the guys on good teams that most resemble Vucevic physically. The main difference is that Horford is an incredibly unselfish player who sacrifices for the team on offense and defense, and Sabonis is a little lighter on his feet and isn't as big a part of the offense as Vuc is. Maybe Vuc could lose some weight to play a little faster and become a better Center.

The part that really nags me is that we actually have or have had the players to play this way. Ibaka is gone but Bamba and Birch are awesome modern centers. Briscoe is also obviously our best PG. He keeps the ball flowing and is better at defense than Augustin.

Nick Nurse or Mike Budenholzer would do wonders for our team.

Now, I don't think Vuc has to be benched right away, especially because we're trying to maximize his trade value, but we need someone to have the balls to tell Vuc and Fournier that YOU'RE NOT A ****ING STAR AND THE TEAM DOESN'T PLAY FOR YOU. YOU WILL PLAY FOR THE TEAM OR BE BENCHED

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TL-DR: I would start Briscoe right away and try to eliminate the crippling lack of ball movement.

The terrible thing is last night was vucevic's game. The game where things aren't working and we just need a consistent offensive player to dump it to in order to find buckets. Even if they aren't the most efficient

Last night was exactly why vucevic and Fournier are on the team and they couldn't deliver. 

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36 minutes ago, Gordon MVP said:

Butler couldn’t handle this team with their poor ass effort every night over the last few years. I think he’d have a stroke.

Last night the effort was excellent which is why I'm freaking out. Effort is really easy to fix. How do you fix guys missing shots even when those shots are schemed open?

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So will we still want to watch them after January?  That was my benchmark for a successful season.  If they’re competing most nights I want to watch.  Otherwise I don’t.  

Two games.  Competitive in one, unwatchable in the other.  I guess we’ll see.  

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4 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

So will we still want to watch them after January?  That was my benchmark for a successful season.  If they’re competing most nights I want to watch.  Otherwise I don’t.  

Two games.  Competitive in one, unwatchable in the other.  I guess we’ll see.  

Anything is possible. I hope we're just a team where we're competitive in like 8 out of 10 games but the other two games the stars align negatively and we get blown out. 

I guess we'll see over the next two weeks. 

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The big worry about last night is there were motivations all over the place. Avenge 11 losses in a row, win in front of your home town, get coach a win over the team that fired him. We played hard... and we still lost by 32.

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We’ve had the same two problem for years:

1. Lack of a floor spacing general who can initiate the offense and facilitate ball movement 

2. A slow and lumbering big as the centerpiece of our offense and defense 

Unless either of these two issues is addressed in the starting lineup, we’ll be digging out of holes on a consistent basis.

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Sometimes I think about Oladipo and how we once wore a Magic jersey and was traded for no reason and get sad. 

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22 minutes ago, Soul Bro said:

We’ve had the same two problem for years:

1. Lack of a floor spacing general who can initiate the offense and facilitate ball movement 

2. A slow and lumbering big as the centerpiece of our offense and defense 

Unless either of these two issues is addressed in the starting lineup, we’ll be digging out of holes on a consistent basis.

And I would add generally lousy shooting.  No emphasis on that skill.

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1 hour ago, All Eyes On Me said:

The big worry about last night is there were motivations all over the place. Avenge 11 losses in a row, win in front of your home town, get coach a win over the team that fired him. We played hard... and we still lost by 32.

I would add as a kind of motivation, beating one of our past interim coaches who left us pissed when he didn't get the job ...

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