grizzknob

"Grayson Allen, a villain from a 1980s college romp movie who somehow became an NBA player" LMAO, this is great. Good stuff from Lowe.

I mean, there's certainly an argument to be made that we waited to long to start the rebuild in earnest. Still, we traded Marc mid-season last year and Conley in the off-season. This is basically year 1 of the rebuild as far as I'm concerned.

Honestly, given the completeness of the rebuild of the roster and relative lack of veteran players, we were probably supposed to be one of the very worst teams in the league record wise this year. That we are at least a little better than that so far speaks well to the talent level and future potential of our young core, imo. Still some growing pains. To be expected.

I'm not convinced that shot jacking due to contract year is what's happening primarily. I think it's kinda just the way Jae has been playing for years, and Dillon I think has been encouraged to be aggressive and is still trying to figure some things out. But to play devil's advocate, even if it is, such a ploy would easily be thwarted by GMs around the league seeing that and deciding that players willing to jack up bad shots to pad their points per game to the detriment of their team isn't a good thing that should be rewarded with a bigger contract.

I don't know that it's smart to make absolute claims of "never" based on a ~35 game sample. Also, Jaren had a pretty bad start to the season. I think he's playing better lately, but those advanced stats are still heavily weighed by his poor play the first 20-25 games imo. I'm hopeful that we'll see that improve as the season goes along, both through the eye-test on court and in the advanced stats.

I think you may be right, I believe his advanced stats are looking pretty good. I'd also be in full support. Melton can play.

You're right. I hadn't really checking in to the Hustle lately and had missed that. That's disappointing. So maybe put a hold on JJ for a bit.

Basically I mean that you don't need to trade for some short term veteran help to just make a run at the 8 seed, and don't need to rush back players from injuries because you're scared of missing the 8th spot. But for sure, try to win every night.

For whatever it's worth, IMO the new front office revealed a strong inclination towards valuing advanced stats this offseason. Ja was pretty much unanimous at #2 in the draft from every type of scout, but Clarke and even Konchar were advanced stats darlings, and Tyus had a strong advanced stats profile as well. It's not likely that it was all just some coincidence that we ended up with the players we did. All that to say if Dillon's aren't stacking up, I wouldn't expect the FO to break the bank to keep him when the time comes. That said, it's a long season so things can change, and Dillon's Real Plus Minus so far isn't actually that bad. But it's something that bears monitoring, imo.

Agree with this. Don't need to see Iguodala play for us but would really like to see what's up with Josh Jackson. Call him up, imo. He's passed the G-league test with flying colors as far as I'm concerned.

I agree that playoffs this season is pretty unlikely. Still, it is weird that we're so close in the standings. The west was not supposed to only have 6 good teams heh.. Since we are pretty likely to be too good to keep our pick this year anyways, no reason to actively tank. Keep the main focus on the long term, sure, but no reason not to try and win as many games as possible this year while we're at it. Even a short 8 V 1 beatdown playoff series could be valuable experience for our young team. But again, it's pretty unlikely still and shouldn't be the main focus. We've got some real talent on this team and the long term cultivation of that and building a good foundation is what this season is really about.

Solomon Hill has been a really pleasant surprise so far too. So glad he's around this year instead of Parsons.

Modern nba centers often aren't "nailed down in the paint under the basket." Seems a bit like 90s era thinking honestly. Just saying.

A lot if this is and should be fluid, dependent on what is going on when the team actually starts playing games, in my opinion. That said, as of now between only the 2 options presented I'd take Kyle. Kyle's lack of 3 point shooting is not a perfect fit in the starting lineup but it doesn't mean he can't be useful as a starter. There is value in starting your best perimeter defender (Kyle) to guard the opponent's best perimeter offensive player, imo (we'll call it the Tony Allen principle). I also just happen to think Kyle is just a better overall player right now, and a more natural SF, than Bruno, and I have hopes than Kyle's high BBIQ, combined with hopefully good health and some smart coaching from Jenkins can help mitigate the fit issues some. Bruno to me is best utilized as a PF not SF. He's also still green / inconsistent enough that I'd prefer to continue to develop him off the bench, and let him try to take advantage of those comparatively easier match-ups. I envision the majority of the time JV is not in the game we'll end up seeing 2 of JJJ/Clarke/Bruno at the 4/5 positions, with Plumlee or whoever the backup C is only seeing minutes situationally. I think that could be a pretty good spot for Bruno to develop this season.

I can't point to anything explicit said by the FO or coach Jenkins, but reading between the lines, I honestly don't think the team wants a back up C who expects to play like 20 minutes every night. I think they want JJJ to play a bunch of the backup C minutes, whenever JV sits and there isn't a Marjonovic-type center in there. This would open up more time at PF for Clarke, Bruno, Crowder, and possibly Anderson. Still have a big body off the bench if needed, but it will only be needed sometimes and in some games. Even if Dwight might be ok in a backup role at this point, I don't see how he would possibly be ok with picking up DNP-coach's decisions half the games. Plumlee is a much better fit for the more limited, matchup driven role I think the team envisions for that roster spot. Just my 2 cents.