nyknickzingis wrote:Zebo13 wrote:Activate Noah! Hernangomez is a bum, not our future. It’s like he’s stoned and confused. MCD had a garbage game along with a lot of bonehead mistakes by most of the team. Post Turkey day malaise trying to just win without putting in the work. Letting Schroeder just score at will after a simple screen was our undoing. That ref KP bitched at was a little bitch for sure. Like 4 straight whack calls that turned the tide their way. Bad losses will happen, they get paid to play too. If a road loss that we coulda won is our worst loss of the season so far I can’t be too upset. Maybe we balance it out by winning a tough one tomorrow. Kanter is rested at least!
Willy's future is a 4 with a player like KP covering the 5. He can't be our 5 on defense. That's the focus he has to have. He's got great skill. Just needs to find a position on defense. He's lucky he has KP on his team. I think Jeff made a big mistake starting O'Quinn. This made Willy come in as our main 5 and that's not where we should be playing. All of Willy's minutes should be with KP on the floor and they should be instructed to switch on defense and offense. IE Willy's the 5 on offense, 4 on defense. KP's the 4 on offense, 5 on defense. This will cause some mismatches and since both players have great post games, it will be a nightmare for opposing teams to defend.
Hornachek is coaching to save his job next season. He's not really looking at player development as much as he was last year. We should be playing Ron Baker, Dotson and Willy regularly in our rotation. What is this team's potential with Jack, O'Quinn, Thomas and Lee as our vets playing big roles? We're going to win 28 games at home, 10 on the road and miss the playoffs with 38 wins. Much better to me if we lose 8 more games and draft higher but develop players who could be quality role players for us next few years.
Not everyone has to be sold on Baker, Dotson and Willy, but there's no excuse for what Hornachek is doing from a re-building perspective. He's completely abandoning player development this year. You look at our rotation - Kanter is a free agent. Jack is a free agent. Lee is a vet with 2 years left. O'Quinn is a free agent. You're playing a rotation where 3 of your top 6 will be free agents at season's end. You're playing a rotation where there's a heavy reliance on veterans. I don't get it because I highly doubt this team is making the playoffs unless they dramatically improve their play on the road.
nyknickzingis I usually like your posts and find them logical, but this one is wrong on so many levels.
1) Willy will be out of the league before he is a 4. His past, present and future are as a 5. He's in a horrible funk, probably thinking too much, pressing too much -- but he does have skills: as a 5!. If we think he has defensive challenges those will only be amplified at 4, where he will be torched
2) Hornacek is not coaching for his job. And even if he were he wouldn't do anything desperate or different. He played in the NBA and is set with $$. He's doing what he thinks is right. Vets play to show the young guys how to do it in real time. Throwing 5 rookies or newbies out there is a recipe for disaster. You need a blend. Having said that I would agree that it would be nice to have the young guys you mentioned get more PT, but only if they're earning it in practice.
When THJ was in Atlanta, he had to earn PT -- and he was a first round pick who had a great rookie campaign. They even sent him to the D league. I like Baker Dotson and Willy as much (probably more) than the next guy and we should be encouraged by them. But worst thing we can do is gift PT. Horrible for team morale.
11/24/2017 10:04 PM