What's new
By:
Filters

How Good are We?

Assuming that our vets will be traded out, this team isn't good enough to win much this year. The bench that we have would essentially have to play out of their minds every night for us to sniff 25 wins.

There are some things to like, though. I think it'll be fun to watch Sexton work on offense surrounded by the shooters we have.

We we really only have a couple of guys that can be considered "promising" on defense.
 
It’s impossible to put a win count on us. I think most teams are capable of winning 30 games given the climate of the NBA, but instead they don’t try to win and end up winning less. This is the reason why they were able to win 30 in the first place, there’s so many teams not trying to win. The race to the bottom is pretty much whoever quits the most/soonest.

I think the vets will be traded. Besides them, it’s questionable how many rotation players the Jazz have. Lauri is fairly solid as an NBA player. Vando is also solid but will look much worse on this team than a good team. Sexton would probably be serviceable as a 6th man but his role as a heavy usage number one option will likely make him a negative player.

Some of the scrubs will rise up….but reality is that we’ll also be giving tons of minutes to players that are not NBA rotation level or NBA caliber at all.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
I know this is early and more trades will happen, but I think we have the bulk of our lineup in place. I dont think the trades of Clarkson/Bogey/Beasley will bring in players we actually give minutes to (could be wrong).

Here's the projected lineup:

Sexton / Conley (not convinced we can trade him)/ Butler (Poor guy got leap-frogged hard on that Sexton deal)
Abaji / NAW / Bolmaro / Sneed
Fonteccio / THT / Juzang
Markkanen / Gay / Johnson
Vanderbilt / Kessler / Udoka

I'm assuming we trade Clarkson/Bogey/Beasley.

Starting lineup has a ton of (potential) shooting 1-4 and Markkannen/Vanderbilt are theoretically a good pairing.

The bench is truly horrendous outside of Conley. I dont think we can trade him right away because of his contract, but maybe someone decides they want him mid-season because of injury or something.

I think this team might be better than the Rockets/Thunder/Spurs, so possibly a 30-33 win team. Trade away Conley and do some creative "rest" with guys like Sexton (he's coming off surgery) and maybe we can win like 28 games.
Click to expand...
How are we ever going to know just how good we are if our sole intention is to lose as many games as possible?
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
Markkanen has been playing well in EuroCup Qualifiers...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-MzVYsvgZw&t=118s
Click to expand...

Yep.

I think too many people here are sleeping on Markkanen. He's basically increased his WS/48 every year. He's the only one on our roster (save the holdovers) who's been a consistent starter on a winning team. He rebounds better than any starting PF we've had since Favors. All the reports out of Cleveland are that he defended admirably (at least better than expected) last year. Watched him on my league pass last night in a game from March (best game of the year, clearly, so take this with a grain of salt), in which he scored 31, had 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals in addition to being the main defender on Jokic the entire night. Oh, and he scored the game-icing 3 in overtime. I think he clearly has as much talent as anyone on the team.
 
If we trade for Westbrook and if he has shooters (Sexton can hit the 3) surrounding him, than it's a playin team. We got to downgrade our shooting but we keep getting quality shooters (aside from Vando) and I would trade away any center that starts to show promise (Dok, maybe Vando if takes up a level) and just go with Kessler and 10 day guys.
 
idiot said:
Yep.

I think too many people here are sleeping on Markkanen. He's basically increased his WS/48 every year. He's the only one on our roster (save the holdovers) who's been a consistent starter on a winning team. He rebounds better than any starting PF we've had since Favors. All the reports out of Cleveland are that he defended admirably (at least better than expected) last year. Watched him on my league pass last night in a game from March (best game of the year, clearly, so take this with a grain of salt), in which he scored 31, had 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals in addition to being the main defender on Jokic the entire night. Oh, and he scored the game-icing 3 in overtime. I think he clearly has as much talent as anyone on the team.
Click to expand...
He complements Vando well, maybe too well.
 
idiot said:
Yep.

