(02-07-2025, 03:57 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: I would be fine bringing Gortman back.  Although, I would want him to replace Williams.  Not sure I see the value of two smaller point guards when we appear to be focusing on height and length.

(02-07-2025, 08:58 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: Is the league getting bigger?  Did Cleveland start the next fad?  The last few years it has been switchable wings/guards.  That is probably still the focus for a lot of teams.  You see Heat have been starting Bam and Ware.  OKC started Chet and hartenstein tonight.  Lakers are big.  Denver has a big front court.  I wonder if this is a new trend?

(02-08-2025, 07:33 PM)Scott41theMavs Wrote: So the remaining team looks like:
Starters: Kyrie, Klay, PJ (when healthy), AD, Lively (when healthy)
Optimal bench players: Exum, Christie, Martin (when he gets healthy), Naji, Gafford
Supplemental bench: Spencer, Hardy, OMax, Powell (when healthy), plus two-ways Kylor, Kessler, Williams

Thank goodness for the injuries, because tanking is key the rest of the way this year. Need our pick to be a good one, if not the Flagg consolation prize. Without the three injuries (four if you count Powell, which you shouldn't), that's a team that's way too good to tank and way too poor to make noise in the playoffs.

(02-09-2025, 01:05 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Seeing how many times AD brought the ball up last night and the ball ran through him above the break, and knowing they likely haven't had the chance to customize their offense around the new roster yet, even in the simplest terms, I think something became clear:

They were playing Luka as the 4. He was playing PG on offense, obviously, but when those sets were drawn up, his number was the 4. AD literally slotted into that same position, and was basically performing Luka's role in the offense at times last night, at least in terms of court positioning and spacing, so that the others could do the off-ball movements they've been practicing all season.

How this plays out in the future, I don't know, but I found that to be quite interesting.

(02-09-2025, 02:32 PM)RoyTarpleysGhost Wrote: ^ If they had a reliable upgrade to Dinwiddie, I actually love this roster.  (and health of AD and Lively obviously)

I'm excited about the offseason.  Keep AD, Lively, PJ, Klay, Kyrie, Christie, Exum. 

Anfernee Simons and Coby White would be on my radar.  Derozan might be too old.  Cam Johnson not sure how much offense he can create.  I don't think the guy has to be a 2 way player.  Basically a guy that when Kyrie sits, he can be out there surrounded by 4 defenders.

(02-09-2025, 01:05 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Seeing how many times AD brought the ball up last night and the ball ran through him above the break, and knowing they likely haven't had the chance to customize their offense around the new roster yet, even in the simplest terms, I think something became clear:

They were playing Luka as the 4. He was playing PG on offense, obviously, but when those sets were drawn up, his number was the 4. AD literally slotted into that same position, and was basically performing Luka's role in the offense at times last night, at least in terms of court positioning and spacing, so that the others could do the off-ball movements they've been practicing all season.

How this plays out in the future, I don't know, but I found that to be quite interesting.

(02-09-2025, 04:44 PM)F Gump Wrote:  I think you have something here, but it's also not quite right.

It's true that AD yesterday had the ball a lot. So as a result he was Luka-like in those possessions in being able to do things with the ball. We're not used to another player having such freedom.

But Luka played the 1. What he did and where he played was not the 4. He brought the ball up the floor, dominated the ball, decided who might get a pass, etc. Labeling him as playing the 4 is just not accurate and makes no sense.

It's hard to know if anything yesterday was by a new design, or just happened to happen in this game. It's a sample size of 1, so it's beyond premature to say we are seeing a permanent trend. 

BUT - I saw 2 things I hope are going to be the new normal:
1 To me it was noteworthy that the PG did not have to possess the ball on every possession. Rather than the rebounder passing every time to Luka to walk it up the floor, there were lots of rebounds that brought immediate passes upcourt that pushed the pace.
2 It was refreshing to see the offense be so varied. It came from all directions, not just one player.  Because everything didn't go through Luka, the ball moved, and the offense was unpredictable.

SIDE POINT - if the offense now no longer HAS TO run through the PG every possession, it changes the importance of the PG, and lessens the negative impact if that position as seen as a bit of a weak spot. That's worth keeping in mind.

(02-09-2025, 04:44 PM)F Gump Wrote:  I think you have something here, but it's also not quite right.

It's true that AD yesterday had the ball a lot. So as a result he was Luka-like in those possessions in being able to do things with the ball. We're not used to another player having such freedom.

