by undo Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:16 am
I went to the preseason game against New Orleans two weeks ago.
Terrific ball movement, unselfish play, lots of driving to the basket, finding quality shots with plenty of time still left on the shot clock, they shot threes at a rate that you'd expect for a modern NBA team and I don't recall any of them looking like forced attempts.
No more walking the ball up the court, two passes, holding the ball while everyone stands around and the shot clock clicks down to four seconds and someone is forced to take a bad shot. They played with a joy and a fluid feeling that I hadn't seen from them in several years.
Zach Lavine is a complete offensive player, he did what you'd expect in driving to the rim but he also shot a VERY high percentage from distance. Otto Porter was like three assists and three rebounds from a triple double. Coby White played with poise and ridiculous speed, I didn't know if he could hit threes but he was not afraid to try and he probably made like half of them. Lauri Markkanen didn't exactly dominate that night but other players were there to pick up the slack when he was not making shots and he eventually found a little rhythm before being pulled from the game in the fourth quarter. Promising contributions from Thaddeus Young and Luke Kornet, too.
Finally parting ways with like four or five players that were inconsistent at best and dead weight at their absolute worst through most of the last two seasons was such a blessing. I know I haven't seen enough of all the new players to really judge them but the new additions just feel like all the right moves they needed to make, there's no egos here to placate anymore, everyone just played like they were on the same page and it just felt like a totally new experience.
Wendell Carter Jr was injured and did not play and it feels like ages since I've seen him on the court so I don't know what to expect from him but I'm excited to see more. I would love to see him play a full season and get a good idea of what he can bring to this team, especially defensively (which is still the side of this team I don't feel like I have a real handle on at all).
Jim Boylen might be a good coach, I know this will sound like I'm just making excuses for him but last year wasn't his fault, he was thrown into a shitty situation and even just trying to make the best of it was never going to be anything more than learning what issues would really need to be addressed for this season. I have no "basketball IQ" so I can't really judge or understand what he's doing in terms of watching what plays out on the court and tracing it back to him, but I've listened to lots of interviews with him and I think some of the shit that went down last year really gave everyone the wrong idea about how he cares about players or what philosophies he brings to coaching.
Felicio needs to play as little as possible, I have no idea what to do with Denzel Valentine, not saying every player on this team has worked out just as planned but I think there's a Solid ten player rotation here that, if it can stay healthy, feels like the ideal post-Thibs/Rose/Jimmy young team that everyone was waiting to take shape.
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