Tyreke and Jimmer Watch, 2014-2015 Season Edition
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It will always be on my mind how it would have turned out if we resigned Evans and went with a Cousins/Evans duo going forward.
If I could do it over, this is how I would have had it play out. I would have drafted McLemore (I thought he was the correct pick at that time), resigned Evans, resigned Aldrich, and would have not signed Landry. We would have gone into the 2013-2014 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/Thomas/McCallum
SG - Thornton/McLemore/Fredette
SF - Salmons/Moute/Outlaw
PF - Patterson/Hayes
C - Cousins/Thompson/Aldrich
Since we have Evans, I wouldn't have made the Rudy Gay trade, but I did like the other two trades we made at the time (Thornton for Evans and Terry / Mbah a Moute for Williams). That leaves us with this roster to finish out the year.
PG - Evans/Thomas/McCallum
SG - McLemore/Fredette/Terry
SF - Salmons/Williams/Outlaw
PF - Patterson/Evans/Hayes
C - Cousins/Thompson/Aldrich
Going into this offseason, I probably would have drafted Stauskas if we landed the 8th pick. I really liked Payton as well, but he would not be a good compliment with Evans so Stauskas would have been the guy. I would have been willing to keep Thomas but not at the price Phoenix wanted him, so I would have let him walk. I would have released Fredette, released Salmons, released Patterson, resigned Aldrich to the veteran minimum, signed Casspi to the veteran minimum, and signed Moreland to his minimum deal. We would have gone into the 2014-2015 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/McCallum/Terry
SG - Stauskas/McLemore
SF - Casspi/Williams/Outlaw
PF - Thompson/Evans/Moreland
C - Cousins/Hayes/Aldrich
This team would most likely struggle again, but I personally think taking this patient approach could pay off big time.
Next offseason, we would likely keep our 1st round pick. In this year's upcoming draft, there are plenty of bigs near the top of the draft that I would take to try and bring in a shotblocker (Towns, Turner, Porzingis, Cauley-Stein). There are also a couple of SFs near the top of the draft that could fit in nicely as well (Oubre, Hezonga, Winslow, S. Johnson, Dekker). I really have no idea who I would take at this point because I would prefer to watch the upcoming season and I don't really know where we would pick. But based off who will be available in FA, a SF would make a little more sense so I'll just say we draft Hezonga to take over the SF spot since he's a little older and might be a little more NBA ready playing international ball. Also he's projected to be the best shooter out of the bunch with decent defense, handles, and playmaking.
There will also be plenty of players coming off our books. I would release Terry, Williams, Outlaw, Evans, and Hayes. This would give us around $23 mil in cap space (factoring in our 1st round picks salary). I would go all in for Marc Gasol. It probably won't happen, but a frontcourt of Gasol and Cousins would undoubtedly be the best frontcourt in the league and would cause headaches for opposing teams.
If unsuccessful, I would offer Kawhi Leonard the max. Again, very unlikely that he signs our offer sheet or the Spurs don't match, but you have to cover everything.
Next up would be targeting DeAndre Jordan. Another unlikely as we haven't proved we're a competitive team and we're not in our new arena yet. He's also already on a very good team in a good location already. It would be hard to pry him away.
Next on my list would be targeting the next tier of guys. I would look to sign Jimmy Butler and Kyle O'Quinn. I think prying away O'Quinn from the Magic is doable as they just extended Vucevic, signed Frye, and drafted Gordon. Butler might be a little more challenging but with Rose, Gasol, Noah, and Gibson eating up cap they might have to let him go. If we come away with Butler and O'Quinn, I would be very happy. I think just signing O'Quinn might be the most realistic scenario, but even if we strike out on O'Quinn and Butler this offseason, we can load up on 1 year deals and try next year which happens to be a much stronger FA period (LeBron, Durant, Batum, Deng, Gallinari W. Chandler, H. Barnes, Kidd-Gilchrist, Horford, J. Hill, E. Davis, Henson, and Noah are some of the SFs, PFs, & Cs that will be available).
But for the sake of it, let's say we were only able to land O'Quinn, I would probably resign Casspi and Aldrich to veteran minimum deals and go into the 2015-2016 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/McCallum
SG - Stauskas/McLemore
SF - Hezonga/Casspi
PF - O'Quinn/Thompson/Moreland
C - Cousins/Aldrich
Right now, this team has the potential to be very good at each position. The question is will they get to that level. Next year, you'll have even more cap space with Thompson coming off the books and you can try to bring in a big name free agent to play in the new arena and strengthen our young, up and coming team (Batum or Gallinari would fit in really well as a support scorer who can space the floor). This year happens to be the last year of Evans and Cousins contract so we would need to be a competitive team by then to keep them happy and want to resign with us.
