Z Lowe: “I just scream,with FVV out, we need more of him (reed), put him back in the game"

He could score… if he was less than three feet from the hoop

 

Yeah, that quote really bothers me. A simple no would've been fine, but he went out of his way to make it clear that he'd prefer that Reed never be a starter on this team. And I can guarantee that Stone did not use the #3 pick even in a weak draft on a guy he thought would spend his career as a reserve.

He clearly has a personal beef with Reed. Not so much with the guy himself, but that he was chosen with that pick and that the front office is really hyped about his prospects. He doesn't want him on this team and is only playing him A) to placate Stone and Fertitta and B) because Fred is injured.

 

Stone is both lucky and unlucky in the draft. He's lucky that we got some very high picks several years in a row through the lottery. But those high picks were just short of getting top talents such as Cade and Wemby, and you may include Chet too. So I don't blame him for not being able to get a genuine franchise player yet.

He did get Sengun and Tari in the mid first round. But he also got duds like Christopher, Garuba, TyTy, and Cam in the lower first round. And his judgment of veteran players is not very good. Oladipo, KPJ, DFS, Capela are all bad to very bad investment. (He got lucky getting out of Oladipo and KPJ.) The results of the Nets-Phoenix trade and the Durant trade remains to be determined.

Signing FVV (first contract) was fine given the circumstances. But hanging everything on a role player is bad. Choosing center and wing depth over guard depth is also bad judgment IMO.

I don't know how much of those decisions has Udoka's contribution. Speaking of Udoka, giving him the long extension without waiting to see how he would do longer was also unwise. The guy had only one year of head coaching track record before he got here. And in his first two seasons here, he had clearly shown some weaknesses even us amateurs could see. And now the media is picking up.

I don't know how much of player development falls into his responsibilities. But it's not good. Pretty much all our draftees flatlined after their second season. We'll see how Reed will do in his 3rd season.

 

Yeah, I was going to say the same. I almost feel like they didn't get another guard because they wanted Ime to be forced to play Reed. If they got another guard, Reed would be down to 8-12 minutes per night. Back to last year, 1 mistake and he is yanked. Now, not much choice!

 

The interesting thing is that Ime doesn't play Capela that much even after Adams was out for the season. And Capela is an excellent offensive rebounder even at this stage of his career.

 

I’m not mad about that… I see capela blow one more bunny and I might do something drastic

 

Interestingly.... you don't have Lowe or any national media saying we need to fire Ime or Ime sucks at coaching. Weird listening to rational, level headed people.

 

meh, I don’t think reed Shepard could average 29/7/6 and not be voted allnba by “billy bob Simmons”, and Zach lowe” lol

those dudes affect players salaries. Harden is probably still in Philly instead of Paul George if those redneck voters put their biases aside and vote harden to the allnba team. Harden averaged 21/11/6 on 61% and had a record low turnover rate. It’s not like we are saying vote harden mvp, but damn all star and all nba should be the bare minimum with those numbers… AM I WRONG??

 

I think we don’t know yet. I think long term Amen>Cade, Jabari >Banchero. Chet is awesome, but I still suspect he will be injury prone. Jalen was a miss, but Mobley is no great shakes either.

 

With Amen out on Wednesday, it'll be interesting to see who 65 IQ Ime decides to start.

 

Sengun was a 14 ppg defensive sieve after 2 seasons.
Tari's scoring efficiency has gone from horrid after 2 years to slightly below average while increasing volume and playing out of position.
JSJ, he flatlined between 2nd and 3rd seasons, but he's looking better than ever (even though I'm lower on his defense than many here).
Reed insufficient information
Amen....Had amazing in-season growth in his rookie year, developing off-ball cutting and offensive rebounding skills. 2nd season, another great in-season growth...this time, playing much better on ball while still being a beast with offball movement. 3rd season....he's the starting PG. Overall performance is likely worse, but he's having to do a lot more on the court. Probably improved more than any other player during his 1st 2 seasons.
Cam insufficien information
Jalen Green....I think he flatlined offensively, but improved defensively at the POA. He started really low though defensively and the off ball stuff was maddening.

 

This has been obvious for so long now, like months. Its really depressing to me, because I don't see them getting rid of Udoka.

 

If he starts Okogie I'm going to lose it.

 

I'm expecting it. He's a flat out moron.

 

He's stubborn and won't accept anything but his way of thinking. That's great for a young team with zero expectations and zero knowledge of how to play winning basketball. Not so good when you want to win and have players that don't fit the one way you know how to coach.

 

I agree that most of them improved defensively. But their offensive skills don't seem to have significant improvement after the second season.

Sengun's offense is still like his 3rd season. His A/TO ratio is about the same as his 2nd and 3rd seasons. His efficiency has gone down to his rookie level.

Tari's shooting has a big leap this season. (I'm still holding my breath about the sustainability. He has cooled down quite a bit lately.) Other than that, his game has not changed much.

Jabari is shooting better lately, but his season shooting average is not much better than his 2nd and 3rd season.

Amen is playing a new position. Other than having more playmaking opportunities for him, his only improvement is FT shooting. His rebounding and stocks number has gone down. His per minute scoring is only slightly better.

I attribute most of their 1st to 2nd season growth to natural progression for most players gaining experience.

 

Last season, I would agree that Amen would turn out better Cade. But the lack of improvement in his shooting has lowered my expectation by quite a bit. Anyway, Amen and Cade aren't in the same draft class. If we got the #1 instead of #2 pick in 2021, we could conceivably have both of them.

Chet's injury risk is real, just like Wemby. But if these guys stay healthy, they are franchise cornerstones.. I don't really care about Banchero. It's hard to compare Jabari with him. They are so different. Jabari is a high end role player. Banchero is a low end star. I'd rather have the former. But if we had the #2 pick, we might have gotten Chet instead.

 

Watch he starts Holiday over Reed again. Honesty, it wouldn't surprise me.