Las Vegas Summer League thread

[Miggs]

I think some of that was definitely due to Donovan and Mike being hobbled (Mike didn't play much but we had to play JC more and he struggled). The fact that they didn't go to pick and roll and were just blowing by guys is encouraging in a way. Find some guys that can/will stay in front.

Small ball allows you to switch more on defense but overall is not really a great defensive strategy unless you have Siakham, Green, etc. It allows the offense to keep up though. Gay gives us an option to really punish small ball too imo. I think if you commit to keeping Gobert off the glass Gay is able going to have openings to do work. Bogey ain't that guy... Royce is okay... but Rudy has great size... so if Batum and Morris face guard Gobert then PG has to hold off Gay instead of Bojan or Royce... its a much bigger ask imo. Only takes a couple times getting beat for a guy to not commit as hard to Gobert... no one likes it when their guy gets the offensive rebound.

Toronto would laugh at us if we offered Butler, Teague, Bogey and a 1st for Siakam, right?

 

[KqWIN]

With last year’s roster, yes. With Gay now, no.

Gay in for Gobert is going to be horrific defensively (not that it already wasn't). If that's the switch you're making, it's just the same roster but instead you're subbing in someone who is worse at everything.

 

[Miggs]

Gay in for Gobert is going to be horrific defensively (not that it already wasn't). If that's the switch you're making, it's just the same roster but instead you're subbing in someone who is worse at everything.

We’ll be going like that this year though.

 

[KqWIN]

I think some of that was definitely due to Donovan and Mike being hobbled (Mike didn't play much but we had to play JC more and he struggled). The fact that they didn't go to pick and roll and were just blowing by guys is encouraging in a way. Find some guys that can/will stay in front.

Small ball allows you to switch more on defense but overall is not really a great defensive strategy unless you have Siakham, Green, etc. It allows the offense to keep up though. Gay gives us an option to really punish small ball too imo. I think if you commit to keeping Gobert off the glass Gay is able going to have openings to do work. Bogey ain't that guy... Royce is okay... but Rudy has great size... so if Batum and Morris face guard Gobert then PG has to hold off Gay instead of Bojan or Royce... its a much bigger ask imo. Only takes a couple times getting beat for a guy to not commit as hard to Gobert... no one likes it when their guy gets the offensive rebound.

IMO, what makes small ball work defensively is active "smalls" who cover space, rebound, rotate+recover ect. Basically you need smalls who do a lot of big man stuff. Unfortunately for the Jazz, we're playing with 3 guys on the court who provide absolutely zero. Yes there were injuries, but Conley, Mitchell, and Bogey are pretty much zeroes in those areas while fully healthy.

If we're getting cooked defensively, the adjustment is to sub in Gay for a small....not for Gobert. That is asking to get destroyed.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'm a hell no on Aminu because he stinks, but I don't think a guy who sticks on 2s or 3s is more valuable than a big wing that can cover space. If we had prime Gary Payton on the court, teams are still going to work to get the switch with Conley/Mitchell/Bogdanovic and turn the guy into a help defender. Smart is great because I think he's good at both, but it's just not possible to rely on guys to consistently stay in front of their man. The most important thing defensively is to cover space, rotate, recover, closeout ect.

I'd add being disruptive as an important defensive trait. I only say we need a guy that can cover 2/3s because Royce does better against bigger wings and Gay should do well too. We got torched by small/quick guards more than I'd like. I'd prefer to get a Smart/Melton/Beverly type more than a RoCo/Tucker/ with our current personnel imo. All are helpful of course.

Smart is probably a bad guy to use because he's incredibly versatile defensively. Legit can handle 1-4 for the most part and does all the rotation, deflection, stuff you'd want with the ability to stick to his defender.

 

[Miggs]

**** it. Make the offer. Bogey, Butler, Teague, and two 1sts for Siakam. If they say no, offer three 1sts. I’m all ****ing in.

 

[KqWIN]

We’ll be going like that this year though.

If the plan is to simply sub in Gay for Gobert, that is a horrific plan. It adds nothing to the lineup defensively and compounds the issues.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

IMO, what makes small ball work defensively is active "smalls" who cover space, rebound, rotate+recover ect. Basically you need smalls who do a lot of big man stuff. Unfortunately for the Jazz, we're playing with 3 guys on the court who provide absolutely zero. Yes there were injuries, but Conley, Mitchell, and Bogey are pretty much zeroes in those areas while fully healthy.

