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Post by jmei on Nov 4, 2023 13:15:03 GMT -5
It also speaks to their spacing. Their top eight rotation players are above-average or better three point shooters. It’s a lot easier to post up when the floor is spread and they have no one to leave to double team.
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Post by jmei on Nov 2, 2023 4:32:00 GMT -5
I would have been OK trading Uche for a fifth, but holding onto him was OK as well. Doesn’t move the needle much either way.
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Post by jmei on Nov 1, 2023 12:39:17 GMT -5
No one was giving them a second or third round pick for anyone on the roster that was remotely tradeable. Trent Brown and Onwenu wouldn't be worth that? Aren't both guys playing well? I'd imagine this is the most plug and play position in football. Especially Onwenu given his age moving to a situation where the acquiring team plans to lock him up like what the Bears did for Sweat. Not saying Onwenu is as valuable, but a team like KC (example, don't know their line situation) their 2nd or 3rd rounder wouldn't be nearly as valuable as Chicago. Again, if they aren't here next year then any loss of value is a complete waste. No, I don't think either Brown or Onwenu would have clearly been worth a second or third round pick to another team given their contract and health statuses. I will also note that offensive line is not really that much of a plug-and-play position. It takes time to OLs to build chemistry and feel, and plugging folks in and out can harm overall OL play (as the Patriots have learned this year - all the moving parts makes them less than the sum of their parts).
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Post by jmei on Nov 1, 2023 11:36:39 GMT -5
No one was giving them a second or third round pick for anyone on the roster that was remotely tradeable.
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Post by jmei on Oct 31, 2023 11:06:57 GMT -5
They’re not going to get much for anyone they’d realistically want to trade. I’m not so jazzed about a late round pick that I’d give up anyone they have a legit shot at re-signing (like Uche).
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Post by jmei on Oct 31, 2023 9:43:11 GMT -5
Honestly not sure how I feel about this for the Sixers. Technically makes their team worse but trying to keep Harden would have raised its own challenges. Not sure who the Sixers try and trade for now (Pascal Siakam? Buddy Hield?) but I'm sure they'll be active in an effort to build a winning team around Embiid. Best case scenario for Boston is probably that they can't find a trade target this year and hold onto their assets for the summer, ending this season without the talent to really match up with Boston/Milwaukee.
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Post by jmei on Oct 31, 2023 5:53:09 GMT -5
I’m not too worried about the bench scoring. They have four starters who can average 20+ points a game (25+ in the case of Tatum and Brown), plus two other players who can give them decent point totals. They don’t need Pritchard or Hauser to be jacking up a lot of shots. Just spread the floor and play good defense.
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Post by jmei on Oct 30, 2023 13:49:14 GMT -5
Can someone help me out, as this is the second time in two weeks I think the announcers don't understand the rules for ineligible receiver downfield. But now I question if it's me. I thought if the ball was thrown to someone who is still behind the line of scrimmage (i.e. a screen pass), then a lineman can go down field before the ball is thrown. You can have an ineligible man downfield penalty on any forward pass. It’s just backwards passes where it’s OK to be downfield.
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Post by jmei on Oct 29, 2023 11:58:25 GMT -5
I linked two Baldinger clips from X & they are no longer there? Mod action? Magic? I think it’s an issue on your end. They are still showing up for me.
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Post by jmei on Oct 26, 2023 15:58:48 GMT -5
They're still going to be a team that shoots lots of threes. Hell, with Porzingis being able to shoot over most closeouts and Holiday being a better three-point shooter than Smart, they might shoot (and make) more threes on average than they did last year. That's not a bad thing if they can simultaneously tighten up other areas (such as forcing more turnovers or getting more offensive rebounds).
As an aside:
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Post by jmei on Oct 26, 2023 15:52:14 GMT -5
Eh, Onwenu was generally a pretty good guard as well and I think the jury is still out on whether he's a better RT or RG. It was really only the fact that their other RT options were almost unplayably bad that forced their hand into moving him to RT.
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Post by jmei on Oct 24, 2023 14:22:10 GMT -5
Couple random thoughts:
J.C. Jackson trade proving to be a good one so far. He's been their best CB and has been legitimately above average against some good opposing WRs. They still really lack depth but that should change when Jo. Jones gets healthy. They probably still need to restructure his contract ($14.4M cap hit next year is too much even for this version of Jackson) but he might stick around and is young enough (will be 29 next year) to be part of a good defensive core.
Their big offseason moves on offense (extending D. Parker, signing Smith-Schuster and Gesicki, what they did with the OL) have still stunk, but they have a nice little defensive core between Bentley, Duggar, Peppers, Wise, Barmore, Uche, White, etc. (not to mention Judon and Gonzalez). That unit remains too good for this team to really bottom out this season.
Locking in Onwenu at RT alone is worth whatever worse draft position they might be in. It's disappointing that it's taken so long to put him back there but better late than never. Ditto for more Bourne/Douglas and less Parker/Smith-Schuster.
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Post by jmei on Oct 22, 2023 20:27:38 GMT -5
They were never going to lose enough games to get a top 5 pick. Would much rather see them with a pulse and see if there are some pieces to potentially build around.
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Post by jmei on Oct 18, 2023 7:01:47 GMT -5
Oh OK, he only choked her and didn’t hit her with a closed fist. That totally changes the story. /s
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Post by jmei on Oct 14, 2023 7:42:03 GMT -5
Hauser is the kind of solid role player that every team needs, and with the new CBA, they won’t be able to sign those guys in free agency anymore. Makes sense to re-sign him at a decent number.
