lot of sky is falling posts tomorrow from the usual suspects.

The sky fell a long long time ago. Leon Rose is trying to get it back up there using giant cranes and cranks.

he got blocked another two times yesterday… and that’s now up to 18…. that leads the league… now power forwards and centers tend to get blocked a fair amount… but they also shoot a lot in that area…. zion has gotten blocked 16 times this season but also shoots almost half his shots near the rim…. randle hardly ever gets to the rim… but for how few of randle’s attempts come near the basket… he is getting blocked at ridiculous rates… he basically is no better than a guard driving to the rim…. and it’s not like he’s converting when he gets there… when he drives he is drawing a lot of attention and he is shooting against a lot of resistance… and he’s not adjusting for 8 games now…. the blocks are just a symptom… but he’s just not pushing people around anymore without another two guys there to contest….

i’ve talked a lot about Randle needing to come up with a second act and his midrange game… the same fate will befall zion too eventually…. but that moment has come right now for Randle… he’s not a spring chicken anymore and he had a great year last year and put the league on notice… well the league is noticing and they’re not falling over anymore…. this is what happens…

Randle is on track for a bad year if he or Thibs does not adjust… Randle is going to be forced to move his game to the midrange…

Randle is shooting at the rim at more often than he did last year, he’s getting fouled at exactly the same rate he was last year, and he’s shooting slightly better at the rim than he was last season. . .you were basically wrong about everything, even setting aside his somewhat hot December.

“He is just talented enough to drive Thibodeau mad, I suspect.”

I am in complete agreement. I was only wondering if, given dj’s penchant for always taking the under, if he could actually go over on something.

And dj, I don’t engage in arguing with you because I don’t know! Most of your takes are within reason (if impressively and consistently negative). If I were to take you on, I’d end up sounding sycophantically upbeat, which doesn’t actually match my take. I’m more of a let’s wait and see, which is a pretty boring take.

I also disagree with him in key a respect that renders his first and third concerns less pressing–I will go ahead and predict that Anunoby will be able to raise his usage a tick without a major efficiency drop off. Put me down for 20 PTS/36 with a .570 or above TS% for the rest of the year.

My primary reason for thinking this is basically the eye-test. I’ve always been intrigued by OG’s ability to use his size to attack mismatches and create space in the short-midrange, which he didn’t get to do all that often in Toronto. I won’t harp on this too much because it’s a subjective take and we’ll just have to wait-and-see.

I do think there are numbers that support the idea of him succeeding in a larger role too though. For various reasons it seems like he and Barnes never quite clicked, and dating back to last season in about 900 minutes with Barnes off the floor OG put up a 58 TS% with 20% USG. With VanVleet also off the floor last season his TS% was 61 and his USG was 22.6% (about 500 minutes).

Ultimately these sample are way too small to say anything even remotely definitive, but I’m a believer in OG’s ability to expand his offensive game in a beneficial way. I think he’s a better shot creator than RJ Barrett and that will bear itself out.

The backup point guard issue is very real though and we might have to move DDV back to the bench to give those units some juice if we don’t acquire anyone else.

I’m less concerned about the incresaed staggering we’ll have to do with Brunson and Randle because those guys have never played all that well together anyway. Our net rating has always been better with one of them on than both of them on, and significantly so.

RE IQ: I wish him well despite the endless would’ve-should’ve on here that will result.

RE wins: FWIW I stick with 50, but the real challenge is Mitch being gone, not RJ.

RE usage: I really hope OG is as advertised, and I’m totally fine with any of Devo, Hart, iHart, Grimes, even Taj or Deuce taking all of Rowan’s shots. I think Leon is, too.

is that a correct assumption that we’ve solidified a top 10 offense with the trade? do i have that right? or are we gonna go all wobbly legs on this now that the spotlight is on again?

Was this a well reasoned critique or was it perhaps unreasonably biased against the idea that something bad wouldn’t improve?

how was it unreasonably biased? randle despite having as hot a month as you can ask for is still way below his production from last year… the only reason our offense is where it is.. is because of hot 3pt shooting…

i laid out the case then… that comment did not come in isolation… there was also analysis on 2pt shooting… how historically that does not lead to good offense.. and that even in our great offensive year last year came with good 2pt scoring…. did you sort of glance over that? or is that more biased takes that i’m just trolling the board with?

again… you want to come and throw tomatoes from your ivory tower… do you want to engage with any of this besides saying i’m wrong because i’m biased because i clearly did not put enough thought into any of these arguments?

again… don’t pull on just one sentence out of context and say i got it all wrong… the season isn’t even over yet and you waited a whole month to take a victory lap… like seriously… you feel that confident taking me to the cleaners on this one sentence? what about the others?