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What a wet fart of a Game 1

Remember how AB was able to play in this series last year because he could beat his guy off the dribble... I wondered today if Grayson could have some success getting some penetration... yup, that is where I am and it only took one game for me to get there. Sad day.

We will obviously play better and I think we take a game or two, but my hopes of winning this series are gone.
 
Blake has rightfully earned a rep as a fragile player. Some here are comparing him to Dante.... But 4 of BG's 9 seasons he has played 90% (74+) of games. 7 of 9 he's played 80% (65+) of games. And this year he played 75 games with the 8th highest MPG (35.0) in the NBA, and has had 5 seasons of 35+ mpg.

Comparing him to Dante, who has had 1 of 5 seasons at 90% played (0 of his last 4) and has never surpassed 22 MPG, is faulty at best. Not to mention Blake is 10 times the player Dante is when he does play.


Also, people claim he wouldnt be there for the playoffs, but if my tally is correct, BG has played in 51 of 57 (~90%) possible playoff games.
 
The way I see it, we need to just play Harden straight up on Defense. Let him get his, and take shots away from everyone else. All forcing him left did was give him a wide open lane and he got right anyway. He either got a layup, an easy dunk for Capela or a wide open three for a teammate. Joust play the damn system you’ve done all year
 
We had enough flexibility around the fringes to make an addition or two. Granted making an offer of the MLE would seemingly hurt our flexibility. We could have taken a chance on one of the many guys who signed for around MLE money and those guys would have made a difference. Many of us like guys like Joe Harris, Rudy Gay, Bjelica, etc. and all could have helped us. Could have release Jonas/Thabo and/or Udoh. We may have ended up with Kyle Anderson or another guy that would be bad value... that list has the benefit of hindsight, but those were all guys I thought were FA targets at the time. I get why we aren't aggressive on big stuff all the time because you only have so much ammo... it's that we don't make moves around the fringes that could have some upside.

Even if those additions didn't help us in this series they would have helped us win a few more games during the year or they can be trade assets or free us up to trade other guys who are assets. DL has been overly conservative... keeps us out of trouble but also has limited our ability to take the next step forward.

Agree there was some value to be had around the fringes. It was rumored we wanted Gay two years ago during the Haywood fiasco. NBelly was a good option. However, we have no idea whether or not the interest was mutual, even if we had overpaid. Just because they were FA doesn't mean we had a chance to acquire them. Ah yeah, DL is quite conservative ("our best free agent is [a healthy] Alec Burks"). He must pull a big deal this offseason.
 
Agree there was some value to be had around the fringes. It was rumored we wanted Gay two years ago during the Haywood fiasco. NBelly was a good option. However, we have no idea whether or not the interest was mutual, even if we had overpaid. Just because they were FA doesn't mean we had a chance to acquire them. Ah yeah, DL is quite conservative ("our best free agent is [a healthy] Alec Burks"). He must pull a big deal this offseason.

This is true.. and also Brooklyn may have matched any offer around the MLE for Harris. I just think we have enough evidence to know we did not push hard on those fronts.

It just seems to be a pattern of keeping the band together in order not to disrupt chemistry...

I think DL is a very good GM, but he is not above judgement and has had some missteps... some his fault some not.
 
1) We don't have the Bucks players to run that defense 2) We obviously didn't understand it super well - the help the help rotations were crap 3) It largely succeeded for the Bucks as a fluke dependent on the role players missing open corner 3's

It's a bad defense that lets the Rockets play a very low effort offense and still consistently get very good looks. I pray I don't see it again this series.
 
1) We don't have the Bucks players to run that defense 2) We obviously didn't understand it super well - the help the help rotations were crap 3) It largely succeeded for the Bucks as a fluke dependent on the role players missing open corner 3's

It's a bad defense that lets the Rockets play a very low effort offense and still consistently get very good looks. I pray I don't see it again this series.

