martin wrote:

DLeethal wrote:FWIW Monica’s radio call credits the “fly by screen” from Bridges to cause Thompson jump and overplay the left side which Brunson used to put him on skates.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJJrp7xxv16/?igsh=b2pweTRpaWU4d3l3

I’ve been dogging Thibs all series so you have to give him credit when 1) we haven’t seen this particular action all year up until now and 2) it worked.

Monica is so expressive when watching. I love her calling games.

yes but does she want to enter the existential fray of whether that was a ghost screen or not.

Chandler wrote:

martin wrote:

DLeethal wrote:FWIW Monica’s radio call credits the “fly by screen” from Bridges to cause Thompson jump and overplay the left side which Brunson used to put him on skates.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJJrp7xxv16/?igsh=b2pweTRpaWU4d3l3

I’ve been dogging Thibs all series so you have to give him credit when 1) we haven’t seen this particular action all year up until now and 2) it worked.

Monica is so expressive when watching. I love her calling games.

yes but does she want to enter the existential fray of whether that was a ghost screen or not.

She's a Thibs lover so that makes her biased and thus cannot have a basketball opinion.

VDesai wrote:

Alpha1971 wrote:Bridges with 35 seconds, wow

KAT fouling out was huge. Duren is trying to box out Mitch and is out of the position and Mikal sneaks in. Mitch then makes a huge defensive play on Cade's shot the other end. Mitch in the last min makes a big difference.

Mitch was ghastly ALL NIGHT LONG --- a -10 in 13 minutes with 3 boards, 0 blocks and 1 point ---- plus fact Pistons targeting him via hack.
I forget sometimes but then Mitch quickly reminds me how bad he is at basketball -- he's challenging Duece for biggest disappointment in playoffs.

Kat +8 and 15 boards but was crappy on offense.

LivingLegend wrote:

VDesai wrote:

Alpha1971 wrote:Bridges with 35 seconds, wow

KAT fouling out was huge. Duren is trying to box out Mitch and is out of the position and Mikal sneaks in. Mitch then makes a huge defensive play on Cade's shot the other end. Mitch in the last min makes a big difference.

Mitch was ghastly ALL NIGHT LONG --- a -10 in 13 minutes with 3 boards, 0 blocks and 1 point ---- plus fact Pistons targeting him via hack.
I forget sometimes but then Mitch quickly reminds me how bad he is at basketball -- he's challenging Duece for biggest disappointment in playoffs.

Kat +8 and 15 boards but was crappy on offense.

I'm not a huge fan of +/- for 1 game sample sizes but if you want to use that he had 13/11/2/2 and a team high +9 in just 23 minutes the previous game.

Don't think he's 100% in game shape, feels like things are moving a bit fast for him, but we need him.

martin wrote:

Chandler wrote:

martin wrote:

DLeethal wrote:FWIW Monica’s radio call credits the “fly by screen” from Bridges to cause Thompson jump and overplay the left side which Brunson used to put him on skates.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJJrp7xxv16/?igsh=b2pweTRpaWU4d3l3

I’ve been dogging Thibs all series so you have to give him credit when 1) we haven’t seen this particular action all year up until now and 2) it worked.

Monica is so expressive when watching. I love her calling games.

yes but does she want to enter the existential fray of whether that was a ghost screen or not.

She's a Thibs lover so that makes her biased and thus cannot have a basketball opinion.

if Clyde retires she should get the call. Send Wally out to pasture at this point

LivingLegend wrote:

VDesai wrote:

Alpha1971 wrote:Bridges with 35 seconds, wow

KAT fouling out was huge. Duren is trying to box out Mitch and is out of the position and Mikal sneaks in. Mitch then makes a huge defensive play on Cade's shot the other end. Mitch in the last min makes a big difference.

Mitch was ghastly ALL NIGHT LONG --- a -10 in 13 minutes with 3 boards, 0 blocks and 1 point ---- plus fact Pistons targeting him via hack.
I forget sometimes but then Mitch quickly reminds me how bad he is at basketball -- he's challenging Duece for biggest disappointment in playoffs.

Kat +8 and 15 boards but was crappy on offense.

