People said one of our strengths compared to last year was our bench and I thought so as well, but let's break that down as far as play-offs go: * Gerald Green - as much I love his fire, his attitude, his shooting when he gets hot, his emotions and enthusiasm and that hairdo, he's just not that good and lacks good basketball IQ to be reliable. Cannot play him in the play-offs because of defense, decision making and doesn't know when to take a shot and when not to. Was a serious momentum killer in game 6 when he botched a 3-on-1, drove it in for a contested two, lost his man and then turned it over in a span of 1-2 minutes. He actually played solid last year, even blocking shots, but didn't show that at all this year. Verdict: garbage time / occasional few minutes player when your other bench players fail to score. * Nene - old, still strong, rebound and can hit the occasional lay-up / dunk. I think he surprised us with some great minutes, but let's be honest: could not play him much with the way we play defense. Verdict: sparse minutes here and there for rebounding when a team goes big, but with our system he was not really playable. I would've still taken him over Capela the way he was playing. * Rivers - solid defender, very confident, can hit the 3 and when he makes quick decisions can get to the basket for a lay-up. However, not consistent, not very big nor strong so easily picked off and while he hit the 3 for us in the play-offs, he's overall a low 30% shooter. Verdict: okay for a 7th or 8th guy off the bench. * Shumpert - solid defender by reputation, far from a great shooter and actually never really had a memorable shooting performance - even with the Cavaliers during their championship run. I don't know what people expected and nor why he's so spoken of in such a positive way by some talking heads. I saw a guy who got lost on defense, got blown by, aside from one game shot poorly, questionable shot selection - even attempting Harden type threes. He was probably solid in 2016, at stealing the ball for sure and good at staying in front of his man 1-on-1, but now not really. Verdict: maybe a 9th or 10th guy off the bench, but in our system not really playable. * House - was a solid 3&D guy, shot over 40% on the year, but was inconsistent in the play-offs and seemed almost rookie like. Verdict: maybe needs a year or two to grow and would've benefited from a more clear rotation, but with the injuries and MDA's favour for a short rotation he probably never stood a chance. Still, didn't prove enough to really get the benefit of the doubt. * Faried - high energy guy, had some very solid 15-10 type of games, but on defense gets beaten and while he proved he can hit the occasional 3, he's not really a spacing big. He did well in first two games vs. Jazz and then minutes decreased and his impact went down with it. Not sure what happened there, I still think he deserved a shot to prove himself, but MDA went small. Verdict: a solid guy to play, even in a 8 man rotation MDA system, but for whatever reason did not see the court. Overall - I think with MDA being our coach, we were never going to go past 2-3 guys with a good 15-25 minutes off the bench, but not many guys really showed they belonged. Rivers was solid, Nene also performed mostly when he was out there, but outside of that we only got one good shooting game from Faried and House vs. Jazz in Game 1, one from Shump and zero from GG. Defensively especially we just couldn't rely on anyone outside of Rivers and with MDA you do not get much of a chance. It goes hand in hand, but based on performance I have come to the conclusion that we were not deep at all. Maybe on paper, but definitely not when it counted. I'll give Faried a pass here and House a bit, but based on what we've seen and MDA probably coming back I think it would serve us well if we do not count on the following guys to be part of the rotation: Shumpert, Gerald Green, Nene, House and Faried. Rivers should be back and House might show some growth if he'll accept a few million. Faried I'd give the veteran minimum though what's the point if he doesn't get playing time.
Deeper than last year because you got Anderson's 20 million not playing and Moute/Prince Luc having shoulder problems. But compared to the Top 3 benches, I wouldn't say deep.
"This team is deeper." "This bench is deeper." "We're 10 deep." Hahaha NO. Bucks bench scored 54! points yesterday. Can you imagine the Rockets bench scoring 54 points? In a playoff game? HELL NO! And I'm not talking about an Eric Gordon-led bench. Spoiler Bucks Game 1 22 bench points Game 2 54 bench points *22 by two guys; 4 guys played *44/54 by three guys; All 8 bench guys played; 6/8 scored Went to look up the Rockets... Jazz series G1 35 points; 5 guys played; 4/5 scored G2 30 points; 7 guys played; 5/7 scored G3 29 points; 4 guys played; 4/4 scored G4 5 points; 6 guys played; 1/6 scored G5 20 points; 5 guys played; 4/5 scored Warriors series G1 17 points; 4 guys played; 4/4 scored G2 20 points; 6 guys played; 2/6 scored G3 21 points; 4 guys played; 3/4 scored G4 18 points; 4 guys played; 3/4 scored G5 19 points; 4 guys played; 3/4 scored G6 17 points; 4 guys played; 3/4 scored While technically "9 deep", only 7 really played "major" minutes. Paul Harden Gordon Tucker Capela (was unplayable but got minutes anyways) Rivers Shumpert Nene (limited minutes) Green (limited minutes) House (Doghouse) Faried (Doghouse) Clark DNP Hartenstein DNP Chiozza DNP Frazier DNP Duval DNP Edwards DNP
Deep enough, at least here and there Faried and House should've played, a couple of times Nene played one half and was clearly better than Capela -> benched for the rest of the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like i said in another thread, i'm not screaming to fire Mike, yet, but i'm starting to get tired about his habits, dude will basically play 7/8 guys regardless unless he has starter caliber players on the bench.
