This offense is straight offensive

this is how I see it too. It plays into what Amen does best right now. I believe in Amen as much as anyone, but for the life of me I can’t understand the coach’s steadfast refusal to make adjustments along these lines.

 

I won't argue against that, but where do you plant Alpi or whoever's at the center spot?

It seems to me that I'm not the only one who's considering playing Amen as a 5 - the only place you can hide him is in the paint or as you say, as the roll man.

I think if you have Alpi on the ball with Amen as the roller .... both defenders just back up into the paint, that ball handler needs to be a threat to pull up and shoot.


Are we planting Alpi on the bench? (here come the Sengun OF's).

 

I have come to believe that it probabky can’t work with 2 non-shooters, but I still think you have to surround them with 3 real shooters including a primary ball-handler who can shoot to know for sure. Bari, while playing better lately, has been a below average shooter. There’s something to the stat that shows when Bari plays well we almost always win. And of course we have Amen playing out of position at point guard. I suspect if we have 3 really good shooters including a lead on-ball guy, we’d be very successful. We haven’t seen it yet. But no doubt it sure would be easier if one of Amen or Sengun learned to shoot.

 

As far as the idea of "we can't win with Amen and Sengun" @Stephen_A , please remember they're both 23 years old. It's rare these days, but some rookies get drafted at that age after being seniors in college. I don't think the book is totally written yet on what they might become in terms of their jump shooting or other facets of their game. Continuing to build around them for now I think is a valid choice. It could also be valid to trade one of them this offseason, depending on what we get back in return.

If neither of them becomes a reliable jump shooter in the next couple of seasons I think it would be very clearly a bad idea to keep going with the current roster setup, but I'm not sure we need to be making desperation moves right now just because of KD.

Either way, we need more shooting. Whether we hold onto both of them or trade one of Amen or Sengun in the offseason, this roster is still short on shooters, and even picking one of them to build around, that guy will need shooters around him too.

So for me, that's the top priority, no matter how it happens.

Also, two things can be true at once. I'm fed up with Udoka making super obvious mistakes. He is a bad offensive coach, period. Either he needs to go or he needs to be forced to accept an "offensive coordinator" type of assistant coach to basically take over that end of the floor.

 

I’m just saying we area’t winning a championship with this team. That’s our goal and we haven’t built a team good enough

 

Yes i agree. We need a combo guard or dynamic 2 guard that can make plays. Look at Detroit. I mentioned this before. They play 2 non shooters (duren, Ausur) but they’re successful and tough to beat. Why?

Cade is that dynamic guard. He has the ball
100% of the time setting up the half court. He ignites that team dribble kick out or gets in the paint and creates a lot of mismatches off the switch and draws a lot of attention as he beats his man. They also don’t have 2 guys that post or play at the elbows and clog up the lane. They play high screen with their big or he drives sometimes but the ball is always in cade’s hands to make a play. That team plays tough defense and gets out and run in the break after turnovers or misses. Their Achilles like ours is shooting. They just play much faster and aggressive offensively with a more open halfcourt.

 

What I see is concerning. We have a 5th year guy who’s looked great at times but still uneven play and mental lapses in critical situations (TO’s, missed FT’s). And still can’t shoot 3s with any consistency.

Then we have another guy who can do everything but doesn’t have a pull up jumpshot either mid range or from 3. Not only that I think he needs to develop a post game. I don’t think the door is closed on their development but it’s not looking good and in terms of their market value and our goal of winning now, I think the best for this team to move forward is go all in on Giannis and get a guard that can score and make plays. I promise you this will bring at least a championship.

Who’s going to stop
Giannis and KD tandem? And you got another guard that can shoot and make plays? It’s over for the league.

This means Sengun, Sheppard, Amen possibly fred’s contract needs to go.

 

Honestly I think if you're counting on a KD / Giannis combo to win you a championship (and who's this guard we're getting btw?) there's better than a 50/50 chance one or both of those two are hurt during the playoffs, and you have at best three seasons and probably only one or two to make it happen. In exchange for that you're giving up on guys who can at least keep you competitive for a decade with a chance for developing into more. I just don't like the math here. Sounds like a recipe for watching one of the two become a superstar somewhere else while we have a few T-Mac / Yao seasons and then immediately end up tanking again.

 

That’s a gamble I’m willing to make. You don’t know who’s going to be injured and any player in the league can be injured at any point. I have always said I don’t know which guard is available or how the money would work. I just know this team can win the championship with Giannis, a stretch 5, and a combo guard type that can score and make plays. I also know this team isn’t good enough to win as currently constructed

 

This is why Sengun and Amen need to be staggered. When they are together on the court, they need to take turn being the roll man. Durant or Reed is the handler and spot up Bari and Tari for kick out.