Head Coach JJ Redick Discussion: Spazzing Out

other team being historically good and best player injured = cop out? ok.

didn't seem to be a huge issue as they mopped the floor with the other playoff teams.

no. healthy boston was beating anyone that year.

you think you have to have the best team on paper to win the title? actually rarely happens!

cool. if we can get wembanyama, let's go after that. we have luka. denver almost beat okc last year with jokic/murray as the top dogs.

because top 40-ish guys are basically unobtainable with our assets after luka/reaves. reaves is a top-40 player in the league (looked higher than that before the the injuries this year). having a top 5, and two more guys in the top-40 just isn't super easy to pull off.

anyway, that response was to whoever said we need to understand that a reaves max could become a terrible contract. well...any large contract can become a terrible contract. this is a useless argument unless you're simply against signing anyone but luka/jokic/sga/giannis/wemby to a max. and again, reaves's max isn't those guys's max! because--as is being beaten into the ground--he hasn't been all nba, etc., he's going to be paid like 10 million less than say, trae young.

the highest reaves can start at is 41.5 million next year. 35th in the league. same as mpj, brandon ingram, lamelo ball, etc. 10 million less than deaaron fox.

if you think 41.5 is too high for him, then you're saying you think you can trade him for someone who IS worth their contract (perhaps plus other things) or that you can make better use of that salary slot in FA. i think both are simply not true.

 

We saw some gimmick defensive plays last season that got us a bunch of wins, they needed a mix of effort and novelty. I'm still pretty sure we can't be a consistently good defensive team with this roster.

 

yeah, we have to scratch out wins where we can like this, then hope when reaves gets back we can outscore most teams. barring a trade of course.

 

Sometimes desperation creates creativity. With the bodies at his disposal on this roster, it requires some out of the box thinking to get the requisite effort ESPECIALLY on defense. Glad he's found something that we can go to for now and eek out two wins from it. The zone, bigs + 1 guard lineups, and Timme Time has been some inspired coaching.

 

Good assumption

 

JJ you f***ed up man
Stop anchoring Luka to that unit with Gabe/Haye/Vando - terrible lineup which is getting blown apart by team.

And use your god damn timeouts. For once I'd like to see a Laker coach out duel Lue

 

yikes.

first, the kobe/luka parallels are getting uncanny. maybe he doesn't pass more because he doesn't trust anyone to finish plays. who's proving him wrong these days?

also, i didn't see the second half, but to open the game, it was clear the clippers were making luka a scorer, and he was mostly doing his job there. they were trying to prevent other guys from getting off, and they were lucky his three continues to not fall. it was a gamble that paid off, but i didn't see a lot of evidence that he was forcing things. the viral clip of him forcing that late three was after he passed on an open one, likely because he's getting in his head with people claiming he shoots too much. having your coach join the chorus isn't going to help.

he's the guy i want shooting. until reaves gets back. then there are two guys that i'm pretty happy with shooting as much as they want.

second, i'd love to know which guys jj's talking about in terms of "worried for their futures". i mean, half the team is expiring, so yeah, that's an issue. but it's your job as coach to explain to them that the best way to make money next year is to win now. if we finish 7th and get booted in the first round, not only are you gone, your salary is halved. if you put 15ppg or 6ppg whilst those things happen, it matters not. none of our FAs are guys that are going to make their money by leveling up as an on-ball offensive option. if any of them becomes valuable, it will be because they could find a role and play within a system on both ends. they sure as s*** shouldn't be worried about their touches. i'll give nick smith your touches if you don't play defense like we discussed.

btw, i played basketball for years and never remember keeping track of how many shots i'd taken during a game. i took them when they came, sometimes they came, sometimes they didn't.

 

millions are at stake, and a lot of it is based upon stats, so I get it for sure

 

see...i actually think most if not all teams have wised up and it's not about your counting stats. it's about whether the team is better when you're on the floor. the scouting and stats are so good now that you have your cam thomas types settling for mles or less. if anything, the ability to knock down a shot when you don't see the ball for a few possessions is EXACTLY what teams will pay for. as is the ability to cover for your star offensive players on defense. you can get rich doing this! pj tucker's whole career was just these two things.

 

Yeah. And guys in that Tucker mold who know what their role is and can do it consistently are what this team needs.

 

Yeah, I didn't like that with Kobe and I don't like it now. It's one thing to talk about passing when Shaq was out there. Another when it was Smush. I feel like Luka often finds himself in the latter situation and tries to carry the team when no one can hit anything.

And sure, the best player has to trust his guys but those guys have to reward the best player for giving them the opportunity. I didn't play college ball or anything but some of my friends did. When we played pick up ball I knew I had to make my first few shots / plays count otherwise they would mentally go into "well he doesn't have it today mode" and try to take over. Just kind of a natural instinct when you know you're the best guy on the team IMO.