RedDawg#8

Trae is showing so hard on Lebron Im starting to believe that it's on purpose. Otherwise that is the laziest, stupidest defensive effort

Stupid foul man. These guys are too dependent on take fouls they don't even realize they are in the penalty

If Kev was on the court with the starters we could really put some pressure on them. TLC is self check

Im not feeling the rotations tonight. TLC better not get more minutes than Kev or Cam. OO better get at least 20 minutes.

We have to play better defense. Bradley is hot out of the gates, they need to pay attention to that. Don't let him pull a Simons on you. We're on pace to give up 35+ in the first quarter. Cannot have that BS tonight

Meanwhile the 2 guys that won you the game on Wednesday are riding the bench in lieu of TLC and Bogi in his first game back from Covid. If anything let Cam and Kev start because you know they have the conditioning. I don't like TLC being a placeholder for Dre. Just play a 9 man rotation with 3 wings. They already don't get enough minutes as is.

There is just no reason for this at all. Are we THIS married to our rotations that we are willing to start our 4th best available wing just so we can stick to our failed 5 man 2nd unit from the beginning of the season? Everything about this is stupid.

Covid absences will make you forget that we haven't been this healthy since around Thanksgiving when we lost Bogi and Cam against the Knicks. And even then we still didn't have Dre or OO. We played 8 games with Kev as the only 1 out of our 4 main rotation wings. Then Covid hit. We are almost back to full strength tonight. More healthy than we have been in the past 16 games. Let's make it mean something tonight.

Yuppp lol Hunter has played a grand total of 21 basketball games (16 regular season, 5 playoff) dating back to the end of January 2021. Kid is going to have some rust. Heck, you could argue he was still rusty in the 11 games he played this season before getting injured. He certainly wasn't back to the form he was last season.

He came back in Monday but he is 4th string again.

Im ok with parting ways with either Dre or Cam. Cam obviously has more raw talent and the higher potential, but Dre was able to do everything Cam is doing now on way better efficiency last season prior to injury. The prolonged injuries and absence of Dre has allowed Cam to close the gap so as far as I'm concerned it's about who you want to bet on going forward. Both at their best are absolutely phenomenal to watch. Cam is exciting and Dre is/was automatic and steady. I prefer Dre at his best, but we haven't seen him at his best since going down last season. In a Cam trade for Grant, I think Dre and Grant become redundant as both are more combo forwards than they are true wings. There would be an opening at BU PF if Gallo is included but idk if you want to trade a major prospect for a backup. So do you start Grant and send Dre to the bench? If you send out Dre, I think Cam is a better fit with Grant in the rotation as they could be on the floor together or separately as Cam is a 2/3 and Grant is a 3/4. To me, we run in to the same roster questions by bringing in Grant. And even though he is an amazing defender, we would inevitably be trading away one of our top 2 perimeter defenders in order to get him. So again, it's tick for tack. We aren't adding anything, but replacing what we already have. Is that worth it in the end?

Totally legit. We only played an 8 man rotation against Sac. Adding Trae, Bogi and JC back I can totally see us having a hard time playing 9 guys meaningful minutes, let alone 10. TLC was 3rd string before injuries. He should be an emergency player only at this point. Imagine how hard it will be to squeeze Dre back in to the rotation when he returns. Yikes, we are back to where we started.

They know what they are doing. No way would they put him up against Giannis, KD, and Embiid in the frontcourt when he can moonwalk in the starting lineup as a guard this year. Still sad though considering the Bulls most used lineups are him at SF or even PF when they go small.

This isn't grade school. These guys are professionals. If I allow another man to get me in my feelings to where I am not playing up to my standards, who does that ultimately hurt in the end? Trae has a Max deal. Am I going to sabotage my own value as a player because Im sad about not feeling included? Nope. But that's me. Truthfully, I can see certain guys who believe they are a great player deep down but aren't getting the chance to shine being frustrated, but that's still not an excuse. And that's why we may need to follow suit with most teams led by a ball dominant star and surround them with guys who are hungry and have accepted their role in the league. Our young talent has potential, and THEY know it too. They want that max deal one day too. But these 10 day guys came up and said I'm happy to be here and will do whatever it takes to stay here and we saw amazing effort out of these dudes. They were willing to do the dirty work and not receive any credit. Im not saying that our guys can't coexist together. But they will have to accept roles and a hierarchy first. Middleton HATED Giannis when he joined the Bucks. They had a rivalry between themselves because Middleton saw Giannis as competition and a threat to his minutes. Eventually he realized that it was Giannis' team and he had to be option 2. That's when they started winning. The coaches and organization have to clean up this picture and define roles and stop letting these guys try to define it for themselves. Trae, JC, Clint are clearly defined if you ask me. Everyone else has question marks that need to be worked out internally so that players can just accept it, focus and play hard.

