Hey Adam ! Hope you’re doing good ! Nice to read you as usual, There’s just this one thing I want to point out about Josh Minott : he did play against the Pistons, and finished the game with 10 points; he was a DNP @ New York though.
Yup, that's on me. And it's a good catch. I gotta do a better job of proof-reading after I've wrote these up. I'll amend that now. Appreciate you pointing this out, and I hope you're enjoying the season so far!
Start of the season schedule is hard on the team with the cavs up next, especially as they are trying to find a new dynamic, but while I’m not a fan of how JB is doing so far in a new role, the team’s rebounding or constant fouling, I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff with Garza, Simons and Queta, no thought yet on Boucher, and I absolutely love to see Minott and Gonzàlez giving it 100% every time they step on the floor. Although may I say I am thrilled to see PP leading the team in rebounds, but also worried ? Man, those JT shoes seems really hard to fill.
A great team win in a back to back with role players stepping up. It's the NBA so have to come out nightly. Minott +42, Joe looks like a genius! Anferno en fuego. Garza and Queta 22 pts 17 rebounds, I can live with that! Pritchard and White, even Hauser still struggling from 3. 6-26 last night
Doing well thanks AT. yeah every game will be a test for Joe and lineups and the new players. The first 3 showed we lack athleticism in the post. Still think brad needs to move Tillman, Walsh, Scheierman, Boucher, Hauser to try and get a mobile big. Nick Richards? Moussa Diabate? Duop Reath? would be upgrades. I would be looking at JRE and Tyler Smith replacing Shulga and Williams. I will take what Queta is bringing.
One more thing. This group is going through a lot of change. It is hard to keep processing a lot change at once. Our visual processing parts of the brain process like an mpeg video. Much of it is repeated/ignored background information so that the screen only changes in small pieces. We do the same thing with our vision processing.
These guys are built to make quick/wired decisions and it is hard to do when so much thinking has to happen and slows everything done in a really fast environment. I think that we are starting to see them chunk more information so that they can make smaller, hence, quicker decisions.
I wish they had a longer camp to integrate the change more deeply. It will just take a few weeks longer. I think that we should see these first 20 games as that integration period.
The processing part of your comment is such awesome information. I agree that chunking the changes is likely what we're seeing -- this is a method I've actively used throughout learning basketball, along with further education and helping my daughter with studies. But the MPEG video reference and point about the small improvements is definitely something I find interesting.
As for Scheierman, I would hedge a guess that you're correct here. I'm just approaching things with Scheierman being more of a utility guy, as his skill set and versatility mean he isn't bound by playing in the front court the same way Hugo and Minott are. We saw him running point during preseason, and he's touched some 2-guard minutes in fleeting moments, too. But, with that 3-man rotation, assumign that is the case, then yeah, it makes sense why one is missing out each game...and it tracks, too, when looking at the minutes distribution over the last 3 outings
"As for Scheierman" is a matter of who knows how to read Joe's mind? I think that he gets a lot about talent and player development and I see it in his interviews where he gets excited about those questions from the press core. Compare his responses to Noa Dalzell and Jack Simone.
I heard Hauser complaining about Joe's lack of a set lineup and that players would rebel. The truth is that Joe is just iterating the heck out of everything until he finds stuff to work.
"I’m starting to wonder whether Mazzulla is struggling to fit both Minott and Gonzalez in the rotation." I think the issue is that Mazzulla also has Scheierman to count in that group, too. I am classifying them as the energy wings. BS seemed much more focused in this game and was a pain in his own way like Minot and Gonzalez. My guess is that Joe is looking at their rotation of minutes across games rather than within a game.
I may be wrong... I also suspect that with all the changes and the lack of ego / established starters, Joe sees this squad as an opportunity to tailor our team to each opponent.
For sure, he'll be trying combos and working out strengths, but I also suspect he'll like the freedom of having more tools in his toolkit. Joe is a thinking man's coach, he loves to tinker and try new stuff.
Hey Adam ! Hope you’re doing good ! Nice to read you as usual, There’s just this one thing I want to point out about Josh Minott : he did play against the Pistons, and finished the game with 10 points; he was a DNP @ New York though.
