There are no lineups possible but bad lineups. Hayward left at the last second and we made a very bad bet with Rubio and a couple players have declined. Hood is a good player but probably is at least a slight disappointment and to boot is extremely injury prone, a constant with this team. Gobert didn't play the whole season. Favors is often checked out because it is his contract year, has made it clear he doesn't want to be back. He and Rudy don't work and everyone knows it. Burks is inconsistent. The bet made by the front office that we could be an elite defensive team and that would make up for our sub offense has obviously blown up in their face. Turns out you can't be abominable offensively and expect the effort to be there night in and night out on defense. Plus, Exum, Hayward, and Gobert were our best defensive players last year. Criticize Exum for his lack of offense but he could stay in front of his man, and add Rudy in the backcourt and Hayward+Ingles--yeah, that's why we were so good defensively. It's not a surprise, if you think about it, why we are so bad.
It's not Snyder's fault, really. Every fan base in history thinks there is some magical rotation, some magical lineup that will fix the team, that somehow they can see but the coach can't. They expect Snyder to play the this magical lineup for 48 minutes a game, and that will fix the team. But it just isn't there on this team. We have two essential pieces--Mitchell, Gobert--an injured Exum, and not much else. Mitchell is a rookie, Gobert has been injured and we see how important it is, offensively and defensively, to have solid backcourt and wing players. If there isn't backcourt offense and defense then Gobert--who excels in complimenting that--won't be effective. This is true for any great big man.
It isn't Lindsay's fault either, tbh. He was put in an awful position the way Hayward left. I've said this before but Indiana should cheer Paul George forever--he could have left them like Hayward left us, sneaking out the door at the last second while pretending he wanted to be here and left them with nothing--but instead he was honest and look what they were able to go get. There wasn't anything available for us when Gordon left. Sure, I think they pitched us on the idea that they thought Hood could step up and replace a lot of Hayward's production, but i'm not sure they actually believed that so much as they had to keep a brave face and not scare away the season ticket holders, nor doom and undermine the team before it started. That's fair. Plus, we as a fanbase, probably out of pride, wanted to front like we could still win 40+ games this year and show hayward he wasn't that important. That probably led to a lot of the too high expectations, and why a lot of fans, like the OP, are lashing out. And that's fair too. This off season was a huge blow and, frankly, a humiliation, and it was unthinkable to admit that the last seven years had only been building up to one first round clippers series, and it was over. Back to square one. Maybe square two. We are rebuilding again. I know I didn't want to admit that.
But we got Mitchell. I think Snyder is a very good coach, and Lindsey is a very good GM. Let's see what they do in the draft this year.
edit: typos.
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