Based on the quotes I’ve seen... it is coming by back
 
Blake has rightfully earned a rep as a fragile player. Some here are comparing him to Dante.... But 4 of BG's 9 seasons he has played 90% (74+) of games. 7 of 9 he's played 80% (65+) of games. And this year he played 75 games with the 8th highest MPG (35.0) in the NBA, and has had 5 seasons of 35+ mpg.

Comparing him to Dante, who has had 1 of 5 seasons at 90% played (0 of his last 4) and has never surpassed 22 MPG, is faulty at best. Not to mention Blake is 10 times the player Dante is when he does play.


Also, people claim he wouldnt be there for the playoffs, but if my tally is correct, BG has played in 51 of 57 (~90%) possible playoff games.

His injury history would scare me, but we need more playmaking/creation and more spacing... he'd provide both of those things at a high level. If you managed his minutes like Kawhi I wonder if it'd help. This current injury seems more wear and tear related.

I don't see Detroit moving him for anything we'd be willing to offer.
 
Even if he was, we can’t get Griffin and Kemba. Unless we’re willing to trade Ingles and Crowder. I think.

He’s played in 51/57 playoff games and averaged 21/8.5/4 over them. The “not healthy for the playoffs” is overstated I think
 
I was doing a bit of a deep dive on Kemba on another forum in a Kemba vs 2017 John Wall thread, and when you look at the trash can rosters he's been carrying almost to the playoffs himself as a 6'1 PG who isn't known for playing defense and just how efficient he's been as a scorer with effectively no reliable 2nd option on his team throughout his entire prime I came away thinking how underrated he actually is. If he's all about winning and doesn't really care where he does it (which I genuinely believe coming from Kemba) then I really hope he gives Utah a look because him + Mitchell makes the Jazz super dynamic on the perimeter and I think it also makes our secondary creator guys like Ingles that much better too, and we've got the system and players in place to hide Kemba's weaknesses defensively as much as any other team in the league.

Keep Neto and Exum (Neto is just the solid backup PG and you keep your fingers crossed we can get more than 2 weeks of that December Exum stretch as he's an ideal 3rd guard to pair with Mitchell and Kemba), look to upgrade more of the shooting on the wings (Mirotic would be the ideal pick on a decent contract but he seems pretty happy in MIL) and I think the Jazz become dynamic enough offensively to be considered a real threat to contend. They'll struggle early as the team adjusts to Kemba and vice versa but I think Kemba is actually a really, really ****ing good player and is the exact type of player the Jazz need to compliment Mitchell and Gobert.
 
I was doing a bit of a deep dive on Kemba on another forum in a Kemba vs 2017 John Wall thread, and when you look at the trash can rosters he's been carrying almost to the playoffs himself as a 6'1 PG who isn't known for playing defense and just how efficient he's been as a scorer with effectively no reliable 2nd option on his team throughout his entire prime I came away thinking how underrated he actually is. If he's all about winning and doesn't really care where he does it (which I genuinely believe coming from Kemba) then I really hope he gives Utah a look because him + Mitchell makes the Jazz super dynamic on the perimeter and I think it also makes our secondary creator guys like Ingles that much better too, and we've got the system and players in place to hide Kemba's weaknesses defensively as much as any other team in the league.

Keep Neto and Exum (Neto is just the solid backup PG and you keep your fingers crossed we can get more than 2 weeks of that December Exum stretch as he's an ideal 3rd guard to pair with Mitchell and Kemba), look to upgrade more of the shooting on the wings (Mirotic would be the ideal pick on a decent contract but he seems pretty happy in MIL) and I think the Jazz become dynamic enough offensively to be considered a real threat to contend. They'll struggle early as the team adjusts to Kemba and vice versa but I think Kemba is actually a really, really ****ing good player and is the exact type of player the Jazz need to compliment Mitchell and Gobert.
*Complement

In b4 @colton
 
We need to play Harden straight up and suffocate everyone else, just like they did on defense. Harden might get 50-60 but it might be the only way to hold them under 100.
 
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