Phew now that's a lot of bottled up frustration!
If I could do it over, this is how I would have had it play out. I would have drafted McLemore (I thought he was the correct pick at that time), resigned Evans, resigned Aldrich, and would have not signed Landry. We would have gone into the 2013-2014 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/Thomas/McCallum
SG - Thornton/McLemore/Fredette
SF - Salmons/Moute/Outlaw
PF - Patterson/Hayes
C - Cousins/Thompson/Aldrich
Since we have Evans, I wouldn't have made the Rudy Gay trade, but I did like the other two trades we made at the time (Thornton for Evans and Terry / Mbah a Moute for Williams). That leaves us with this roster to finish out the year.
PG - Evans/Thomas/McCallum
SG - McLemore/Fredette/Terry
SF - Salmons/Williams/Outlaw
PF - Patterson/Evans/Hayes
C - Cousins/Thompson/Aldrich
Going into this offseason, I probably would have drafted Stauskas if we landed the 8th pick. I really liked Payton as well, but he would not be a good compliment with Evans so Stauskas would have been the guy. I would have been willing to keep Thomas but not at the price Phoenix wanted him, so I would have let him walk. I would have released Fredette, released Salmons, released Patterson, resigned Aldrich to the veteran minimum, signed Casspi to the veteran minimum, and signed Moreland to his minimum deal. We would have gone into the 2014-2015 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/McCallum/Terry
SG - Stauskas/McLemore
SF - Casspi/Williams/Outlaw
PF - Thompson/Evans/Moreland
C - Cousins/Hayes/Aldrich
This team would most likely struggle again, but I personally think taking this patient approach could pay off big time.
Next offseason, we would likely keep our 1st round pick. In this year's upcoming draft, there are plenty of bigs near the top of the draft that I would take to try and bring in a shotblocker (Towns, Turner, Porzingis, Cauley-Stein). There are also a couple of SFs near the top of the draft that could fit in nicely as well (Oubre, Hezonga, Winslow, S. Johnson, Dekker). I really have no idea who I would take at this point because I would prefer to watch the upcoming season and I don't really know where we would pick. But based off who will be available in FA, a SF would make a little more sense so I'll just say we draft Hezonga to take over the SF spot since he's a little older and might be a little more NBA ready playing international ball. Also he's projected to be the best shooter out of the bunch with decent defense, handles, and playmaking.
There will also be plenty of players coming off our books. I would release Terry, Williams, Outlaw, Evans, and Hayes. This would give us around $23 mil in cap space (factoring in our 1st round picks salary). I would go all in for Marc Gasol. It probably won't happen, but a frontcourt of Gasol and Cousins would undoubtedly be the best frontcourt in the league and would cause headaches for opposing teams.
If unsuccessful, I would offer Kawhi Leonard the max. Again, very unlikely that he signs our offer sheet or the Spurs don't match, but you have to cover everything.
Next up would be targeting DeAndre Jordan. Another unlikely as we haven't proved we're a competitive team and we're not in our new arena yet. He's also already on a very good team in a good location already. It would be hard to pry him away.
Next on my list would be targeting the next tier of guys. I would look to sign Jimmy Butler and Kyle O'Quinn. I think prying away O'Quinn from the Magic is doable as they just extended Vucevic, signed Frye, and drafted Gordon. Butler might be a little more challenging but with Rose, Gasol, Noah, and Gibson eating up cap they might have to let him go. If we come away with Butler and O'Quinn, I would be very happy. I think just signing O'Quinn might be the most realistic scenario, but even if we strike out on O'Quinn and Butler this offseason, we can load up on 1 year deals and try next year which happens to be a much stronger FA period (LeBron, Durant, Batum, Deng, Gallinari W. Chandler, H. Barnes, Kidd-Gilchrist, Horford, J. Hill, E. Davis, Henson, and Noah are some of the SFs, PFs, & Cs that will be available).
But for the sake of it, let's say we were only able to land O'Quinn, I would probably resign Casspi and Aldrich to veteran minimum deals and go into the 2015-2016 season with this rotation:
PG - Evans/McCallum
SG - Stauskas/McLemore
SF - Hezonga/Casspi
PF - O'Quinn/Thompson/Moreland
C - Cousins/Aldrich
Right now, this team has the potential to be very good at each position. The question is will they get to that level. Next year, you'll have even more cap space with Thompson coming off the books and you can try to bring in a big name free agent to play in the new arena and strengthen our young, up and coming team (Batum or Gallinari would fit in really well as a support scorer who can space the floor). This year happens to be the last year of Evans and Cousins contract so we would need to be a competitive team by then to keep them happy and want to resign with us.
Phew now that's a lot of bottled up frustration!