This is the part that bothers me. This offseason we had the least amount of roster turnover we have ever seen in the Schlenk era. JC said in camp it was the first time he walked in the locker room and knew almost all of the guys. We brought back the rotation that carried is to the ECF. We brought back locker room voices like Hill and Lou that were instrumental in teaching the young guys winning habits and mentality. This was the season that we were destined to come out of the gates fast for the first time in the Schlenk era because there was already good chemistry. The adjustments were supposed to be minimal this season. We had Dre and Cam both healthy that we needed to work in to the existing rotation. We had OO out, we had Clint playing through rehab, and we had Wright to figure out what his place was. We still had a ton continuity in the lineup that it should not have been an issue for us to play well. We came in sleepwalking, thinking things were easy and we would flip a switch when we needed to. We did it for a 6 game win streak. Then decided we were back, and then started collapsing in those home games due to poor defensive effort. Then Covid. I think this team thought they would snap out of it but were blindsided by the Covid outbreak which set us back even more. When we got 6 guys back and still lost to an undermanned Portland team, I think that put our back against the wall. Schlenk calling them out opened their eyes even more. There was finally a sense of urgency last night. It should not have taken 36 games to find it, but it's here, and I hope stays for longer than 6 games this time.

Losing JC would be tough, but KAT is a difference maker who can carry the load when Trae sits. I love JC, but the opportunities he has had to step up in Trae's absence have been very underwhelming. I would want to keep JC and lose Clint if we got KAT, but I'm interested regardless. He always gives us the business so Im well aware of the kind of beast he is.

The info that is shared usually provides great context more than anything. Obviously all of the proposed trades won't come true because they may overlap in regards to assets, plus executing one may remove the need to pull the trigger on another. For me, it's providing insight as to who we value internally and who we like externally, which paints picture of what the FO think's are our strength's and weaknesses are on the team. There is good info as to long term and short term direction of the team. And when you look it through that lens you find that most of the information is very accurate. A prime example is Cam. Supe's and Camp's sources always affirm that we value him way more than what the mainstream sources are putting out. So when his name is all over the news cycle I never even blink because I know it's BS. Knowing that he, Dre, and other are now available I would be less surprised at a trade now than I would have in the past.

Surprised we got nobody out of protocols. JC and JJ are on day 10 tomorrow. I hope they're not drawn out extra time.

I love the call out by Schlenk. Facts are facts are facts. If anything, maybe it strikes the fear of God in to some of the guys who know they are not performing well. I think the timing is perfect because it was after a loss, but gives them time to respond on the court well before the trade deadline. Schlenk's comments may be knee jerk, but he doesn't have to trade anyone right now. They are on notice and he can evaluate if guys change their attitudes and approach as we are also getting healthier and excuses disappear. He lit a fire, let's see how it plays out.

I literally predicted this just yesterday. He is likely 2 weeks away. There is only one stretch where we have 2 days off which is when we typically would have the chance for a 5v5, and that's after the road trip between games on the 9th and 12th. If he has not progressed to 5v5 by that window, he will either have to go to the G League or they will draw out his return even more. My guess is no later than the last week of January, between the 17th and 24th.

Last thing and I'm moving on: Portland has been a bad team even with Dame playing. 13-22 coming in, 12-17 in games he played. This was not a good team we faced AT ALL. We never should have been in a dog fight with these dudes to begin with. We made them look elite tonight when they have been anything but this season. Just a baaaaad loss that we NEEDED to win

The rotation has to stop. I get Trae can't play all 48 mins, but watching us lose a lead to start every 4th quarter (if we even had one) is getting old. He gets a breather at the end of the 3rd. At least let him start the 4th to jumpstart the offense and then sub him out early. There is a major momentum shift that happens at the end of one quarter and the beginning of the next. We lose that momentum every game it seems. And we expect Trae to come cold after sitting for 15 actual real life minutes and bail us out every night. Truth is, we NEED that 2nd star who can be on the floor when Trae isn't and get his own offense. That's what we are missing right now.

Trae is up to 2nd in the league in scoring with 28.4 ppg after tonight's performance. Curry laid a stinker with 9 points in a win against Miami. That's right. 3-17 shooting for 9 points and his team still won by 7. If Trae had scored only 9 points we would have lost 136-84. Let that sink in for a second.

We just blew a gimme game by making Simons and Nurkic look like superstars. Unacceptable for a team that wants to achieve something this season.

That easy huh? Jeez we suck at basic basketball sometimes.