TheNorthCydeRises

Dennis rising up to the challenge of trying to match these superstar players. I'm proud that he's trying to sustain the level of play that he showed during the playoffs.

I'm honestly shocked that Dennis isn't one of the league leaders in turnovers, considering the lack of offensive firepower on this team. I would've thought he'd constantly try to do too much, but he doesn't. Abnormal turnover game for him tonight, but still efficient shooting wise.

I like Taylor's willingness to play defense. He at least tries to fight through screens and doesn't have any problem getting up on his man. He's a little wild with the ball, but that's just about everyone on the team.

You play to your strengths. A lot of these teams stay losing because they're trying to copy a playing style that they can't really play. Utah is about the only team with sense enough to play to their strengths. Their shooting PFs are not starters, they're coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Gobert and Favors are going to handle their business as starters.

The next 6 definitely look like losses. We have Sacramento coming in on a Wednesday night on Nov 15th. After that, we have a nice 5 out of 6 game home stand. But the question remains . . . will we win another game this month? If we don't, we'll be 1 - 20 going into December.

And Delaney still in negative triple digits. He probably begged coach to put him back in the game to get out of the depths.

Oh well. Try again next time . . . smh.

Danger time

LOL . . damn Collins. Wasn;'t in the game 5 seconds before he fouled out.

Delaney owes his game check tonight to Isaiah.

Dennis taking over the game. Nice little run by him.

LOL . . so we can't stop Robert Covington now? Shout out to TSU ( his alma mater ).

I agree. And even if you still wanted to play Collins some at center, this could be done by having Moose sub in for Collins first, and then have Collins sub out Dedmon. We can have Dedmon - Collins start . . with Ilyasova ( when healthy ) and Moose as the reserves. I would also boost Collins minutes to around 26 - 28 per game. PF - Collins ( 14 ) - Ilyasova ( 24 ) - Moose ( 10 ) C - Dedmon ( 28 ) - Collins ( 14 ) - Moose ( 8 ) Bottom line is that I don't want 85% of Collins' minutes to be with that 2nd unit with just 1 other starter in the lineup ( which is normally Baze or Prince ). If we could get a 50/50 mix, where he's playing with at least 3 starters, that would be ideal right now. No way should Delaney be playing more minutes alongside Collins, than Dennis.

If you play Collins and Dedmon together, you may as well play Dedmon as the "stretch guy" on the outside, seeing that almost 40% of his shots are coming from 16+ feet right now anyway. Collins is much more active offensively around the rim. The question is if that lineup could work defensively? Personally, I don't see how worse it could be than the lineups we're currently throwing out there right now. As far as maximizing Collins' potential, part of that is to play him alongside people who can make him better. If Bud is steadfast in playing him at center for most of his minutes, why not play him more minutes with the guys who can make him look better? Collins is supposed to be the pick and roll master. Dennis is a pick and roll guard. Yet, the PG he plays the most with is Delaney, a guy who barely drives the paint, can't finish once he gets there, and doesn't find people with passes when he does get in the paint.

So if the positions are interchangeable, why isn't Collins starting at the 4 with Dedmon? Or a better question, why doesn't Collins play at all alongside Dedmon even a little bit? Bud is in love with his "stretch 4s". Guys who can't even hit the broad side of a barn right now. I get it. We're tanking. But that's no excuse to not maximize Collins' potential. If Bud is going to continue with the Dedmon/Collins rotation at the 5, I want Collins to be the starter. Can't do that though. Because God forbid he develops some sort of chemistry with Dennis and Taurean.

If the Hawks get the 4th pick, that may guarantee that the Hawks get your guy . . .

People won't give him credit for it, but Nique's color commentary has improved this season. Too bad he has to use it on a sub 20 win team.

More like the only win was against the only team that may be worse than we are.

Damn . . that's who I forgot. I forgot Phoenix. Phoenix ( early - mid 2000s ) - Made the playoffs all throughout the 1990s, and had a 13 season streak of making the playoffs until the 2000 - 01 season when the team was ran by Stephan Marbury instead of Jason Kidd. That playoff miss would see them grab Amar'e Stoudamire, who would end up being one of the culture changing players in a few years. The rise of Joe Johnson after the Marbury trade will be a key building block to add with Marion and rapidly improving Stoudamire. Once Nash came to the team, D'Antoni's run and gun culture change could finally take shape.

Correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but here it goes, Strictly focusing on the NBA AJ ( After Jordan ) San Antonio ( late 1990s ) - Dominique was actually brought to that team to help them in bench scoring, to help David Robinson and Sean Elliott. But when Robinson goes out for essentially the entire season, and Elliott misses 1/2 the season, the Spurs went from a top 8 team, to a bottom 5 team. They were fortunate to have that happen when a top 10 big man of all time was in the draft ( Tim Duncan ). This means that they got to retain their entire core that won 50+ games a season, and add a future Hall of Famer to the mix. The Sacramento Kings ( late 1990s - early 2000s ) run started with them trading their longtime superstar Mitch Richmond, for Chris Webber. The Kings were a perennial sub-30 win team in the late 80s - early 90s. Plenty of lottery picks that didn't pan out. LA Lakers ( late 1990s & late 2000s ) - They didn't tank to get Kobe. And they only missed the playoffs 1 year during the 90s. But at that time, they were a free agent destination, and obtained Shaq. So they acquired the Hall of Famer through free agency, and Kobe developed into one alongside Shaq. Even in the years after Shaq left, and the Lakers were floundering, it was another trade that brought them another future Hall of Famer ( Pau Gasol ) to play alongside Kobe, that saw them win 2 more titles. Philadelphia 76ers ( mid 1990s - early 2000s ) didn't tank to get Iverson. They were just a horrible team. Barkley left, they got high draft picks, but none of them turned out to be anything. But ironically, it was the Hawks ( in their reset ) that gave them the defensive center that Iverson needed, when we traded Dikembe for Theo Ratliff. New Jersey Nets ( early 2000s ) - that team accumulated top lottery picks ( Kerry Kittles, Kenyon Martin, and Keith Van Horn ) to pair with another top 4 pick ( Stephon Marbury ). But it wasn't until they traded Marbury for the pass first Jason Kidd, that the Nets really took off. Nets were just bad, and not tanking, before acquiring Kidd. Detroit ( early - mid 2000s ) - Grant Hill injuries, trading for Jerry Stackhouse, then trading for Rip Hamilton. They made the playoffs 6 out of 8 years, before they finally broke through and won a title. The hiring of Larry Brown was just as big of a reason for them rising to that next level, than anything. Atlanta Hawks ( early 2000s ) - Yes, I know they don't belong in this discussion. Of course, most of you know that after the failed "Playoff Guarantee" squad of JT, Shareef, and Glen "Big Dog" Robinson failed to make the playoffs, the Hawks decided to blow everything up. It took us 5 years to get back to borderline playoff level, after failing to draft Chris Paul. And while people still criticize the move, that process may have been longer, had we not traded for Joe Johnson, who actually wanted to come to us. Cleveland ( early 2000s ) - While they definitely tanked to get Lebron, it's not like they had to try hard to tank. They had been horrible for a full 5 years before Lebron's arrival. Miami ( mid 2000s ) - I think you can say that they did a "reset". Hardaway was traded for a 2nd round pick, and was in his mid 30s. Mourning was getting old as well, and was dealing with his sickness. He ends up going to New Jersey as a free agent. They ended up drafting Wade, who was good enough to get them to the playoffs. Then Riley uses his past Laker ties to pull off a trade for Shaq. Seattle / OKC ( mid - late 2000s ) - This is the tanking "Gold Standard". Sell off your Hall of Fame shooter and the 2nd best player on the team. Field a team barely worth anything. Get EXTREMELY LUCKY and have the team in front of you take the big man talent, insead of the wing Hall of Fame talent. Draft 2 more Hall of Famers consecutively. And be good enough to become a free agent destination once some of those stars have moved on. Boston ( mid - late 2000s ) - A direct result of the Seattle tanking, Boston used this to not only get Ray Allen, but to also get Kevin Garnett. With them keeping their superstar in Paul Pierce, and the development of their mid 1st round pick ( Rajon Rondo . . via Phoenix , . via the Hawks ), they were able to win a title. Before then, Paul Pierce was talking about leaving Boston. Miami ( 2010 ) - "I'm taking my talents to South Beach". Riley knew Lebron was coming to MIA. And he knew he was either getting Joe Johnson or Chris Bosh to play alongside Lebron and Wade. No tanking needed. Just needed to let those contracts expire. Dallas ( early 2010s ) - Missed the playoffs for 9 straight years in the 1990s. Keep swapping out players around your superstar shooter until you find the right chemistry to win a title. No tanking in Dallas. Just caught lightning in a bottle in 2011. Golden State ( early 2010s ) - After Golden State pulled off the upset of all time vs Dallas in 2007, they missed the playoffs in 2008 despite winning 48 games. But it was the sudden departure of Baron Davis that sent them back to the depths. They missed the playoffs in 2009, and saw Curry fall in their laps that summer. They tried to make the Curry - Monta small guard duo work for 2 years, but they couldn't stop anybody. Curry's injury in 2011 made it real easy to go ahead and get rid of Monta, to get the defensive center they needed in Bogut . . and supposedly tank the season ( according the Schlenk ). What it really did, was enable them to start Klay Thompson as the big guard. Cleveland ( mid 2010s ) - So where is Cleveland today had Lebron not come back home? Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins would be teammates. There would be no Lebron or Kevin Love in Cleveland. Anthony Bennett was a bust. Andrew Bynum didn't work out. Would Dion Waiters still be there? Who knows? Maybe Kyrie and Andrew are the 3rd best backcourt in the league behind Steph and Klay . . and Wall and Beal. But we all know that when Lebron came back, and he was able to get Kevin Love to Cleveland, that was the building block for a quick ascent to the top. *************************** People may scoff at everything that is above, and say that "it doesn't matter how they got there, as long as they got there". Or "they all had to be bad, before they became good". But as you can see, most of these teams didn't become PURPOSELY horrible, and purge their teams of their best players, before the championship level of play happened. And if they did, most of them did it in a trade that brought back a significant player in return.

What an excellent post!!

The issue to me is with Collins not starting, or at least not playing alongside Dedmon. If Bud is trying to develop Collins into a 5, why not play him with a few of the guys that we HOPE will be his teammates for the next 5 - 8 years? Even if Bud limits his minutes to 20 - 25 per game, you can still start him. Unless he thinks the team might start to gel with him as a starter, and win too many games.

Another solid outing for Dennis today. Pay attention to the passing. For those of you who say that he's strictly a scoring PG, even you'll have to admit that his court vision was on point today.

Taylor . . . 7 more minutes ( 14 total ) . . . +11 for the game. Hmmmmmm

It really depends on how rapidly Collins can develop. If Dennis does make the leap to be a top 10 PG, it'll be up to Collins to be that dependable big man on the block, to really solidify the inside game. The plan seems to be to limit Collins minutes this season, so we can lose enough games to be in the lottery. Once it is assured that we're going to miss the playoffs, I wouldn't be surprised that he's the starter come mid-March. Then we'll get to see what he can do playing with our best guys, and with starters' minutes. If Prince can be that reliable 3rd starter ( 13 - 15 ppg ), we may can dig out of the hole in 3 years. SMH Baze . . tossing up air balls now.