The kid is breaking out man. Reminds me of Lou Williams. His defense also seems to be better than advertised.
i think it's improving. not sure if it can get to passable as a playoff rotation guy, but i think he may already be there as a regular season guy.
schroder's a much stronger ballhandler and ellis is a much stronger defender, but yeah, 6'2" 180 doesn't mean you can't play at all. margin for error just shrinks a ton.
I was just remarking about Nick’s size and light weight at 6’2” 185 but then acknowledging Schroder 6’1” 175 and Ellis at 6’4” 175.
He had three clear issues from his time at Charlotte, he was a bad defender, didn’t get others involved and could be inefficient. With the right coaching he should be able to fix these and be a credible bench piece. In his limited minutes with us he is giving effort defensively and if he is a neutral defender that would be positive for his chances of nailing down a spot in the league. I’m not sure his court vision and playmaking will ever really improve but if he is your release valve alongside one of Luka, LeBron and Reaves, it shouldn’t matter so much, the kid can score. Lastly by limiting the situations you put him in (having to constantly create for himself), his efficiency will improve as he is a good shooter.
I like his game. One of the reasons we won the Portland game & was good in the Raptors game. Shot well in the Boston game, too. Potential for sure.
i think if he finds his way into the rotation like goodwin did, he'll be kept. they're probably regretting the goodwin move already with smart missing half the games. plus, we have a roster spot, so i think we can just convert smith later in the year. i wonder if we've got a timer going on his games played the pro-rated amount we've got under the apron to pay him.
We have Nick the Quick and LaRavia. Those guys are what we need, I'm sure of it. I'd try to get one more Marcus Smart if possible, but these young guys (they are 21 & 24, respectively) need minutes and experience. Nick is scoring 8 PPG in limited time, shooting scorching 48% from 3. Hot sizzle! LaRavia is a 9/4/2 guy with legitimate size who plays good defense and gets more than one steal per game. Great feel for the game, smart off-ball cutter, never does anything stupid with the ball, because he knows his limitations (ballhandling). I think what we need - aside from that additional "Smart" guard - is right in front of our eyes.
A good thing about guys like Nick and Goodwin last year is they're fighting just to stay in the league right now. If they get minutes they're going to play hard, even if they don't play well. As opposed to more established bench guys whose effort can ebb and flow if Luka or LeBron clearly aren't locked in that night.
Seems like Adou needs minutes too. I’m not sure we don’t already have the players we need, but we’ll lose more games if we invest in developing them. Not easy for a coach to do,but better than playing stars 40 minutes
I’d like to see more minutes for more of our guys. I don’t get JJ’s obsession with only playing 9 in the rotation. It’s the regular season! Play your roster, it’s actually pretty deep this year finally. Don’t burn out the stars. 40 minutes a game is too much for Luka and AR. 35 a piece is ideal. Get Lebron down to 30 a game. You have plenty of capable forwards between Rui, LaRavia, Vando, Thiero and Knecht. Keep Smart’s minutes down to 18 a game. Play Nick Smith more and Gabe less!!
Yeah that is really DUMB to have such a limited rotation regular season and packing on the minutes on our main guys.
Great coach in certain areas but lacking in others. Seems to be having a hard time seeing the big picture consistently. Every game, every practice, right down to team meetings, all need to be preparation for the playoffs. Inexperience showing through, a bit frustrating but JJ will learn eventually.