Mitch had a couple of good moments, but I agree a huge disappointment. He should have been feasting on the boards. And however many years later he still brings the ball down after offensive rebounds instead of keeping it high. And it's not like he lacked time to improve his FTs

Kat hit a couple of tough buckets. He will be MUCH better in the next series. I don't know how Boston will guard him. their bigs are softies

Chandler wrote:

martin wrote:

nycericanguy wrote:

DLeethal wrote:Thibs made adjustments after game 2 and after game 5. Give him SOME credit. After game 2 he started hiding Brunson on Thompson on defense which helped us big time in games 3 and 4 until Pistons figured out how to exploit it in games 5. Thibs made adjustments after that because we rarely saw any high low baseline dunks from Duren to Thompson last night.

Also I rewatched the last couple mins and Josh Hart’s help defense was REALLY good on our last few defensive stops. Those stops were all schemes the way we navigating the Cade PnR and rotated the help. So give Thibs a little credit where it’s due. I don’t think he’s right for this team going forward but he had some bright spots in this series along with some sour spots.

Thibs isn't maximizing this roster I agree, but I don't think he's the problem either. I start to see more and more it's KAT's defense and just clumsy offensive game.

Ugh I still haven't watched all of the losses and didn't catch last nights game so I'll start there.

I'm super curious to see how Leon handles this offseason and if he continues to build around Brunson and KAT or deviates.

The 3 guys I'd guess are untouchable are Brunson, Hart, OG.

KAT is untouchable. So is Mikal. it's just their first year. those guys get 2 and I expect continued improvement

biggest issue IMO is our assistant coaches who are Thibs' call. they are dinosaurs.

Next biggest issue, and this is a big one, is you need at least one guy off the bench with real swagger and clutch gene.

If thibs wanted my advice, I'd say Mitch and McBride are talented and valuable assets for a trade. We need someone like Donte or SHroeder. They can suck all game, or all year, but will show up for the real battles. right now Mitch and McBride are wilting in the moment. I love both guys but they don't have that killer instinct we need

I like to play devil's advocate role more than anything.

How do you tell how well assistants are doing versus how well players execute what they should be doing?

Only when both happen can we say things are going well so that's always a tough battle for me.

Chandler wrote:

martin wrote:

nycericanguy wrote:

DLeethal wrote:Thibs made adjustments after game 2 and after game 5. Give him SOME credit. After game 2 he started hiding Brunson on Thompson on defense which helped us big time in games 3 and 4 until Pistons figured out how to exploit it in games 5. Thibs made adjustments after that because we rarely saw any high low baseline dunks from Duren to Thompson last night.

Also I rewatched the last couple mins and Josh Hart’s help defense was REALLY good on our last few defensive stops. Those stops were all schemes the way we navigating the Cade PnR and rotated the help. So give Thibs a little credit where it’s due. I don’t think he’s right for this team going forward but he had some bright spots in this series along with some sour spots.

Thibs isn't maximizing this roster I agree, but I don't think he's the problem either. I start to see more and more it's KAT's defense and just clumsy offensive game.

Ugh I still haven't watched all of the losses and didn't catch last nights game so I'll start there.

I'm super curious to see how Leon handles this offseason and if he continues to build around Brunson and KAT or deviates.

The 3 guys I'd guess are untouchable are Brunson, Hart, OG.

KAT is untouchable. So is Mikal. it's just their first year. those guys get 2 and I expect continued improvement

biggest issue IMO is our assistant coaches who are Thibs' call. they are dinosaurs.

Next biggest issue, and this is a big one, is you need at least one guy off the bench with real swagger and clutch gene.

If thibs wanted my advice, I'd say Mitch and McBride are talented and valuable assets for a trade. We need someone like Donte or SHroeder. They can suck all game, or all year, but will show up for the real battles. right now Mitch and McBride are wilting in the moment. I love both guys but they don't have that killer instinct we need

I think that both of those guys have a TON of upside even within the current starting and rotation of players.

I'd also add that I don't think they are untouchable in the right roster adjustments and what is available on the trade market.

I'm still wondering if Leon is building around KAT and Brunson or more Brunson and what he needs.