If we're getting cooked defensively, the adjustment is to sub in Gay for a small....not for Gobert. That is asking to get destroyed.

I agree.. you don't sub in Gay for Gobert to get better defensively. You do it as a way to be great on offense in the minutes Gobert is off the court and if it is roughly equivalent to what you would be defensively without Gobert then its a big win. Does having Gay out there instead of Favs hurt you defensively? How much better are you offensively?

Hopefully Gay helps Rudy too... if he has to rotate hard then hopefully Gay can help on the glass or provide secondary rim protection. I think if you add that to a healthy Mike and Donovan the defense survives a team like the clippers last year. Now, Brooklyn this year? Healthy Denver? Phoenix? Lakers? Not sure.. I think we actually matchup well with the Lakers and better with Phoenix... I think it comes down to injury luck out West. If Brooklyn is healthy everyone loses no matter if we added Smart and RoCo.

 

[KqWIN]

I'd add being disruptive as an important defensive trait. I only say we need a guy that can cover 2/3s because Royce does better against bigger wings and Gay should do well too. We got torched by small/quick guards more than I'd like. I'd prefer to get a Smart/Melton/Beverly type more than a RoCo/Tucker/ with our current personnel imo. All are helpful of course.

Smart is probably a bad guy to use because he's incredibly versatile defensively. Legit can handle 1-4 for the most part and does all the rotation, deflection, stuff you'd want with the ability to stick to his defender.

Agreed on the first part. I just think that as long as we have Conley/Mitchell/Bogey on the court, it's a buffet of bad defenders for quick guards to feast on. There's an outside chance that Bogey doesn't close games, but Conley and Mitchell are going to be there and it's going to be a problem you have to solve with good team defense IMO.

I also think it's pretty much impossible to stick on someone these days. Nobody in the league is really capable of doing that, so it really comes down to how well you help/recover. That being said, some resistance is always better than zero resistance. One thing I thought the Bucks were really great at is their ability to stunt and recover with Lopez and Giannis. But that was only possible because their guards were good enough to give the big a chance.

Our guards/wings were just getting toasted defensively and giving up straight line drives. There is no player, not even Giannis or Draymond, who could stop the situation Gobert was presented with.

 

[KqWIN]

I agree.. you don't sub in Gay for Gobert to get better defensively. You do it as a way to be great on offense in the minutes Gobert is off the court and if it is roughly equivalent to what you would be defensively without Gobert then its a big win. Does having Gay out there instead of Favs hurt you defensively? How much better are you offensively?

Hopefully Gay helps Rudy too... if he has to rotate hard then hopefully Gay can help on the glass or provide secondary rim protection. I think if you add that to a healthy Mike and Donovan the defense survives a team like the clippers last year. Now, Brooklyn this year? Healthy Denver? Phoenix? Lakers? Not sure.. I think we actually matchup well with the Lakers and better with Phoenix... I think it comes down to injury luck out West. If Brooklyn is healthy everyone loses no matter if we added Smart and RoCo.

I definitely think Gay at the 5 is fine once Gobert is out of the game. Favors was toast everywhere defensively. He could barely move and even at the rim it was a layup line. We'll see on Whiteside. He is obviously not great away from the rim defensively, but he is a deterrent if he's in position. But if I'm being honest, the defense will be **** either way just because everyone else on the court is so bad.

Offensively, I'm not sure how Gay at the 5 is going to work. Quite honestly, I don't know how the offense is going to work with all of these high usage players. A lot of guys are going to have to take a huge usage cut. Gay and Whiteside are replacing guys who had substantially lower usage than them. When you talk about Gay at the 5, the next guy in line for minutes is probably Paschall (idc who you want to call the 5) and he's also a guy with plus usage.

If the defense is switching, it's probably better to have Gay/Paschall as guys who can theoretically take on smaller players. But you're probably going to want Conley, Mitchell, Clarkson ect to take on their matchups anyways.

 

[fishonjazz]

I’d love to see Garnett in today’s NBA. I feel like he had a good 18-20 footer. Feel like he would become what we thought Thon Maker could be. All the elite defense still but a three point shot too and low post game as well.

Garnett would be awesome in any days NBA. Love that dude

 

[Park Bites]

Actually looking at salaries JC for Dillon Brooks works but I do not think Memphis would do it. I wonder what else we would have to include?

NEVER MIND