3 games in, what changes would you make to the rotation?

PG - Nene
SG - Zhou Qi
SF - Melo
PF - Hartenstein
C - MCW

Rest of the guys are scrubs

 

Weed out the unplayables.

Go to practice. Nene get your shoes on.
All guards and wings that aren't named Chris Paul, James Harden, or Eric Gordon lineup in the paint. When you stop Nene from scoring in the post 4 out of 10 times you're good join the rest of the team.

Bigs are going against Eric Gordon everyone not named Clint Capela or PJ Tucker go to the top of the key when you can stop him from scoring 5 out of 10 times join the rest of the team.

 

I'm coming around to the idea of letting Melo start. I feel like he needs to be with Harden and Paul as much as possible so they can create open shots for him in whatever spots he feels most comfortable. Basically just have him just do a Ryan Anderson impression, except actually taking shots, with whatever extra he's capable of providing.

 

And we even traded/released two sucky centers. We could have also had Tarik and Chinanu and had a team with 6 back up centers that suck. Though at this point I'm missing Tarik Black. Never thought I'd say that.

 

The cries on here to stop playing this or that guy, after 3 games (1 without CP), are practically a self-parody of fan sites. In particular, people are piling on Ennis and Melo to the point of absurdity. The only person who has shown the league that he can be systematically exploited on our team is MCW (easily posted on offense and left to shoot on defense). Nobody else is in that category. Ennis clearly has a range of performance (which, honestly, looks more emotional than physical to me) that can be worked on. The guy has exploitable talents. Melo is playing smart and within himself, finding his way. It's a new group. Give these guys time. Give D'Antoni time.

 

It’s still early but...

For defensive purposes why don’t we just run a zone switching scheme. 3 player up top (preferably guards/wings) and 2 players down low (bigs). 3 players up top switch on the perimeter and play their zones. 2 Bigs down low responsible for help D/paint protection while also playing their zones down low.

Teams are just pulling our bigs out to far from the basket which is effecting our paint defense and our rebounding. Not a significant change that might net immediate results. I think we have the right pieces we just need to scheme a little better.

 

The only thing I would disagree with is Hartenstein. He's too slow and will easily exploited in iso situations.

 

"Three games? We talking 'bout three games? Three? Really?"

 

I love Gordon but I think you have to explore trading him for a solid 4. Maybe Millsap or someone similar.

 

don't use 3 games as excuse people, this will quickly become yeah it's only 5 games, no excuses, it's all regular season games, we are clearly very bad on defense, can't play MCW, melo and ennis i would give more time for those to get more comfortable with the team, we need a capable back up point guard (Knight?) and a solid wing defender at least right now, let's get ariza or luc back before deadline and we are good

 

Id really like to experiment with this lineup. Gordon gives you scoring, attacking and D in the starting unit. It also gives a chance to let Melo feel free to do whatever he wants with MCW, and Ennis focused on defense. I'd like to see Nene in with that lineup. I think we should experiment abandoning this CP3/Harden on the floor at all times, and let them rest together to see if Melo needs pure ISO to really get it going again as a 6th man.

 

1-Shut down MCW.
2- Start melo....
3- play Hartenstien/Nene/joe Chee at the C

 

Ennis is fine, he just needs to be more confident. His 3pt% will continue to be high with the open looks he is getting. The only reason you start Melo is if that is the prelude to waiving Melo. You'd be like, "look how crappy he is, even now, in his home environment, in the starting lineup!"

 

Melo either needs to Start or play with anyone not named Harden/Gordon in the lineup.

 

If we don't at least experiment with Melo starting at some point this year, I think that would be a mistake. He does awesome in the beginning of games. I wouldn't finish games with him nightly, but I'm definitely starting him. Dude is an all pro at starting games off the right way. I feel like his rhythm is all off from coming off the bench this year.

I start Melo and yank him after about 5 or 6 minutes in.

 

Jackie Moon, you're the best. Kind of a jive turkey, but the best darn jive turkey I know.

 

Harden is easily exploited defensively, too. Though this isn't a change. Sometimes teams take advantage of it, sometimes not.

But aside from individuals, there are some more structural exploitations available because of the combo of players the Rockets can and do put on the court.

It's not rocket science (pun intended), you've replaced players with less efficient versions of those players. Who don't know their roles yet as well.

Regarding Melo, I pointed this out many times pre-signing, but the idea that he is "finding his way" as a means of describing him trying to be a catch and shoot floor spacer should only be relevant or positive in the event that he's good at this. He wasn't last year and hasn't been in years. He doesn't actually shoot any better when he's wide open than when guarded, meaningfully. Hopefully he'll get better as the year goes on and he settles in... but getting better doesn't mean being good. It means getting better than his current 1-5 three point average and overall 32% shooting, lol.

So the problem is you've added a 27mpg bench role player that you want to be a solid 3&D type guy, and he's horrible at both of those, and was coming in.

This is a long post to say yes, you're right, there's always issues of complaining too early... HOWEVER, you're also wrong (very) IF the implication is that it's a time thing that is fixable.

Remember these are "all-in" years. Fixable to the point where they can advance once, or twice in the playoffs? Absolutely. Fixable to the point where anyone would expect this team, with or without CP3, to be good enough to really win a championship this year? No, definitely not... there are fundamental structural flaws here.

It's fixable, potentially, via trade. Otto Porter Jr. might be someone to target early. The WIzards are close to crashing and burning... partly because Otto is playing horribly. If/when Knight is tradeable (I think 10/31/18), you might be able to add up some guys (Knight, Nene, Chriss) or find a trade partner to make salaries work - hard because Porter gets paid so much, but the value to the Wizards would be pure salary dump.

 

Somebody who can get a rebound !!

 

Capela & Chriss front court on the floor together might have dealt with Davis and Mirotic much better. Chriss could be a Josh Smith type for us if we need to go big. Capela and JoeChee and/or Nene won't work because JoeChee's lack of athleticism and Nene's lack of 3pt shot but Chriss might can pull it off. Same athleticism issues apply with Hartenstein despite his 3pt shot. Chriss is the only player on the roster that has both the athleticism and a decent 3pt shot from what I remember.