I voted that as well, but that can also be #6. Needed a big going into the season, didn't get one. AD asked for a big. Answer was no. Luka asked for a big. And we got him one until we didn't. I think a subsequent moved (like Sharpe) should've been made regardless. That wouldn't have been a series changer but he's an elite rebounder, certainly would've helped.
Voted for Rob did a poor job of roster construction, which to me also covers no big and lack of bench production. AD asked for C for years, he never added one and clearly doesn’t value the position. This team also had almost zero 2-way players, not a lot of real athletes either, it was a concern coming into the season. He finally addressed part of that with the DFS trade and it immediately started turning things around. And again, the margins, we have been bad around the margins for a while, multiple wasted roster spots on borderline NBA players. It’s up to him to fix this stuff from here on out, he’s got job security now and no reason not to go for it. But yeah, no big was a huge reason, but I feel like even if we had a legit C we still didn’t have the athletes to match Minny, they consistently shot over us, blew by us, bullied us, this roster just had huge flaws.
We all knew this Team was poorly constructed & unbalanced after the Luka trade. That's why they immediately went after Williams to get a Big. We overachieved in the regular Season just due to the natural skill & playmaking ability of our Big 3, but this Team was not built to go on a deep Playoff run.
yeah, couldn't decide, but went with no bench because i think if we make a few open shots in games 3 and 4, the series looks different even without a big. we couldn't force them to play our style because we couldn't make enough outside shots. that's how teams have played gobert off the floor. you can generate those looks, and we did--to an extent. anyway, i think both big and bench can be addressed with our current assets. maybe not to the extent we'd like, but we can find a center and POA defender this summer, imo.
It is very difficult to pick between "No big" and "No bench production," but since we had to choose only one I went with the "No big" option. Both were absolutely critical for our first round exit, IMO. Yes, Austin under-performed, but that's not the main reason we lost. Yes, the roster construction is not ideal, but it was very difficult to build the team around Luka post-trade because the time was very limited. Additionally we had no time to gel and very few good practice sessions. You can't win like that.
Something which I think wasn't talk about : you can't play small ball if you"re going to play at a slow pace AND without moving the ball and bodies .
^ We're playing "big small ball" as opposed to "fast small ball," which, of course, is doomed to fail.
No bigs was the issue so I voted for that. We had a big team in 2020 and then mysteriously went away from that.
No playable big is probably the biggest reason but I think JJ's coaching was a close second. He did a pretty bad job even considering there was no playable big.
I ended up picking no Big but I agree that a few of those things overlap. Ultimately I feel like even an adequate performance at center gets us over the hump but the same can said of having a couple of dependable guys off the bench.
