Game Thread Dec 28, 2020: Jazz at Thunder

[Handlogten's Heros]

Tonight’s game had serious vibes of last years BS... difference was Mike is playing so damn good right now that we won.

DM does some major ball watching and it ended with some easy offensive rebounds... he’s gotta be a superstar on offense and a plus defender if we are going to be a contender.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

Tonight’s game had serious vibes of last years BS... difference was Mike is playing so damn good right now that we won.

DM does some major ball watching and it ended with some easy offensive rebounds... he’s gotta be a superstar on offense and a plus defender if we are going to be a contender.

His defense is probably the most disappointing thing about him since he was drafted in my mind.

 

[framer]

West is going to be a bloodbath. Every road win is a gem. Although Memphis might be in trouble depending on what happened to Ja. Took down Brooklyn first though.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

His defense is probably the most disappointing thing about him since he was drafted in my mind.

It’s a focus thing too... he’s capable. He does it sporadically. I do wonder if he was a little hobbled after the bump with Royce.

 

[framer]

His defense is probably the most disappointing thing about him since he was drafted in my mind.

Mitchell can play point, score a ton, or play defense. Pick any two.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

It’s a focus thing too... he’s capable. He does it sporadically. I do wonder if he was a little hobbled after the bump with Royce.

He did have a nice effort on SGA late in the game.

 

[str8line]

Our depth was not there and Quin doesn't want to try it. We got lucky tonight.

You gotta play your guys for a while win or lose unless the rook is spectacular. But in Niang's case we might make an exception.

 

[The mailman]

I’ll be honest... there’s a lot to like about OKC. That’s a nice young team right there. And a good coach as well.

As for us... it’s clear that we’re not going to get very far unless we’re clicking on all cylinders. One or two main guys have an off night and it becomes a dogfight. But I still see us ending up second in the West.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

 

[framer]

I’ll be honest... there’s a lot to like about OKC. That’s a nice young team right there. And a good coach as well.

As for us... it’s clear that we’re not going to get very far unless we’re clicking on all cylinders. One or two main guys have an off night and it becomes a dogfight. But I still see us ending up second in the West.

If any team has two of it's main 3 players blow chunks they are in trouble. Thank goodness between Mitchell, Gobert, Conley, Bogey, AND Clarkson. SOMEBODY is going to score out of those 5.

 

[infection]

I’ll be honest... there’s a lot to like about OKC. That’s a nice young team right there. And a good coach as well.

As for us... it’s clear that we’re not going to get very far unless we’re clicking on all cylinders. One or two main guys have an off night and it becomes a dogfight. But I still see us ending up second in the West.

This is the problem. We see the entirety of this team. Each team’s probabilities for success could be plotted on a graph that resembles a bell curve. We’re less familiar with other teams, so we rely on simple averages — both statistical and composite eyeball, and we compare our view of our team against the “50th percentile” of other teams. Or, if we know a bit more, compare it to their 40-60th percentiles. But we see the potential for our teams under certain theoretical circumstances and see some of the ceiling of the team (hitting into the 85-90th percentiles), and do our comparisons tend to skew toward our own positive (or sometimes negative) outliers for potential and we compare it to everyone else’s midpoint between their ceiling and floor. But for us to win we have to be having some outliers for ourselves, and hope the other teams aren’t having their own positive outliers at the same time.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

They shot the ball well... so did Minny... issue is too many open shots. We’ve got to have guys making multiple efforts.

We also need to throw Shaq out there for the 10 Niang minutes.

DM is forcing things and his shot has disappeared... one may have led to the other... he will figure it out. Regardless his defensive attention needs to improve. He can be a plus defender... I don’t think Bogey can.

The defense will look better once Rudy doesn’t have to guard a stretch big... but we’ve got to figure out how to cover the stretch bigs and keep Rudy in the paint.