Maybe this is not a straight line but Leon didn't think Randle/DDV were the right mix, even with how much both gave. iHart leaving had some to do with this move too but I think the underlying was there.

martin wrote:

Chandler wrote:

martin wrote:

nycericanguy wrote:

DLeethal wrote:Thibs made adjustments after game 2 and after game 5. Give him SOME credit. After game 2 he started hiding Brunson on Thompson on defense which helped us big time in games 3 and 4 until Pistons figured out how to exploit it in games 5. Thibs made adjustments after that because we rarely saw any high low baseline dunks from Duren to Thompson last night.

Also I rewatched the last couple mins and Josh Hart’s help defense was REALLY good on our last few defensive stops. Those stops were all schemes the way we navigating the Cade PnR and rotated the help. So give Thibs a little credit where it’s due. I don’t think he’s right for this team going forward but he had some bright spots in this series along with some sour spots.

Thibs isn't maximizing this roster I agree, but I don't think he's the problem either. I start to see more and more it's KAT's defense and just clumsy offensive game.

Ugh I still haven't watched all of the losses and didn't catch last nights game so I'll start there.

I'm super curious to see how Leon handles this offseason and if he continues to build around Brunson and KAT or deviates.

The 3 guys I'd guess are untouchable are Brunson, Hart, OG.

KAT is untouchable. So is Mikal. it's just their first year. those guys get 2 and I expect continued improvement

biggest issue IMO is our assistant coaches who are Thibs' call. they are dinosaurs.

Next biggest issue, and this is a big one, is you need at least one guy off the bench with real swagger and clutch gene.

If thibs wanted my advice, I'd say Mitch and McBride are talented and valuable assets for a trade. We need someone like Donte or SHroeder. They can suck all game, or all year, but will show up for the real battles. right now Mitch and McBride are wilting in the moment. I love both guys but they don't have that killer instinct we need

I like to play devil's advocate role more than anything.

How do you tell how well assistants are doing versus how well players execute what they should be doing?

Only when both happen can we say things are going well so that's always a tough battle for me.

I think our in-game adjustments have stunk this year. Whether it's how to handle Ansar's press, how to handle Ansar's baseline (which frankly is his only offense), how to integrate KAT. to the extent we adjust it all seems to be for the next game

last year I felt Thibs trusted Flyn, and Flynn was in his ear a lot.

we lost Flynn and Cavs skyrocketed, and we were about the same despite adding huge talents in KAT and Mikal

FWIW I know Kenny Atkinson will get a lot of accolades for the turnaround, but Bickerstaff just demonstrated he is a good coach (maybe not best for that version of Cavs but still very good and initiated the double big lineup for them. Much like Kidd put the ball in Freak's hands, though Budenholzer was the better coach for that team)

VDesai wrote:

Chandler wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

VDesai wrote:

Alpha1971 wrote:Bridges with 35 seconds, wow

KAT fouling out was huge. Duren is trying to box out Mitch and is out of the position and Mikal sneaks in. Mitch then makes a huge defensive play on Cade's shot the other end. Mitch in the last min makes a big difference.

Mitch was ghastly ALL NIGHT LONG --- a -10 in 13 minutes with 3 boards, 0 blocks and 1 point ---- plus fact Pistons targeting him via hack.
I forget sometimes but then Mitch quickly reminds me how bad he is at basketball -- he's challenging Duece for biggest disappointment in playoffs.

Kat +8 and 15 boards but was crappy on offense.

Mitch had a couple of good moments, but I agree a huge disappointment. He should have been feasting on the boards. And however many years later he still brings the ball down after offensive rebounds instead of keeping it high. And it's not like he lacked time to improve his FTs

Kat hit a couple of tough buckets. He will be MUCH better in the next series. I don't know how Boston will guard him. their bigs are softies

They will guard him with Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum as we have seen all year- which means he needs to establish low post and if Hart is guarded by KP, Hart has to draw him away from the basket to not allow him to just feast on blocks at the rim. The Knicks countering this defense will be the difference between losing another 4 straight and making this a competitive series.

hart isn't drawing anyone outside until he knocks down some threes consistently.