The Optimistic Thread! (TRD's FREEDOM THREAD!)

432J wrote:antawn!!!

^^ Great game by Jamison.

I'm optimistic about the fact that we weren't handed the Clippers early schedule because it is very possible we'd be 2-11 or worse right now.

I thought the bench in general played well tonight. They brought us back a few times when we were down big.

JGC wrote:I'm optimistic about the fact that we weren't handed the Clippers early schedule because it is very possible we'd be 2-11 or worse right now.

LOL there's no need to come and post fake optimistic posts here that just make everyone feel worse.. People are hanging on to very little, have some sympathy!!

Finwë wrote:

JGC wrote:I'm optimistic about the fact that we weren't handed the Clippers early schedule because it is very possible we'd be 2-11 or worse right now.

LOL there's no need to come and post fake optimistic posts here that just make everyone feel worse.. People are hanging on to very little, have some sympathy!!

Haha. Sorry.

But I was just seeing that the Clips lost today against Brooklyn (we beat the Nets, yay). And the I got to thinking good god, the Clips have played the Heat, the Spurs twice, Brooklyn, OKC, Memphis.

Maybe that isn't optimism. Maybe it's just... feeling thankful (in the spirit!) that we have had a VERY favorable schedule so far.

Our bench played well tonight. I thought Jamison started being more aggressive with a scoring mentality. And Meeks is starting to get his shot. Not there yet, but you can see it. Duhon doing good things.

This team wont look good until Nash is back. So right now were just hanging on. Sucks that thats what our team is though right now. IDK what they were doing with Bernie vs now but we should go back to that. Bigs have to get more involved.

Ariza3 wrote:Our bench played well tonight. I thought Jamison started being more aggressive with a scoring mentality. And Meeks is starting to get his shot. Not there yet, but you can see it. Duhon doing good things.

This team wont look good until Nash is back. So right now were just hanging on. Sucks that thats what our team is though right now. IDK what they were doing with Bernie vs now but we should go back to that. Bigs have to get more involved.

Well, they were playing church teams with Bernie. The good news, is that we looked DARN good against church teams!

Role players are playing better. Jamison of course today and Meeks the other day. Players are also knocking down those open 3s more often. Artest looks more competent on offence especially while dribbling.

i think a major change is required to the line-up and the rotation when Nash is back....

PG Nash
SG Bryant
SF World Peace
PF Hill
C Howard

6 Gasol
7 Morris
8 Jamison
9 Meeks
10 Blake
etc...

Makes Howard more of a focus on offense, allows Hill to get minutes and help on Defense and gives us legit scoring off the bench in Gasol and Jamison. Pau might just have to suck it up like Lamar did

it would affect Pau's mental state but it would be what is best for the team. We would lose his passing ability which is pretty important with Dwight but id take his scoring in the post over that. If we start Hill, than on offense Dwight would be pretty bad. There were stats saying the Dwight/Hill frontcourt was terrible offensively. Opponents can easily double off Hill for Dwight. I think if they become serious about not starting Pau than they would have to start Jamison in his place and let Pau play with Hill as the center.

Morris/Duhon
Kobe/Meeks
MWP/Ebanks (idk where he is but he should be playing esp in this new system)
Jamison/Hill
Dwight/Pau

that would be good. and a championship formula as when dwight rest pau would kill backup centers imo. also they could still play some minutes together where pau can still be affective but not the focal point like he would be for the bench unit. plus his passing ability would be very good for meeks and duhon for 3 as well as a cutting ebanks imo.

^^I'm liking it. I'm thinking the twin towers formula is a thing of the past now that small ball is dominating the league now. I think that with Jamison in the line up it provides a quicker line up that can get up the floor and back on d a little quicker, plus keep the defense honest. I'd rather have Jamison in the corner shooting threes instead of Pau. Also would help keep their minutes down.

Ariza3 wrote:it would affect Pau's mental state but it would be what is best for the team. We would lose his passing ability which is pretty important with Dwight but id take his scoring in the post over that. If we start Hill, than on offense Dwight would be pretty bad. There were stats saying the Dwight/Hill frontcourt was terrible offensively. Opponents can easily double off Hill for Dwight. I think if they become serious about not starting Pau than they would have to start Jamison in his place and let Pau play with Hill as the center.

