He sat out 73 for us last year. What's 1 more?
that fool.
White is an All-Defense level defender. Srs. He gets no respect from the refs either, there's been several times over the past few weeks when a player blatantly pushes him away with their off arm bc he's draped all over them, White falls, and he inexplicably gets called for the blocking foul. Once he starts being recognized as the amazing defender he is and the refs start giving him those calls the NBA= ed.
As soon as this thread popped up, I knew White was getting that A+. What a great performance.
Thanks Timvp!
White was great...emerging into quite a player. And DeRozan did a nice job distributing. A lot of the open looks we get from 3 are from DeRozan's penetration and the attention he draws from the defenses. I thought his ball movement and finding the open man is worth a little better grade than he got...and he came through with some nice buckets late to keep the Celtics out of it. With him and LMA both doing their thing inside the arc it's making it nice for our perimeter guys. DDR is a better fit than I imagined.
I noticed Pau's body language, too. He's really not a great fit for how this team is evolving. He might be more detrimental to the flow than Cunningham. I wish his contract could be traded for someone who could help the Spurs this year.
play poeltl
That cold start from the Good Guys looked scary there, but they kept their composure and allowed their defense to keep them in the game until their offense could catch up. Hopefully this team is starting to have confidence in themselves and each other. Thursday's game will be electric! There's gonna be a whole lot of energy at the AT&T Center that SA could be powered for a month, lol! Any who, hopefully LMA can continue with bully balling smaller defenders and when he gets double or triple teamed, make the opposing team pay by passing the ball out to a 3 point shooter. DW4 is ballin!!! He seems to be gaining more confidence! Hopefully this means that things will continue to go up for him. Also for Pop, hopefully this is where he finally sees DW4's value on the court and trusts him to play more meaningful minutes over Mills, SMH! His defense is what the doctor ordered! GSG!!!
BTW, White just missed one field goal on his way to 22 points!
Wow, this team is rolling! And to think there were quite a few posters on here who wanted this team to tank. Wonder where they went to?
In the first half I had a feeling we were shooting ourselves in the leg. Poeltl-LMA lineup just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in theory and doesn’t work on the court. Spacing is painful to watch. So unlike timvp I was actually happy to see Cun entering the game which meant no 2-bigs lineup.
Gasol coming back may be a real problem for us. Look at the Mavs. Dirk coming back already costed them at least a couple of wins. It messed up their rotation. We have a risk of the same with Gasol. I’ve always liked Pau but there’s no rotation spot for him now.
On the bright side LA was a beast and he should remain like that
I can see a scenario where Pau plays 10-15 minutes/game—pop has to start thinking of saving LA for the rest of the year
Pop needs to start hyping him up on that end with the media. That's the only way to speed up the recognition process.
Yeah, I agree. Brad Stevens giving him major props for his defense last night was a good start.
What's crazy is, with the emergence of White this team is seemingly just a legit, long 3&D wing away from being serious contenders. Murray/White/3&D wing is a pretty solid trio to throw at GS's backcourt assuming they stay intact past this year. Sigh if only we had kept LDN.
Also, I will never doubt PopaGOAT and RC again. I can't believe there were idiots early on that were saying Pop should retire or be fired after his body of work over the past two decades. Or that the game had passed him by. Honestly, during that rough stretch I thought maybe we did suck now but in hindsight the only reason we ever sucked that bad was because the team's two best perimeter defenders were out. The Murray and White injuries really threw a wrench in the plans they had coming into the season.
I actually thought Pop handled the PF minutes correctly . . .
- By initially inserting Gasol instead of Cunningham into the rotation, he signaled that despite the Celtics being wing heavy, he'd try to play his best talent, matchup and rotational awkwardness be damned.
- He quickly realized that trying to shoehorn a third C into the rotation was going to be untenable, so he went away from it after a 5 minute stint.
- Since Bertans played the last 7 minutes of the 3rd and it appeared the game would be in at least reasonable doubt throughout much of the 4th, he correctly tried to steal 3-4 minutes with Cunningham. Sure, Hayward was playing as the nominal PF, but this was when DeRozan was also resting and playing any smaller on the wings would have risked being bludgeoned in the post and on the glass.
Only are would believe pop forgot how to coach up or develop players
Interesting game to observe how Aldridge-Poetl-Gasol rotation could work.
Poetl+Aldridge PROs: paint defense and rim protection, defensive rebound, offensive rebound.
Poetl+Aldridge CONs: perimeter defense, not the best spacing in offense (less space for Aldridge and DeRozan to attack the rim and finish/kick out to shooters)
Transition D shouldn't be much worse as the big crushing the offensive board delays opp fastbreak first action.
Better paint defense and dominating defensive rebound could provide more fastbreak opportunities but playing two bigs will slow down pace and reduce transition game.
A 3 bigs rotation should directly reduce Aldridge minutes from 38 to 32-33, which is good as long as the team works well without him on the court.
Starting 2 bigs would probably send Gay to the second unit. This movement has its own pros and cons. I think Gasol+Gay+Shooters would work very well as second unit for this team.
A 3 bigs rotation, starting 2 of them could indirectly reduce DeRozan minutes or anybody else's. Either Gay or Bertans would play some minutes as DeRozan's backup at S and Forbes, Mills, White and Marco would be the backcourt. Alternatively, DeRozan would be moved to the SG and one of the four would reduce his participation.
I can see a dilemma here for the franchise: Do they go ahead with the 3 bigs as planned in summer or do they turn to the successful rotation of the last month? What about trades and adjusting the roster for the current year? I wish we had played nephew 3 days ago when everything was clear.
Take away minutes from Mills and Bellineli. I love experimental Pop. I want him to try White-DD-Bertans-LMA-Poetl next. Poetl already works well with Davis, if he gets synergy with LMA, the NBA is screwed.
If we are going to start two bigmen, it makes more sense to start Pau than Poeltl, tbh.
Pau can play his high-low game with LA and he can also spread the floor with his shooting. Poeltl meanwhile can keep working on that season saving chemistry with the second unit.
this. Pau and LA already know how to play together and Pau can shoot 3s. I still think smallball is the better strategy for this team though
Also, a Bertans-Gasol frontcourt is the most disastrous combo defensively.
I just don’t see the reason to play Pau tbh. Any playing time he gets is taking away from Poelts minutes. Jakob is 23 years old and is going to be our big man of the future he needs all the playing time he can get and not getting it taken away from a 38 year old coming off a fracture in his foot. I don’t mind Pau getting some spot minutes if foul trouble occurres but I definitely don’t think him in the rotation benefits this team.
Never change a winning team, and right now this team is winning. Even the last 3 Losses, were more about own stupidity (Free throws, letting bulls come back, etc.) than that the opponent was better.
So as long there is no need, i would not play Pau.
Despite Whites good D in the last games, Poeltl is still the best defender on the Team. To have him as much as possible on the court only benefits the team. Especially the Bertans-Belinelli-Poeltl Line Up has proven to be deadly.
Poeltl-LMA lineup is as much for Poeltl to learn to play with LMA, as much as LMA has to learn to let Poeltl be the Rim Protector. In my opinion they could compliment each other, but this needs time and trust.
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