for most of the season we only had 5 NBA players on the roster with a bunch of borderline guys. at times due to injury we had to play James and some rec center guys. I'd say the addition of Austin was huge. gave us a legit 6th NBA player. nene, green, shumpert, and house are really borderline. I don't think any of them can consistently earn minutes on any other team, not sure if any can get a contract for more than the minimum, and not sure if any will be in the league in 2 years. this summer Tilman has to put his money where his mouth is. if you want to win you can't let the warriors spend $21M more ($31M more if you count Shumpert's 10 as a waste). if we use the full MLE, LLE, and spend our cash to purchase a late FRP or early SRP, I can see us adding 3 legit NBA players. sure, we would be hard capped, but we'd also be under the apron.
Yeah I think I’m in the same boat regarding Mike. Every time he just doesn’t trust guys enough to play them. What’s the most incomprehensible to me is you’d think he’d value a scoring big like Faried over a defensive minded one who cannot shoot like Nene. We do need more quality guys off the bench.
Tbh i'm not a big believer of Faried, not sure he would've had such a big/positive impact, but when a player is so bad like Clint was, why not trying something else since you have the chance? That's what i don't get. Same for House, he was meh when he played the last times, but Gerald was bad too and still rolled him out there, rolled him out there until he costed us the game actually, just like with Ryan Anderson last year. We talked all the season on how we finally had a deeper bench etc, just to end up playing 7 guys anyway, and the wrong ones in some cases ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In all fairness, MDA had to shorten the rotation against GS. But he generally plays guys he has relationships with over what the team needs. For example, Shumpert is a guy he coached in NY. Shumpert was allowed to play thru mistakes while Faried wasn't. Our weaknesses were rebounding, Faried's great at that. But for some reason he shunned him similar to Melo earlier in the season
I was hoping MDA would at least give Faried a chance. I think giving up all of those second and third chance baskets really cost the team in multiple games. The one thing we know Faried can do is rebound at a high clip. Would he have been such a negative defensively that his rebounding wouldn’t have mattered? I guess we will never know. I agree that if you can play Gerald then you should be able to play Faried or give House another shot. They both have the athleticism to compete for rebounds, and finish around the rim. It’s the first time I have truly questioned MDA’s judgement. I hope that in an interview someone will ask him why.
Yeah, that's a good point i'm making myself, i'm not sure Faried would've had a good impact, it's possible he would've be just as bad as Clint if not worse, but when something you're trying is just not working, why not try something different? That's all i'm saying. Like you i think we could've tried to inject some energy on the court (Faried, House).
Many of us were concerned after the trade deadline for this reason. When we came away with just Shumpert, it honestly was a huge red flag. We needed more length, rebounding and shooting and I don’t think Shumpert helped the team in any of these areas. MDA didn’t trust House or Faried, so we were left with Rivers who performed, Shump who actually did ok I guess. Nene was better than I expected, and Green was bad. Not a very daunting bench when you eliminate House and Faried. The trade deadline was our final opportunity to upgrade the roster. I had hoped that the right trade deadline deal would solidify our bench depth for the upcoming playoff run. Unfortunately it may have helped to seal our fate.
You are only as deep as your coach is willing to play You could have a second unity of Olajuwon, Duncan, Bird, Jordan and Isiah Thomas and it would not mean **** if your coach won't play them Situational players are situational Good Coaches know how to use players to their strengths Rocket River
That Bucks team is freaking dangerous. GS is going to have their hands full against them. They play fast and loose. They have talent, length, and athleticism. They have a good game plan/ coaching. I think they are going to beat GS. Yeah, their bench is better than ours. They would smoke us if we played the way we did vs GS and Utah. Struggling to break 100 points. We need a starting 5 good enough to move an EG type player to the bench. When the bench is so weak that he’s a starter that tells you all you need to know about it.