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Post by jmei on Oct 12, 2023 9:12:57 GMT -5
Mac and a bad OL are a toxic mix. Mac is especially bad when pressured - mix of inability to make plays outside the pocket, mediocre arm strength, bad footwork/mechanics and bad decision-making. Patriots receivers can't separate on the sidelines, so the book is out - flood the middle, get pressure, wait for Mac to make mistakes. The running game is an absolute zero and they get down early and have to throw to get back in the game. It's all worst case scenario for the offense so far. They're not actually that bad and can pull out of it if they can improve their OL from "worst in the league" to merely bad. Not sure that will happen, though.
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Post by jmei on Oct 12, 2023 8:16:18 GMT -5
Derrick White is going to be a monster this year. Given the rest of the roster, not going to put up big scoring numbers, but he's going to fill up the rest of the box score, be an elite defender, move the ball/push the pace on offense and be the perfect complementary player whether as a starter or a sixth man.
The roster fit with their top sixth or seven rotation players in general is really good, which matters a lot in the NBA.
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Post by jmei on Oct 10, 2023 0:25:46 GMT -5
The root cause is a historically bad offensive line. Can’t do much when that’s the case. Can’t run the ball. Can’t throw the ball. Even on the rare occasions where the line holds up, your QB is spooked and can’t make the right reads. They put a lot on veteran retreads and reclamation projects. They’ve all failed spectacularly. Oh, the rest of the offense sucks too and you lost your two best defenders. If Malik Cunningham is the answer, I don’t want to know the question.
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Post by jmei on Oct 9, 2023 8:13:31 GMT -5
The atmosphere was electric for a preseason game. The Celtics are going to be big beneficiaries of the lack of enthusiasm for the Patriots and Red Sox.
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Post by jmei on Oct 8, 2023 12:51:55 GMT -5
Maybe it wasn’t Matt Patricia. Maybe Mac just sucks.
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Post by jmei on Oct 5, 2023 7:02:26 GMT -5
I do think Smart out and Holiday in might have a big impact on the team culture. Marcus is competitive as hell but also a big talker and I bet Tatum and Brown were sick of him lecturing them about passing the ball by the end. Jrue, as a guy with championship experience and a sterling reputation, might be the kind of veteran who breaks through to them by leading by example.
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Post by jmei on Oct 3, 2023 15:14:46 GMT -5
You have to look at context. During the last two years, Holiday was the Bucks' number two offensive option (and number one when Giannis was on the bench or hurt). Holiday is not a good enough scorer to succeed in that role, but as the third/fourth offensive option on this Boston team, he's going to thrive. Judging him solely based on small samples over the last two playoffs is not indicative of what he's going to do here.
For example, over the last three regular seasons, Holiday has averaged 4.3 pull-up three-point attempts per game and hit 36.1% of them while averaging 1.8 catch-and-shoot 3PA/game and hitting 45.4% of them. Those attempts are going to flip (more catch and shoot, less pull up) on this team, and his three-point percentage will tick up accordingly. He's also going to get far more opportunities to drive against a closeout or pick on a weak defender on this roster, which will help his shot chart and his two-point efficiency. I'm pretty confident he's going to have one of his most efficient offensive seasons of his career next year.
The big schematic change is going from a two-big lineup to a one-big lineup with Tatum at the 4. But I'm OK with that change. The Celtics had success with Rob Williams as the defensive rover during the last two regular seasons, but teams started to exploit him in the playoffs by involving his man more in the action. He put up monster net ratings in the regular season but was pretty bad in the playoffs, especially in the Heat series when I believe he had the worst defensive net rating on the team. Miami repeatedly abused him by either ISOing him on the perimeter (Butler) or moving off the ball and either firing up catch and shoot threes or pump faking and driving (Martin, Robinson). The coaching staff clearly wanted to move away from the double-big lineup last year, and now they have a roster that fits that vision.
Their depth is definitely weaker, but it's tough to build a team that has both elite top-end talent and a lot of depth, and given the option, I'd rather focus on the top-end talent that matters more in the playoffs. They're going to win lots of regular-season games regardless, but this move dramatically improves their ceiling.
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Post by jmei on Oct 3, 2023 9:17:48 GMT -5
Look, this team wasn’t going to be more than a fringe wild card contender anyways. In some ways, better to have a reset year. It does make it harder to evaluate Mac, though. Agreed but it’s only a reset year if they win 3 games or less and end up with a top 3 pick That would be ideal, but Mac is going to be too competitive (he's clearly playing for his job now) and the rest of the roster is good enough that I don't see them bottoming out without further injuries. I'd settle for a top-10 pick and clarity on the QB position going forward (one way or another).
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Post by jmei on Oct 3, 2023 6:12:50 GMT -5
Look, this team wasn’t going to be more than a fringe wild card contender anyways. In some ways, better to have a reset year. It does make it harder to evaluate Mac, though.
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Post by jmei on Oct 3, 2023 6:10:38 GMT -5
Maybe we should all just take a moment to think about a closing lineup of Holiday, White, Brown, Tatum and Porzingus. What team in the league wants to defend that? There’s not one guy you can help off of. Last year we had multiple guys you could. Not only is there not a weak spot offensively, there’s not a weak spot defensively. They could switch with everyone but Porzingis pretty easily.
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