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Hmmmm you don’t say?

This is where the common trope is to blame personnel, which is essentially a way of saying “it is what it is and it’s not changing.” I reject this notion, however. We can go from 5th percentile to 35-40th percentile without a personnel change, and that would be huge.
On Andy’s last podcast he mentioned that part of the reason the small ball lineups hadn’t worked is they hadn’t practiced it… so they were “learning to dance on the ball room floor”. Also said Quin is so detailed that when something doesn’t work he thinks it’s not because the strategy wasn’t sound… it’s because one guy came too far out or took a bad angle. Basically confirming our “Quin is not flexible enough” idea that we have floated for years.
 
He’s such a little bitch lol. He wants to be passive aggressive but never direct.

Also evaded answering this question with a legitimate answer as well:



Maybe just stop being a lying sack of ****. Damian Lillard answer here would have been “it’s not true”. Simple answer to give Donovan you fake ***, baby.

Some trouble in paradise… sigh
 
Donovan, the guy who had no problem liking the tweet, but then gets mad when someone asks him why he liked the tweet. Lol. Anyone who doesn’t think the dude is a total diva at this point is in a real state of denial.

Let’s play the “say something positive about your situation Donovan” challenge. He’s been losing that challenge for a couple years at this point. Seriously, has the dude uttered a positive comment in a couple years?
 
I do love the media narrative the locals spin here… it’s dumb:

Step 1 - It’s a tweet like lolz… y’all are so dumb and dramatic… literally nothing to see here.

- Then the guys are clearly testy…

Step 2- lolz of course they are testy… that’s what you’d want if they are trying to win a title… lolz… nothing to see here.

-then they win a meaningless game…

Step 3 - see told y’all… you guis is dumb.

Or they lose- let’s see what happens when it matters… you have to be patient… we are title contenders… ignore the **** that has happened before and almost certainly will happen again… just be patient.
 
Oh man it’s worse…


This quote encapsulates everything I’ve said about Quin, that he doesn’t believe anything is wrong and he has probabilities… he wants another roll of the dice. The reason we lost in the playoffs last year was because of an unfortunate roll of the dice. Don’t change anything because it would monkey with things too much, just keep rolling the dice.

It’s like DL’s “bites at the apple.”
 
This quote encapsulates everything I’ve said about Quin, that he doesn’t believe anything is wrong and he has probabilities… he wants another roll of the dice. The reason we lost in the playoffs last year was because of an unfortunate roll of the dice. Don’t change anything because it would monkey with things too much, just keep rolling the dice.

It’s like DL’s “bites at the apple.”
Isn't that kak about baked by now?
 
This quote encapsulates everything I’ve said about Quin, that he doesn’t believe anything is wrong and he has probabilities… he wants another roll of the dice. The reason we lost in the playoffs last year was because of an unfortunate roll of the dice. Don’t change anything because it would monkey with things too much, just keep rolling the dice.

It’s like DL’s “bites at the apple.”
Andy literally said they have not practiced small ball… if they have missed out on that need what else are they leaving out there… how about blitzing the ball handler in pick and roll… folks will say we tried it… I have no confidence that we actually practiced it prior to trying it which is uhhhh not great. Part of me thinks Quin is good… part of me thinks he’s charismatic and has the look of a guy that knows his ****.

I could live with this quote if we were getting wild with experiments and trying new ****… but we have only gone to small ball out of necessity and it mostly looked like garbage because we haven’t practiced stuff.

I just feel like Quin will always be two moves behind because he clearly doesn’t seem to see a need to deviate from what we do… instead we just have to execute it better or do it with more juice or intention… or some other BS platitude.
 
Andy literally said they have not practiced small ball… if they have missed out on that need what else are they leaving out there… how about blitzing the ball handler in pick and roll… folks will say we tried it… I have no confidence that we actually practiced it prior to trying it which is uhhhh not great. Part of me thinks Quin is good… part of me thinks he’s charismatic and has the look of a guy that knows his ****.

I could live with this quote if we were getting wild with experiments and trying new ****… but we have only gone to small ball out of necessity and it mostly looked like garbage because we haven’t practiced stuff.

I just feel like Quin will always be two moves behind because he clearly doesn’t seem to see a need to deviate from what we do… instead we just have to execute it better or do it with more juice or intention… or some other BS platitude.
that win in Denver though......
 
that win in Denver though......
And that was forced small ball but after we had actually run through it a few times. The other times they tried they were completely unprepared and it was awful.

Just wild that it wasn’t a focus of the training camp or at least something they had considered. Any time we’ve done it was because we had two centers out.
 
Clarkson's full comments on what Rudy said:

"It ain't like he pointed out a big man or nothing,"

"It's just defense; it's our focus. It is what it is," Clarkson said. "That's what we don't hold our hat on. That's what we've been talking about all year — just defense. We don't got to specify or talk about other teams and what they're doing. We know what we got to do. That's it. Plain and simple.

"We don't need anybody else coming out in the media saying stuff like that, though, but it's all good," he added.

https://www.ksl.com/article/5032907...kson-respond-to-rudy-goberts-pointed-comments
 
I do love the media narrative the locals spin here… it’s dumb:

Step 1 - It’s a tweet like lolz… y’all are so dumb and dramatic… literally nothing to see here.

