Replace Josh Okogie minutes with JD Davison or another free agent point guard. Reduce Amen minutes to 32 a game.
I hope people can see it now, Amen and Sengun are not conducive to winning basketball. They dragged Jalen Green down in the playoffs, and Stone made a poor mistake by choosing Amen and Sengun over Jalen. Mark my word, Jalen will be a star in PHX.
I mean he hasn't demonstrated all that much in the way of true point guard skills Amen is a better point guard at this point because he sees the court better, makes better decisions, and is more capable of collapsing the defense into the paint. And Amen is still a work in progress. Reed is like two steps behind him on "floor general" stuff right now.
I completely disagree. Theres certain situations where Id want the ball in Amens hands over Reed's...Iso situations and on the break for sure Amen. But in the half court, more specifically as the ball handler in the pnr, Reed. As a pnr ball handler the only player who has been more successful than Reed is KD. And since teams have kinda figured out they can just put a big on Amen and sag off, hes pretty much useless as a primary ball handler in the half court in most situations. And thats one of the big issues lately with the starters. They have to lean on TO prone KD and Sengun to run the offense... Which just ends up resorting to isolation and bad shots. Even with Reed shooting terribly lately, when hes running the offense up top teams have to extend their defense. Its possible that neither one is the pg of the future for this team, but Amens shooting is going to make it pretty much impossible for him to be that guy...especially in the immediate future. At this time I 100% give the edge to Reed. Matter of fact, this isnt just about Reed...Id prefer Holiday or Davison running pg over Amen at this point as well.
I agree with most of this. Amen isn’t gonna magically develop a shot mid-season. One of the skill-sets needed for the role they have him playing is being able to hit open shots. Amen just isnt there yet. I think his court vision has improved, maybe the handles as well, but neither are good enough and add the shooting on top of it, he really should be playing at the dunker or the 3. Amen could be so valuable unleashed. It’s time to try another approach. You can’t have non-shooting on-ball guards in today’s nba. if we commit to Reed, at least we’ll get valuable data this season, which should help us make more informed decisions this offseason. And it frees up Amen to play a front court role, which he thrives in. It would be foolish not to take this gap year to learn what Reed can do. At this point we need to see 30 min of Reed a night, come what may.
ummmm.... howabout we scale back KDs minutes.... y'know... killin the 37 yr old golden goose an all that.... lol otherwise... i say let the guys play and try to get em back to having some fun.... cause right now, they all look frustrated and pissed off at one another...
Also, Sengun has to be much better defensively for the upcoming stretch. In the lineups that have played at least 30 mins together Sengun is in ALL of the bottom rated defensive lineups and is only in the 5th best defensive rated lineups. For as much flak as Reed gets defensively, he's in 3 of the top 5 rated defensive lineups. Sengun isnt in any of those lineups. https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/a...610612745&dir=A&slug=advanced&sort=DEF_RATING This'll never happen and I think just about everyone would disagree, but based on they eye test and numbers I think Sengun and Tari should come off the bench and Capela (would be Adams if healthy) and Reed should start. Clint, Bari, Kd, Amen, Reed has been a good lineup and it is more balanced imo. If youre going to have Amen with a non shooter, get more rebounding, a lob threat and good screen setting. And defensively give Reed some rim protection on the backend....Unless Sengun regains his form....
No more drop defense for the C in the PNR. And if Sengun's ankle isn't healthy enough for him to hedge effectively then sit him until it is.
We're the #5 best defense and offense right now. However, I recommend we opt for being #1 offense and #10 defense - even though it's technically not an improvement. I just want to start Reed in place of Jabari and see if the defense would truly regress. If Mazzulla can coach Queta/Hauser/Brown/White/Prtichard to a top 10 defense, then surely our defensive genius can coach this starting lineup to a better defense than that: Sengun Durant Tari Sheppard Amen Why: 1) Because this lineup is more likely to improve between now and playoffs. 2) Because Ime is a defense-minded coach so I would rather have him trying to fix a #10 defense and not worry about needing to coach an offense. 3) We desperately need better high volume shooting (both catch and shoot and pull ups) as well as the resulting spacing. Jabari is a useless pull up shooter. The spacing from Reed opens more drive and dish opportunity for Amen and KD. Easier post ups for Sengun. 4) Reed will feast on the easier shots in the starting lineup. 80% of Jabari's shots are open or wide open. No team would dare leave Reed open like that. 5) With Amen and Reed on the floor, you can always go with the guy who's having the better floor general game that night. Let's put our two best floor generals on the floor since we're lacking in that. Since they treat Ime like he's the franchise player and he's a defensive one, then you need to give him an offense-first team. Then his defensive obsession becomes an asset rather than a liability.
Amen could still be a half court initiator without a shot IF he could finish well in traffic. If Amen could finish around the rim like Giannis even when the defense sagged on him, he could go downhill, force a crowd, and pass to open teammates. Amen is super athletic. But he's too weak to finish through a crowd.
These are good ideas. I’d also like to see more minutes for Davison off the bench as pg, not just in garbage time. Additionally, considering dfs poor shape, we’ll need more minutes feom Okagie, Tate and even Crawford. Let’s see who of these three can contribute the best combination of D&3, which we really need and don’t get it enough in dfs’ 16 minutes off the bench.
You mean post press conference break (down)? It’s definitely odd, guys seem to not want to work as hard, maybe there’s some internal division. Or they’re tired of being told to just compete harder by Ime.
- Cut KD's minutes - Play Reed at PG - Put Amen back where he belongs - Straighten out Ime, and prepare him for an Offensive Assistant...and real offense. It's either that or give him the axe. But, of course, neither is happening.
Sign the best PG you can find on the buyout market. Start Reed, Amen, KD, Bari, and Sengun, with the new PG, Okogie, Tari, and Jeff Green off the bench. (Maybe you go with DFS over Jeff Green, but there needs to be some competition for this slot.) Now, here is the key: Amen and Sengun may start together for appearance sake, but they should play together as little as possible. Amen should become your backup center. You can't have a modern NBA lineup with 2 guys on the floor who can't score outside of the paint. Amen needs to become more like Draymond Green - a small-ball center who can also distribute as necessary.
I said Sengun here, but Amen works as well. Or just sub one super early and stagger them more. We've got too many non shooters playing too many minutes together. I dont think Reed over Tari moves the needle much. We get a little more ball handling with Reed, but not better shooting and lose defense and rebounding. I think we've gotta separate Amen and Sengun some until one learns to shoot. Tari has been best or 2nd best 3pt shooter this season. He isnt the issue with the offense.
Limit the time Sengun/Amen and KD/Reed sharing the floor. Sengun and Amen are both none shooter and opponent just pack the paint when both in, KD is horrible at catching handover pass and Reed is bad at making handover pass. Basically saying least in 2nd and 3rd quarter give ample time resting two stars by pairing Sengun/Reed and KD/Amen. Reed is liability on defense but now league knows that Amen being liability on offense is bigger issue
