Austin Reaves Discussion: Overachiever Who Underachieved

Whether you hesitate to say it or believe it doesn’t change the fact a large share of his minutes every game in the NBA this year he is doing exactly that. And he is making progress getting “better” at it. And attacking, and doing a decent enough job getting into the key to score, draw a foul or dish the ball. You can’t just ignore all the other things I mentioned that are important where he has the edge over DLO the other side of the ball and between the ears. Just because DLO is some not huge level better as a pure PG?

 

i hesitated because of the big emotions people have about his non-pgness.

if you can't see the difference between dlo bringing the ball up against pressure and getting into an offensive set vs. reaves, i'm not sure what else to say. we're not dealing with the same set of observations, and thus can't have a debate. i thought this was settled earlier in the year, tbh.

dlo has also achieved a villain status here that i don't think is deserved. i wish he wasn't our only playable pg. so does the front office. but gabe died, so here we are.

 

This came up with Irwin and Larsuel.

Larsuel came out and said point blank that Ham will not be fired this season.

Irwin said based on what he's heard that Ham's seat hasn't gotten any warmer BUT this is the most (forget the exact word he used) concerned they've been with him since hiring him. There's lineups, usage, and offensive decisions that are a bit perplexing to them. [Much of the similar stuff Buha talked about on the Timpf pod that I posted the recap tweet from 2-3 pages back in the Ham thread]

In a subsequent pod Irwin made a similar point to one I made recently about how firing him would be a bad look for the FO and they want to avoid that. He pointed out this would be the second Rob hire that got canned in a short window. That would reflect poorly on him and draw unwanted attention and questioning from Jeanie.

Larsuel (I believe) did say that Ham is no longer a rookie coach so a lot of that line of excuses no longer works.

Personally I think if things don't go great this year, most we'll see is the FO go the Vogel route will hand pick a lead assistant with some more offensive expertise.

 

You’re still not addressing the entire talley sheet. Why? Ham obviously wants more defense. And we both agree DLO or AR needs to replace having No one besides LeBron that can attempt to be a PG. DLO sucks on defense. It’s a compromise that makes us better. And AR IS more consistent on offense which you seem most concerned about.

 

austin and dlo are basically interchangeable on defense, both slight negatives this year. despite the rhetoric, dlo has actually delivered on his promise to be better on defense. because he used to be really bad, and now he's just a little bad. reaves is also a little bad, regressing a bit from last year where he was slightly good.

moving reddish to the starting lineup made sense because he's a good defender, and we were struggling there. leaving dlo made sense because he's the only healthy pg. demoting dlo for reaves would have been ok, but not ideal, imo. demoting dlo in favor of another forward was lunacy.

i'm actually less concerned with inconsistency from secondary players than most people on the forum. this dates back to the "kuz sucks cuz inconsistent" days. role players are inconsistent. despite the inconsistency, dlo and reaves have been basically similar players on both ends for us this year.

15/6/3 on 47/39/77
15/5/5 on 48/37/88

both with meh defense in the same 29mpg.

 

How can there be no flow, when the scoring, and 3pt shooting are up? That doesn't make any sense.

 

can we all bask in the irony that we're begging ham to play guards this year?

 

Teams make runs man, it's the NBA. Going up or down, by double digits is a pretty common thing in League.

Lebron and Rui both, had poor shooting 1st quarters, in 2 of these 3 games. They were lights out in OKC. There is your offensive issue.
The shots have been there aplenty, the playmakers have been getting good looks, that's what you want. I just don't see how Vanderbilt playing 4 and 5 minutes, is ruining the offense at all.

Reaves and Russell, have both played more 1st quarter minutes than him, in these last two games.

The offense has not been problem IMO

OKC and Boston have two of the best defensive scoring avgs in the League. Minnesota has the best, so we'll see how we look later. I'm expecting to win tonight.

 

Austin got his 30 mins, and D'Angelo sprained his a**, taking a charge. SMH

 

3rd best player on the team is the 8th to step on the floor ? Something is off here

 

Couldn’t score 3 more points

 

He’s a player that doesn’t play well when he’s mad.















at Ham.

 

Austin has to hit his shots like everyone else. He'll bounce back.

 

He's got Bron's vote

 

If that’s true Bron, how about sometime letting him make the last plays of the game

 

Don't think it was Bron's call, judging by his reaction in that timeout (there is a clip of him shaking his head and making faces).

 

Good points

 

CL Owens
@CSmoove_Sports
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2h

“Here's the thing with Ham, he was a low minutes bench player, hustler type. So his mentality is that he can coach those types of player up more because his mindset aligns with who they are...hence why you see TP,Cam so much and random guys in at critical minutes“

HA!! …. @KareemtheGreat33 for “his” beating that drum here first over and over.