Someone educate me - I only watch Rockets games so I'm ignorant of what other teams are doing. On paper, this lineup: Steven Adams Zion Williamson Brandon Ingram Lonzo Ball Eric Bledsoe Looks flat-out amazing. Yet even after a 3 game winning streak, they're now 19-24. Why aren't they doing better? Do they need Zion and Ball to age a bit? I'm not saying they should contend, but a starting 5 that strong should be a playoff team IMO.
They're defensive rating is 28th in the league. If you can't stop anyone from scoring you're going to have a long night. Williamson is not even an average defender, Ingram has his moment and Bledsoe's defense this year is atrocious. http://www.82games.com/2021/20NOP1.HTM Based on 82games.com Simple rating metric, Bledsoe is the 2nd worst player on the roster. If they trade Ball this week they can kiss their chances of making the playoffs goodbye.
Pretty much this. If you are gonna be abysmal on defense, you need to be elite on offense to offset it. They're a good offensive team, but not good enough. So they are what they are, a fringy playoff team who's had a little bad luck in close games.
Still waiting on ESPN to highlight/talk about how Zion might be the worst defender in the league...i'm probably going to wait until he's a Rocket.
Because like a lot of dummies on here, they are trying to play 90s basketball with two bigs. Zion needs to be the C.
Adams doesn't make sense on that team. I think SVG is only now starting to play Zion at center. Ingram is talented but I don't know how much he contributes to winning. Bledsoe isn't a good fit there, and honestly I don't know where he is a good fit. Lonzo started out terrible but has been really good as of late. In summary, they have had some bad coaching and have players who don't really fit alongside their star.
They really need a swiss army knife forward to complement Zion and Ingram up front. Someone that can rebound, defend and knock down an occasional 3 to keep defenses honest.
There are a lot of reasons, but I still think the Pelicans have a really bright future if they are smart about it. They should have extended Lonzo Ball this last off season, but whatever. First the spacing on that team is terrible. The two best threats on the Pelicans are inside and their outside shooting isn't great. You have Adams operating in the same general space as Zion and even Ingram at times. Second, their back court is one of the worst in the league, if not the worst. Ball can be a very good role player but he needs to be next to a guard that can put the ball on the floor, create enough and shoot well. Bledsoe is done as an effective NBA player. Third, Stan Van Gundy is their coach. He is going to teach them strong fundamentals but he isn't great at actual leading.
In hindsight, the Celtics should have brought back Hayward and did everything they could to move Walker. Kemba played like ass in the bubble and I thought hey maybe it's just the bubble but he's a shell of his self after his knee operation. They also don't have anyone reliable on the front line either. Ole Danny boy is not building his team out logically.
Both of these teams are stale IMO. It is odd that the Clippers after such a short time would be stale but they are. They can beat anyone sometimes but they lack leadership and have some flaws on that roster outside of their forwards. They really could use a good point guard.
Why can't teams just let dudes like Brandon Ingram go? He's not a max player, but you have to pay him the max to stay. So why not just let him go and keep that salary space open for someone who is a true max player?
What true max player is ever signing with New Orleans? Small markets like them just can’t let talents like Ingram go.
they have little shooting and spacing around Zion...21st in 3 point percentage, and 23rd in both makes and attempts they don’t defend put some shooting and defense around Zion, and they will be a playoff team
BI is the best they can get. Free agents these days only go to LA, NY or Miami with other super stars.
The solution then is to build a solid team with solid players and no max player. Ingram might be a special talent, I think he just looks funny, but he doesn't impact the game in a special way. Let him go. I could understand if he is one of those players that make you a league attraction, but he's not that either.