- Then the guys are clearly testy…

Step 2- lolz of course they are testy… that’s what you’d want if they are trying to win a title… lolz… nothing to see here.

-then they win a meaningless game…

Step 3 - see told y’all… you guis is dumb.

Or they lose- let’s see what happens when it matters… you have to be patient… we are title contenders… ignore the **** that has happened before and almost certainly will happen again… just be patient.
What I am worried most about this whole thing is that Mitchell just doesn't get it.

He said that we definitely need to win the next game. We don't need a win, we just need to play better defense. It's a process, can't just go into the game leaning into the offense to win us games. Sure, it's great and it wins us some games but we have seen time and time again that it doesn't translate into playoff wins.

Wins aren't all that important, we beat ****** teams enough to guarantee homecourt. We all thought we went into the season with the mindset that we needed to improve. To be fair, we did try some stuff, Rudy at level, more hedging, trapping, zone, small ball. They weren't consistent, they didn't stick. Now I understand clearly why, the guys just didn't care enough to make it work. They talk the talk for sure, though.

I am going to be watching Denver game with extra attention.
 
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I hate Danny Ainge… like a lot. I am glad we have him now though. He is r afraid to do the hard thing… he also has Ryans attention. We are headed for a divorce and having him will prevent us from waiting too long.

The issue is that we’ve had this underlying tension… some of us thought it was smoothed over during the bubble… but I don’t think they ever had that big confrontation to then kiss and make up from… we also didn’t have that galvanizing moment where we all come together… actually the opposite… two guys wrenching collapses. Now the BS is resurfacing in the public… clearly never really went away or was worked through.

Now before you all jump in and say “they ain’t gots to be friends” … correct but they do need to be selfless and committed to each other and the team… it’s basically impossible to do if you hate each other or are icy to each other. The example of the Suns is great… Monty is super charismatic and a great leader… a little cheesy sometimes but that team pulls together. Does CP scold Ayton like a child? Yes. They ain’t perfect… but unlike the Blake and CP teams… they play for each other and want to win. They may not be hanging out on the weekends but they don’t snipe at each other in passive ways in the media.

We are basically one dumb and immature move away from having a Deron Williams style “**** that guy I’m out”.

Say Don decides to freeze Rudy out the game or Rudy decides not to rotate to show how ****** and lazy the other defenders are… just feels like it’s slowly trending towards that moment when one guy goes too far.

It’s super disappointing to see the guys like this. Neither guy is good enough on their own… if we don’t have chemistry we are screwed… we are a team that can only get there if the whole is better than the sum of its parts… we don’t have Lebron or Giannis or KD. I highly doubt the BIG trade happens this year but I’d no longer be shocked if it did.
 
What I am worried most about this whole thing is that Mitchell just doesn't get it.

He said that we definitely need to win the next game. We don't need a win, we just need to play better defense. It's a process, can't just go into the game leaning into the offense to win us games. Sure, it's great and it wins us some games but we have seen time and time again that it doesn't translate into playoff wins.

Wins aren't all that important, we beat ****** teams enough to guarantee homecourt. We all thought we went into the season with the mindset that we needed to improve. To be fair, we did try some stuff, Rudy at level, more hedging, trapping, zone, small ball. They weren't consistent, they didn't stick. Now I understand clearly why, the guys just didn't care enough to make it work. They talk the talk for sure, though.

I am going to be watching Denver game with extra attention.
I think he gets it. He played good D in college, and improved a ton. He isn't that guy anymore, either because he doesn't care, or has a coach that doesn't know how to teach or emphasize good D.

This team rarely takes charges, does not know how to anticipate and slip a screen, and leaves opponents wide open too often.
 
I think he gets it. He played good D in college, and improved a ton. He isn't that guy anymore, either because he doesn't care, or has a coach that doesn't know how to teach or emphasize good D.

This team rarely takes charges, does not know how to anticipate and slip a screen, and leaves opponents wide open too often.
I agree with some of this… side note… I swear Joe would take one charge a game if he’d just fall down. He takes it in the chest like a man but doesn’t do the BS acting so no call…

Another side note… charges aren’t a real basketball play and they should change the rule to stop rewarding guys from standing like a statue and then going limp… the should reward real defense instead.
 
If it comes down to it and we're keeping Quin then Gobert has to stay. If Mitchell is the chosen one Quin has to go. His schemes obviously require Gobert. It's too bad egos are so strong with this team and they can't come to a consensus and work together. Maybe put Don and Rudy on an episode of Dr. Phil and see if they can work it out.
 
On Andy’s last podcast he mentioned that part of the reason the small ball lineups hadn’t worked is they hadn’t practiced it… so they were “learning to dance on the ball room floor”. Also said Quin is so detailed that when something doesn’t work he thinks it’s not because the strategy wasn’t sound… it’s because one guy came too far out or took a bad angle. Basically confirming our “Quin is not flexible enough” idea that we have floated for years.
Yes if they would just do what he writes on the back of the napkin it would be flawless. It's not the napkin's fault, no reason to doubt the napkin.
 
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