WMC 12/13: Mercy kill. (0-4)

dj vitus wrote:

The Rock wrote:Steve Nash's veteran backups tonight

Steve Blake 14 minutes, 0 points
Chris Duhon 8 minutes 0 points

I think Steve Nash is healthy enough to play 38 minutes a game.

That's too much for someone with a back like Nash's. Ideally I want him playing ~30 mins a game, 32 max.

WMC: DJO not playing. Not a good sign for him, hopefully that doesn't mean much. (It doesn't help that Reeves Nelson was the only other guy not playing).

WMC2: Everyone looking tired. C'mon Brown. A practice AND a game? That's silly.

Does Mike Brown really needs to play Gasol & Metta 30 minutes and Nash 25 minutes in this meaningless preseason game ! limit their minute to 20 a game coach !

Not really liking what i'm seeing from the bench so far in these two preseason games. I feel like we went from a D+ to a C-, only modest improvement and only really because of Jamison and Meeks. Sacre is serviceable and CDR is solid, but other than those aforementioned players, everyone else sucks.

Azndude2190 wrote:Not really liking what i'm seeing from the bench so far in these two preseason games. I feel like we went from a D+ to a C-, only modest improvement and only really because of Jamison and Meeks. Sacre is serviceable and CDR is solid, but other than those aforementioned players, everyone else sucks.

Honestly, CDR and Sacre has shown more these 2 games than Jamison and Meeks.

Jamison will be good. He's a natural scorer, but he doesn't seem to be too interested in defense.

the starting 5 will eventually figure it out...

but after so many years, I'm tired of the crappy bench every season. Every season we think "well this year we have some bench potential"...and then it turns out everybody is underwhelming...

can any bench player ever have a career year again? ever a bench player care to emerge as a reliable option? ever a bench player who turns into a great defender? ever a bench player than shoots consistent from outside the 3 point line? annoying the hell out of me.

I guess this what you get when your starting 5 is getting paid 72+ millions ... a crappy bench ... we could get a lot better for the 7.6 M we are wasting on Blake and Duhon though ...

KB24 wrote:the starting 5 will eventually figure it out...

but after so many years, I'm tired of the crappy bench every season. Every season we think "well this year we have some bench potential"...and then it turns out everybody is underwhelming...

can any bench player ever have a career year again? ever a bench player care to emerge as a reliable option? ever a bench player who turns into a great defender? ever a bench player than shoots consistent from outside the 3 point line? annoying the hell out of me.

Amen to that. We haven't had a reliable bench since like 2008 when Sasha had a career year and guys like Farmar, Turiaf were at least giving us production. Hell even Mbenga was giving more in his limited minutes than some of the guys we have. I know it's preseason and too early for concerns but I've been saying the same thing the past few years and it never got better. If we are relying on a 37 Jamison to carry the bench, I don't know if that's going to happen. I had high expections of them at least becoming a decent bench this year. Lets hope they get it together.

Didn't really like what I saw out there last night. Someone said they had a three hour practice, so they had no legs or something...okay, that might explain the poor shooting, but the defense was pretty bad out there, and while obviously Kobe and Dwight is a lot to miss...having them is not going to improve that perimeter D.

I don't think they're going learn this new offense in the 3 weeks that are left until the regular season. It worries me. The bench looks like trash and Blake looks worse than ever.

I have basically no faith in Brown as a decision maker or as a leader. A coaching dropoff after Phil is expected, but we went from the great coach of all time to a rank amateur.

WMC: Some of the players that did well (Sacre and CDR) will probably be cut in favor of deadweight like Duhon and Ebanks

Guys that need to go:
Duhon
Ebanks
Glock
Morris
Somogyi
Aguilar
DJO
Nelson

But because Duhon and Ebanks will be kept, we will lose either or both Sacre and CDR.

kray28 wrote:WMC: Some of the players that did well (Sacre and CDR) will probably be cut in favor of deadweight like Duhon and Ebanks

Guys that need to go:
Duhon
Ebanks
Glock
Morris
Somogyi
Aguilar
DJO
Nelson

But because Duhon and Ebanks will be kept, we will lose either or both Sacre and CDR.

We need to keep CDR. He's been of the few bright spots on our bench

Anyone saying Ebanks is dead weight just isn't watching the games, sorry kray. He's much improved and he looks good. If you really think he's deadweight you just can't be watching the games.

He's solid defensively. He's put on a little mass and is able to body a little bit better. He's got nice hands and his shot looks much improved. He's able to stretch his jumper out to the corner threes now. He looks good out there.

^^^^ he hit a shot here and there ( always has been solid from midrange) but his play still isn't consistant enough after two seasons in the league ... he's a 3rd string player imo .

He hasn't been given the opportunity to show whether or not he can be consistent. How can he be consistent when he's not given consistent playing time? This pre-season he's shown that he is definitely capable of being the backup SF for this team.

Anyone watching the games HAS to see that. He's looked very solid. Of course he hasn't shown consistency. In the 2 seasons he's been in the league he hasn't seen 10 straight games of 15 minutes. The most he's had is two stretches during last season where he played 7 games over 15 minutes and then again 6 games over 15 minutes. In both instances he averaged over 6 points. He averaged 2.86 rebounds the first time and 4.5 the second. He averaged almost a steal a game both times. He shot an underwhelming 43% the first time and a great 52% the second time.