But Luka played the 1. What he did and where he played was not the 4. He brought the ball up the floor, dominated the ball, decided who might get a pass, etc. Labeling him as playing the 4 is just not accurate and makes no sense.

It's hard to know if anything yesterday was by a new design, or just happened to happen in this game. It's a sample size of 1, so it's beyond premature to say we are seeing a permanent trend. 

BUT - I saw 2 things I hope are going to be the new normal:
1 To me it was noteworthy that the PG did not have to possess the ball on every possession. Rather than the rebounder passing every time to Luka to walk it up the floor, there were lots of rebounds that brought immediate passes upcourt that pushed the pace.
2 It was refreshing to see the offense be so varied. It came from all directions, not just one player.  Because everything didn't go through Luka, the ball moved, and the offense was unpredictable.

SIDE POINT - if the offense now no longer HAS TO run through the PG every possession, it changes the importance of the PG, and lessens the negative impact if that position as seen as a bit of a weak spot. That's worth keeping in mind.

(02-09-2025, 05:56 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: I think you're missing my point a little. Yes, he played the 1, on offense. But, I think the offense was designed for the guy labeled "4" to play the "1" on offense. I can find no other explanation for some of the sets I saw yesterday, particularly in light of the emboldened paragraph. I believe this because I don't think they have had time to add ANYTHING new by design. In other words, I think everyone other than AD and Christie are just running the same actions they have been, and (not for every play, mind you, just in certain player groupings) they literally just filled AD into the missing hole (again, not in terms of what to do from the sets, just purely from a spacing/court location point of view). I just don't think they've had any time to do anything else yet. 

I don't expect this to continue, I just thought it was interesting.

If it helps, forget the numbers. My point is that it suuuuure seemed to me that the approach to getting AD out there fast was just not to disrupt ANYTHING anyone else has been doing all season. Even on defense, I think part of what we saw was due to AD being GREAT, defensively, and part of it was just due to the guy in Luka's place (low man, pretty often during the times Gafford gets pulled out) actually understanding how to play defense.

(02-10-2025, 09:56 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: I had some thoughts on this before the latest injury news.  Seems a bit outdated now.

I'm still not in love with Klay at the two, but they seem very dedicated to AD at the four as much as possible and they aren't ready to bring Klay off the bench.  After seeing the defense, I'm less of a mind that Gafford will be traded this summer.  We didn't look nearly as good defensively with AD at the five as we did with him at the four.  That ability to be a rover along the back line is (will someday be) more substantial than I imagined.  While we wait for Lively, I suspect Klay will be tethered to the Gafford minutes to create some gravity that our other wings don't provide (obviously out of date now as Lively might return sooner than AD).  I also think Christie continues to close games over Klay.

Offensively, PJ can at least get a set started and we can run a good bit of offense through AD in the high post if we want to keep Kyrie off the ball some.  In the past, our high PnR offense seemed largely designed to accomplish one thing...get Luka or Kyrie rolling downhill with options to hit a roller or hit a spot up shooter.  With AD in this spot, it opens many more options.  We saw action between Klay and AD and between Kyrie and AD that puts defenses in difficult positions (especially if AD hits his outside shots).  We even saw some 4/5 PnR that created problems.  The D created some easy buckets also.  But, Kyrie didn't have nearly as much space to operate as he is used to.  In the final seconds of a game when you need a bucket, it seems like the post might be the better place to start a play than trying to get Kyrie free for something moving downhill.  The good news is we have options there that we didn't really have before.

The exciting thing to imagine is what this looks like when Lively and AD play together.  Lively does just fine in space and having AD along the back line?  Yikes.  Our wings will be able to tighten up on 3 point shooters.  You better have 5 players on the floor who can hit 3's at a high clip if you are going to solve that D.  If I were Kidd, I might set Lively free to shoot 3's.  It probably wasn't a smart move in a Luka-centric rim rolling world, but it makes great sense in an AD-centric world.

In my mind we have 7 KEEPERS and then some (parts) in our top 11 players.  I still think Martin gets combined with Hardy as some point for an upgrade.  I have no desire to trade PJ and have my doubts about Gafford going out now that I saw this (briefly).

LIVELY       GAFFORD                                         Powell

AD             (PJ will get minutes here also)            OMax

PJ              (naji or martin)                                 Edwards 

KLAY          CHRISTIE                                         Hardy

KYRIE        (sd or exum)

(02-10-2025, 09:44 PM)BigDirk41 Wrote: Depending on how long Gafford is out, this thread might be pointless now. It might turn into team tank after we learn the diagnosis.