Reke has been given the rock and essentially is running point-forward and will start at SF. Both Jrue and Gordon are playing more off him.
He is their best creator, so it somewhat makes sense, although I'd start him at SG and bring Gordon off the bench. The Reke/Davis P&R is going to cause some headaches around the league this year and this team should be in the playoffs. Asik was a big pickup for them.
He is their best creator, so it somewhat makes sense, although I'd start him at SG and bring Gordon off the bench. The Reke/Davis P&R is going to cause some headaches around the league this year and this team should be in the playoffs. Asik was a big pickup for them.
Well I would have brought in a different SF this summer as I'd have planned on started Reke at the 2 all along. But with the current roster, I would actually have had Babbitt and Salmons battle it out at SF as starting Jrue/Gordon/Reke not only negates the strengths of all three(one ball, three guys who need it) but also weakens the bench. I don't think if starting all three that Monty is smart enough to rotate them effectively. His rotations edge towards Keith Smart territory.
Jrue/Reke/Babbitt would help maximize Jrue/Reke more while strengthening the bench with Gordon/Anderson leading the way.
Jrue/Reke/Babbitt would help maximize Jrue/Reke more while strengthening the bench with Gordon/Anderson leading the way.
Evans doing what Evans does in the season opener: nine points, on a horrible FG percentage, but also 4reb and 5ast in the first half.
EDIT, because I apparently forgot to post this, before I went down to make supper at the half: he didn't hit a shot in the third quarter, but he did add another four rebounds.
EDIT, because I apparently forgot to post this, before I went down to make supper at the half: he didn't hit a shot in the third quarter, but he did add another four rebounds.
I believe Reke had a double double...correct? his FG percentage left a lot to be desired but I don't think I saw him take any outside shots. He really is learning what he can and can't do out there, it's good to see. All I saw from Jimmer was a nice pass to Asik for the basket plus the foul and a airball from the top of the key.
Evans is hilarious: you look at his field goal percentage, and it makes you want to say, "What the ****, really?" But, at the end of the game, he's still got 12/9/6 and no turnovers.
Anthony Davis was dominant. Their whole frontcourt was beast, to tell the truth. Davis, Asik, Evans and Anderson combined for something like seventy points, fifty rebounds and fifteen blocks.
Anthony Davis was dominant. Their whole frontcourt was beast, to tell the truth. Davis, Asik, Evans and Anderson combined for something like seventy points, fifty rebounds and fifteen blocks.
The scary thing about Davis is that he isn't Cousins on the block. You can't always just throw it to him and ask for a basket. And DESPITE that, he gets you 25 points a night ... kinda tells you something about his athleticism and ability to run the floor.
Jimmer got some wide open looks that he just missed. I'm sure we'll see him knocking a few more of those down as the season goes on.
Ryan Anderson would be a lot better off sticking to hitting open 3s instead of trying to do Dirk fadeaways 1 on 1 every time he catches the ball.
Jimmer got some wide open looks that he just missed. I'm sure we'll see him knocking a few more of those down as the season goes on.
Ryan Anderson would be a lot better off sticking to hitting open 3s instead of trying to do Dirk fadeaways 1 on 1 every time he catches the ball.
I read a fascinating article about him recently in SI, I think. Too bad his knees went out on him so young, like you said WORLD of talent. Apparently, he has invented a training device for knee rehab that uses bands or some such and is making millions from it. Very cool, and good for him.
EDIT: Just found a link, and it was SI
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/31/jonathan-bender-life-after-nba
EDIT: Just found a link, and it was SI
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/31/jonathan-bender-life-after-nba
Tyreke was good overall but the Pelicans need to do something about their SF position. Eric Gordon's just never been the same after his injuries and the perimeter defense overall is awful. I always used to think that Monty Williams was a good defensive coach but ever since Malone left New Orleans has never played good defense.
A Holiday/Evans backcourt is pretty scary
A Holiday/Evans backcourt is pretty scary
Was gonna say something pretty similar. He's missing his layups and frankly looks a lot slower and clumsier going to the basket, whereas in the past he was quick and crafty. His layup attempts look different than what they used to be, almost as if he's just trying to get it up and not score. Sorta in between a floater and a proper layup. Very frustrating to see considering what we were used to in his time here. His outside shot and passing look better - still has room to improve w.r.t decision making.
Also, he's terrible at boxing out. Just pays zero attention to his man once a shot goes up. He gets a bunch of rebounds just being around the rim but if you watch closely he very very often fails to box his man out on the occasion that his man does try to get the offensive board.
Also, he's terrible at boxing out. Just pays zero attention to his man once a shot goes up. He gets a bunch of rebounds just being around the rim but if you watch closely he very very often fails to box his man out on the occasion that his man does try to get the offensive board.
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