Re: Paul Reed, I should add that anyone who goes off against the Nets is a friend of mine!

Anyone notice that at 9-7, Dallas is right where we want them to be, in the play-in? The last thing we want is for them to have a realistic shot at #1-10…the 8th seed would put them \in close but no cigar territory.

Z–man says:
November 23, 2022 at 00:21
I ALWAYS KNEW KEVIN KNOX WOULD BE GOOD!!!

This made actually look up Knox’s line. He played 25 minutes, made eight of eleven shots for seventeen points, had eight rebounds, an assist and a steal and was +12 in a game where the Pistons beat Denver with Jokic by two points. That’s pretty impressive.

I think defense is similarly important at every position, including at PG, as we saw last year with Kemba Walker. That said, I didn’t mean to imply that they were similar *players* as they clearly have much different roles. But they do have very similar shooting efficiency numbers, which are derived in largely the same way, and they have similar types of games relative to their peers with similar usage at their respective positions. Beyond that, in general I associate PGs with assists and point of attack defense and PFs with rebounds and interior defense. I agree that PG is the more important position, and so do most metrics I guess. So I would go as far as to say that Brunson is the more important and more effective player, and more essential to winning. But Randle’s shooting efficiency has been more consistent across wins and losses.

Problem #1 – RJ’s usage is too high given his consistently inconsistent shooting and low efficiency.

Problem #2 – The defense has been poor

I think we should take a serious look at Cam and Grimes together. That might improve the defense. Thibs is extremely unlikely to start that combo, but there should be ample opportunity to look at it. In fact, I think I’d really like to see Quick, Grimes, and Cam with Mitch or Sims behind them.

I would really like to see what this team looks like for a month without RJ Barrett. It seems like some guys are exempt from Thibs’ doghouse, and he’s one of them. But I think we might like this team a whole lot more if he sat. And it’s probably good for his development, too. Let him fight for his playing time like Obi & Quick.

Melton was also amazing.

Brunson’s ast/tov ratio is in fact exactly what makes him much better than Randle. And Randle is a horrific defender at an important position.

As for Knox, I always knew he had this in him

To be honest, I haven’t been playing close enough attention to the details of all our defensive deficiencies. I’m not sure I have much of an opinion other than the net of it hasn’t been good. I’ve mostly been enjoying Cam and Quick and lately Sims. They are at least getting better. Now Grimes is back.