Those numbers are good enough for our second unit and they're going to improve this year with his improved jump shot and still solid defense.

kray28 wrote:WMC: Some of the players that did well (Sacre and CDR) will probably be cut in favor of deadweight like Duhon and Ebanks

Guys that need to go:
Duhon
Ebanks
Glock
Morris
Somogyi
Aguilar
DJO
Nelson

But because Duhon and Ebanks will be kept, we will lose either or both Sacre and CDR.

I haven't seen enough of Duhon, but if we get rid of Duhon, along with G-Lock, Morris and DJO, we are left with ONLY Nash and Blake at the point. We need AT LEAST one more legit PG on the roster. Duhon has a guaranteed contract over 3 mil per season...he AINT goin' nowhere. Morris is a project with size and A GUARANTEED CONTRACT, so HE PROBABLY aint goin' nowhere. Ebanks has steadily improved, and is now looking like an excellent back up SF.

I believe that once the rotation of 30+ minutes per game with 5 HOFers begins, players like Hill, Jamison, Meeks, Ebanks, CDR, Blake, Clark, Sacre and Duhon will become MUCH more effective since they won't have to create anything for themselves, and most of the time they will be out there with 2 or 3 starters. Our bench is VASTLY improved...just WAIT until our roster is settled

I think our final roster is going to look like this:

PG: Nash / Blake / Duhon
SG: Kobe / Meeks / Morris
SF: MWP / Ebanks / CDR
PF: Pau / Jamison / Clark
C: Howard / Hill / Sacre

GoldHammish wrote:

dj vitus wrote:

The Rock wrote:Steve Nash's veteran backups tonight

Steve Blake 14 minutes, 0 points
Chris Duhon 8 minutes 0 points

I think Steve Nash is healthy enough to play 38 minutes a game.

That's too much for someone with a back like Nash's. Ideally I want him playing ~30 mins a game, 32 max.

Lol, sorry I should have put a after that sentence. Or maybe a . I know it's pre-season, but these guys can't do anything. Literally. How many more 20-30 point losses do we need before we find "the right" lineup?

Good things

- Kobe looked good
- Sacre looked good
- Nash had the ball moving well
- Glock made some shots
- CDR hustling
- Ebanks making a couple of J's
- DJO on offense in the 4th


Bad

- Pau looked lousy. he was unaggressive. He was floating in the perimeter too much. Got his shot blocked a couple of times. Had easy catch and score opportunities under the baskets that he blew
- Morris was atrocious outside of making that 1 basket on Foye
- Somoji sucks
- Meeks looks really bad. He needs to play with either Pau or Nash on the floor and get shot opportunities off those guys, he cant create for himself

I've seen nothing from Meeks so far. I hope it's just preseason and not being familiar with the system.

Pau, for a majority of the time, looked like he was mentally one step behind. We can't afford that anymore. Maybe he'll get better with Dwight back, but who knows. He needs to learn to catch a Nash pass first. Shouldn't be that difficult for his lanky butt to create space off a screen and roll free to the basket.

Somogyi, Nelson, Aguilar, it was nice having you guys around as practice and pre-season fodder. Good luck in your future endeavors.

And finally, on a very serious note, I have a bad feeling that Meeks and Jamison, while great signings, may not pan out as much as we had hoped. Jamison's game doesn't seem to fit well--he kinda gets lost when he's not option #1 or #2. Meeks needs more experience, but he's not getting any. We'll see how they do when they (hopefully) get quality minutes during the regular season.

And Glock, I'm gonna miss that deadly floater and nice shooting touch, but seems like DJO is what we need to break down defenses better. I like players that don't allow the defense to rest (like Hill and his relentless rebounding).

The Rock wrote:Meeks looks really bad. He needs to play with either Pau or Nash on the floor and get shot opportunities off those guys, he cant create for himself

Yeah, I am starting to worry that maybe we wasted half of our mini-MLE on this guy. He doesn't seem to have any fortitude. If things don't go his way right away, he just fades away...HATE THAT.

DJO was impressive BOTH as a scorer AND handling the ball and getting people open passes...if he wasn't playing with Reeves Nelson and Aguilar and Goudelock, I think he would have been even more free to do damage. I think DJO is almost getting the nod for backup 1 from me after this look...I know it is premature, but what other back up PG can offer us Youth, Athleticism, Speed, HANDLE....AND SCORING??

It's premature, but I am definitely already leaning toward a back up back court of DJO/CDR. Both hustle, play good D, RESPOND TO ADVERSITY WITH INCREASED INTENSITY, and demonstrate a winning attitude.

Also, Sacre is going to be an EXCELLENT bench big, IF HE EVER GETS RESPECT FROM THE REFS Canter was just uprooting him, culminating in that (what I thought was a FLAGRANT) offensive foul that wasn't called. The refs were CERTAINLY in mid-season anti-laker form in the third quarter

Its hard to assess Meeks when he's playing with absolute joke camp fodders.

The trend of bad 3rd quarters continues.

I have grown so accustomed to losing....ever since the start of the summer league every game has been an absolute waste of time .