I think too many people here are sleeping on Markkanen. He's basically increased his WS/48 every year. He's the only one on our roster (save the holdovers) who's been a consistent starter on a winning team. He rebounds better than any starting PF we've had since Favors. All the reports out of Cleveland are that he defended admirably (at least better than expected) last year. Watched him on my league pass last night in a game from March (best game of the year, clearly, so take this with a grain of salt), in which he scored 31, had 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals in addition to being the main defender on Jokic the entire night. Oh, and he scored the game-icing 3 in overtime. I think he clearly has as much talent as anyone on the team.
Click to expand...
Edit: I guess Vanderbilt also counts in the rebounder/starter on a winning team category. Somehow we're now in a position of strength at PF.
 
idiot said:
Edit: I guess Vanderbilt also counts in the rebounder/starter on a winning team category. Somehow we're now in a position of strength at PF.
Click to expand...
Good shooting does a lot of unpredictable things. It can also hide bad defense sometimes. We got too much of it.
 
idiot said:
Edit: I guess Vanderbilt also counts in the rebounder/starter on a winning team category. Somehow we're now in a position of strength at PF.
Click to expand...
Which is funny considering how weak we’ve been at the position (depending on your view of Favors actual position) ever since 2013 when Paul Millsap left.
 
After looking at the actual players that we have received, I don't think that we are going to be as terrible as people think. I would like to keep Sexton, Markkanen, Agbaji, Vanderbilt, and Kessler long-term out of the traded pieces. I know that we are drooling over the picks, but there is some real quality in the actual players, as well.
 
idiot said:
Edit: I guess Vanderbilt also counts in the rebounder/starter on a winning team category. Somehow we're now in a position of strength at PF.
Click to expand...
Ainge has not only been able to cull some really nice pieces with the picks but address needs and deficiencies as well! Masterful! And to think I was starting to question his intransigence in the New York Knicks quagmire.:p
 
idiot said:
Yep.

I think too many people here are sleeping on Markkanen. He's basically increased his WS/48 every year. He's the only one on our roster (save the holdovers) who's been a consistent starter on a winning team. He rebounds better than any starting PF we've had since Favors. All the reports out of Cleveland are that he defended admirably (at least better than expected) last year. Watched him on my league pass last night in a game from March (best game of the year, clearly, so take this with a grain of salt), in which he scored 31, had 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals in addition to being the main defender on Jokic the entire night. Oh, and he scored the game-icing 3 in overtime. I think he clearly has as much talent as anyone on the team.
Click to expand...

I love players who can take a dribble and shoot an 18-ft jumper just inside the key. That shot is always available in big moments. Players like Dirk, KD and TMac made a living on that shot in the clutch. Lauri is a guy who can get that shot anytime he wants it. He has a nice, high release point.
 
Last edited:
whatthe said:
If we trade for Westbrook and if he has shooters (Sexton can hit the 3) surrounding him, than it's a playin team. We got to downgrade our shooting but we keep getting quality shooters (aside from Vando) and I would trade away any center that starts to show promise (Dok, maybe Vando if takes up a level) and just go with Kessler and 10 day guys.
Click to expand...

The way to lose games is to play THT, NAW, Agbaji, Johnson and Kessler extended minutes off the bench, so when our starters keep pace with the other teams our bench reels it back in.
 
I imagine that at least Bogey gonna be traded before the season starts, and that some other guys like Mike, Clarkson, Beasley or Gay (not all, but at least one or two) gets moved too, all for mainly draft considerations, not taking back much winning impactful players for now. Taking that into consideration, i would say

At the West, i'd say the only teams i'd be confident to say that we're better would be the Rockets and the Spurs. Near a (healthy apart Chet that gonna miss this season) OKC and Kings level.
Out East, only one i'd say we may be better would be Indiana, and being around Detroit, Orlando, and Wizards

Which is not that bad of a place to be, not that terrible to be projected to win maybe less than 20 games, but not too good to be out of the race for the top picks of the draft.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top