Morris/Duhon
Kobe/Meeks
MWP/Ebanks (idk where he is but he should be playing esp in this new system)
Jamison/Hill
Dwight/Pau

that would be good. and a championship formula as when dwight rest pau would kill backup centers imo. also they could still play some minutes together where pau can still be affective but not the focal point like he would be for the bench unit. plus his passing ability would be very good for meeks and duhon for 3 as well as a cutting ebanks imo.

This will never happen. There is no way the Lakers are going to pay Pau $40M over the next two years to play 10 mins/game.

Someone has to be the odd man out between Dwight/Pau/Jamison/Hill.

Based on history, I think it's going to be Hill. Which sucks because he is one of my favorite players.

I dunno, maybe something like this?

Nash 32 mins / Blake or Duhon 16 mins
Bryant 32 mins / Meeks 16 mins
MWP 32 mins / Jamison 16 mins
Hill 24 mins / Gasol 16 mins / Jamison 8 mins
Howard 36 mins / Gasol 12 mins

Not sure how that'd work rotation wise, but there's plenty of minutes to go around if you take Ebanks out of the equation and continue to play Jamison at both SF and PF.

The bench has done well on this roadtrip so far. Jamison and Meeks seem to be getting in a rhythm which is huge; Duhon is also playing fairly well. That's a good sign.

We were competitive until the 4th quarter against one of the better teams in the league without our starting PG. He'll create more floor balance, effieciency, and another player in the last 5 minutes when a games gets tight we can depend upon. That will be huge.

I have REALLY liked the bench output!! Its been what I thought it would be, if anyone reacalls the Miami Heat was 9-9 when they started and they went to the finals. Good things take time!! New coach, new system, old coach fired, it takes TIME... Yea I hate loosing too but give it time!!

Aonex wrote:I dunno, maybe something like this?

Nash 32 mins / Blake or Duhon 16 mins
Bryant 32 mins / Meeks 16 mins
MWP 32 mins / Jamison 16 mins
Hill 24 mins / Gasol 16 mins / Jamison 8 mins
Howard 36 mins / Gasol 12 mins

Not sure how that'd work rotation wise, but there's plenty of minutes to go around if you take Ebanks out of the equation and continue to play Jamison at both SF and PF.

Seems pretty decent, but it might be too many mins for Hill under D'Antoni's system. I see him getting no more than 15-18 from now on. Well, if Gasol is ever gonna play again.

D'Antoni is probably more likely to slide Kobe to the 3 on occasion and keep Jamison at the 4 while putting in Morris and Meeks (or Duhon and Meeks). Although, we did see a Morris/Duhon backcourt for a couple mins yesterday...

dwighthowardsdad wrote:The bench has done well on this roadtrip so far. Jamison and Meeks seem to be getting in a rhythm which is huge; Duhon is also playing fairly well. That's a good sign.

Yeah, I'm surprised the bench has done better on the road. Usually it takes longer for a brand new bench to adjust playing on the road together. If only our twin towers played on par, we would kill every game. They can't be this bad.

as much as it would be a good thing playing pau off the bench it wont happen with the amount of money we pay him. the most logical thing would be to start pau with dwight but after x amount of minutes into the first quarter take pau out and put jamison in and then when you take dwight out put pau back in at center then when you take jamison out put hill in with pau....etc

essentially besides the initial x amount of minutes in the first, pau would play with mostly hill and some jamison and dwight would play mostly with jamison and some hill.

Dwight/Jamison
Pau/Hill

those 2 front courts work well.

Dallas is 4th in the league in scoring at almost 102 a game and shoot 46% from the field. Tonight 37% from the field, 89 points and they were shooting 31% midway thru the 3rd Q when we were up 37 I think. We held them to 38 points at halftime This is a good offensive team and we locked them down

28 minutes for Pau. 31 minutes for Dwight. Nice to see. We need to get their minutes down.

bench has got it going! and so has mwp

kobe_mamba wrote:i think a major change is required to the line-up and the rotation when Nash is back....

PG Nash
SG Bryant
SF World Peace
PF Hill
C Howard

Absolutely No to Hill starting at PF when Nash comes back. Nash is going to need someone like Jamison or Pau who can hit an outside shot to help space the floor.

We beat the crap of a middle of the pack team on the road. Who won't be optimistic after that

Finally the bench produces...

Solid bench is equal to reduced minutes on starting players...