You said part of it already... the loss of Ariza and LMM were big factors... You can get away with an undersized PJ or even a weaker CC... but then you downsize at sf and your entire front court is at a disadvantage... Additionally, when we were rolling in 17/18 we were blowing teams out... resulting in more chucking from 3 on their part to try to get back in the game - resulting in longer rebounds - which masked any of our front court deficiencies... MDA coulda played House... had Faried... didnt play Nene even on some nights he was available... Are you really gonna argue that MDA's excessive small ball lineups are merely a product of him being a victim of circumstance? really?
if we start boxing out at all it will be a marked improvement... lol hardwork and hustle can limit our downside - but we still need some size and muscle imo... Clint is a good center against many teams - but he can still be outmuscled a lot... PJ is decent at pf - which is a compliment given that he typically holds his own against bigger competition... I'd rather see PJ splitting time between pf and sf... he's fine as a small ball pf option... but when we need better rim protection and rebounding we need to slide him to sf and bring in some size... Look at that Lakers roster... look at the size... if we dont shoot out of our minds, they are gonna beat us down low like red headed step children...
You are the one claiming Faried and House were the answers to our rebounding woes that at the same time wouldn’t cripple us further in other areas of the game. One guy is out of the league and was always known for his offensive rebounding prowess, not defensive, and one guy just signed his first real deal for a little more than the minimum and still has a ton to prove. Yes. I think we went with the best possible combo of players. Sadly that meant sacrificing defensive rebounding, but in the end was the best we could offer, Sometimes you can’t have it all.
Our whole offense is predicated on space. Having PJ in the corners spaces the floor and if you have someone in there that's a more traditional PF we're going to lose that space. I don't think we need to lose our offensive signature for the sake of an individual rebounder. To me the absolute best and most reasonable (in terms of realistic possibility because rebounders don't grow on trees) is to use what we have a deploy a better strategy. Team rebounding is easily that realistic possibility. The only way it's a complete failure is if the players don't buy in. The Lakers have to score with us to keep up. The long twos they're going to shoot all year will be enough to make up ground on them on the rebounding disadvantage. They don't have depth, they don't have a PG. So, they don't make me nervous. The Clippers are a much better team than the Lakers. The Lakers are relying on antiquated basketball to win. Modern basketball just doesn't favor the big man like it did before. Also, LeBron doesn't get to dial back time just because he feels like it. He's getting old and the signs were there the last two years. The pattern going towards this third year is way more likely to be more decline for LBJ rather than an uptick in his 35th year of life and his 18th year in the league. The Clippers have some offensive rebounders over there so we'll need something going to combat that by the time playoffs come around.
I think the New Assistant Coaches are teaching Mike Dantoni about defense and rebounding. It is really sad honestly given his age, he never cared that side of the floor.
You need to watch the minutes Faried played against the Warriors. He was awful. I don't care what the stats say of those minutes, I don't care what the highlights look like... he was terrible and you're a fool if you believe what you said if you do watch those 5 minutes again. I'm sure you'll be lazy and respond without watching. And don't waste your time looking for highlights.. they don't tell the real story. He was terrible.
Mda: Eric is looking like the starter right now" Also Mda a couple days later " we have to work on our defensive rebounding. This guy Iq level is through the roof,ok genious starting a 6'4 guard at the 3 sounds like a plan .
I think we need multiple looks and lineups - not just variations of small ball... I think adding WB increases that need for spacing - bc he will actually take it to the hole with authority... and we want to give him space to work... but how often over the last few years did we get reduced to being a 1 trick pony 3ball shooting team bc we weren't getting the calls on drives? Welp if we arent driving due to lack of calls happening seems like a great time to get some bigger bodies in there - since we're not using the spacing anyway... Quite often it seems Harden brings the ball up and plays with his defender and then does his step back 3 move... everybody knows its coming... its a compliment to Harden that he can do it when its obvious what he's going to do... but how is that spacing helping us in those instances? Put in a body for a rebounding... and I think those multiple looks are necessary to keep other teams guessing and adjusting... MDA always says 'we're just going to play our game...' - and the defense knows exactly what to expect... Talent wise we are one of the best teams in the league... we just have to stop being so damn predictable... imo...
I really hope Iguodala is not the big prize Morey is looking to get with the Nene trade chip. The big need is a legit 4. Get PJ to the 3 and hopefully have Gordon off the bench. I'd be just fine with Westbrook being the trade chip used for that guy and a decent 2. Put Harden at the 1 again. I just don't think Westbrook can NOT play hero ball in the playoffs when the game is on the line. He has shown with Durant, Oladipo and George that his brain gets dumb in crunch time and his ego takes over. He's too old at this point to stop doing that.
Even if he had a bad 5 minute stretch, it could've been attributed to Faried being rusty from mysteriously being benched the last portion of the season going into the playoffs. Plus did you see Shumpert? He had his atrocious stretches too. But the difference is Faried never got a chance to play through his. While Shumpert was given free reign. Lazy? I watched every game. You can't bring a guy in midseason, watch him play very well, mysteriously bench him for a extended time, then expect him to kill it in a 5 minute window lol. That's not even logical
westbrook can only help in this department. the more rebounds, the more possessions and opportunities for team as a whole! Thought that was obvious and common sense! Westbrook passed Michael 'Jeffrey' Jordan for consecutive triple doubles so the dude can rebound.
I think I actually agree with MDA for once. Getting beat on the boards by the Warriors bench players hustling their bums off last season was painful to watch.
Westbrook had to rebound aggressively playing alongside paul George because if you notice most of okc's set plays were for paul George which meant westbrook needed to get a rebound just to get a downhill, running opportunity early.
Regarding the unpredictable nature of our offense, I agree with you. We have the right coach for that though. I went back earlier during the summer and watched old sets that the Suns ran. There are three man games they can run on either the right or left side that work in MDmA's system. You have to have a guy that can run the high post and both Harden and Westbrook are capable at that spot. The other two guys just need to play on the three point line and we have about 10 guys that can do that. That's just one extra set that makes of tougher to predict and we'd attack from a different place on the court. Coach has plenty in the playbook still. We just have to get Daryl Morey's numbers on board because MDmA uses those. It seems like trying something different has to have numbers that go with it. Morey doesn't seem to have a formula for when the system breaks down, but he should. Playoff defenses can learn what you do and what frustrates it during a series. All that being said, we're getting off subject. This thread is about rebounding.