Keep up the great work!
Hey Max,
Yup, that's on me. And it's a good catch. I gotta do a better job of proof-reading after I've wrote these up. I'll amend that now. Appreciate you pointing this out, and I hope you're enjoying the season so far!
Start of the season schedule is hard on the team with the cavs up next, especially as they are trying to find a new dynamic, but while I’m not a fan of how JB is doing so far in a new role, the team’s rebounding or constant fouling, I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff with Garza, Simons and Queta, no thought yet on Boucher, and I absolutely love to see Minott and Gonzàlez giving it 100% every time they step on the floor. Although may I say I am thrilled to see PP leading the team in rebounds, but also worried ? Man, those JT shoes seems really hard to fill.
JT is a huge miss. But also for me Big Al. His calm experience and leadership on the floor was really important for us.
JB is expected to fill those shoes right now, and I'm not sure he can.
A great team win in a back to back with role players stepping up. It's the NBA so have to come out nightly. Minott +42, Joe looks like a genius! Anferno en fuego. Garza and Queta 22 pts 17 rebounds, I can live with that! Pritchard and White, even Hauser still struggling from 3. 6-26 last night
John! I hope you're good! Haven't seen you in a minute, glad to have you back in the comments section :)
This was 100% a fun win. Garza looked great, Simons was excellent and like you said, even the role players stepped up.
Cleveland will be a much tougher test, though...But that's just going to be how this season goes, unfortunately
Doing well thanks AT. yeah every game will be a test for Joe and lineups and the new players. The first 3 showed we lack athleticism in the post. Still think brad needs to move Tillman, Walsh, Scheierman, Boucher, Hauser to try and get a mobile big. Nick Richards? Moussa Diabate? Duop Reath? would be upgrades. I would be looking at JRE and Tyler Smith replacing Shulga and Williams. I will take what Queta is bringing.
Could the lack of 3PT succes also be attributed to poor passing, poor(er) shooting opportunities than last year ?
I like this question. I'll pull some numbers and answer this in tomorrow's post :) Appreciate you, Chris
One more thing. This group is going through a lot of change. It is hard to keep processing a lot change at once. Our visual processing parts of the brain process like an mpeg video. Much of it is repeated/ignored background information so that the screen only changes in small pieces. We do the same thing with our vision processing.
These guys are built to make quick/wired decisions and it is hard to do when so much thinking has to happen and slows everything done in a really fast environment. I think that we are starting to see them chunk more information so that they can make smaller, hence, quicker decisions.
I wish they had a longer camp to integrate the change more deeply. It will just take a few weeks longer. I think that we should see these first 20 games as that integration period.
The processing part of your comment is such awesome information. I agree that chunking the changes is likely what we're seeing -- this is a method I've actively used throughout learning basketball, along with further education and helping my daughter with studies. But the MPEG video reference and point about the small improvements is definitely something I find interesting.
As for Scheierman, I would hedge a guess that you're correct here. I'm just approaching things with Scheierman being more of a utility guy, as his skill set and versatility mean he isn't bound by playing in the front court the same way Hugo and Minott are. We saw him running point during preseason, and he's touched some 2-guard minutes in fleeting moments, too. But, with that 3-man rotation, assumign that is the case, then yeah, it makes sense why one is missing out each game...and it tracks, too, when looking at the minutes distribution over the last 3 outings
"As for Scheierman" is a matter of who knows how to read Joe's mind? I think that he gets a lot about talent and player development and I see it in his interviews where he gets excited about those questions from the press core. Compare his responses to Noa Dalzell and Jack Simone.
I heard Hauser complaining about Joe's lack of a set lineup and that players would rebel. The truth is that Joe is just iterating the heck out of everything until he finds stuff to work.
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
"I’m starting to wonder whether Mazzulla is struggling to fit both Minott and Gonzalez in the rotation." I think the issue is that Mazzulla also has Scheierman to count in that group, too. I am classifying them as the energy wings. BS seemed much more focused in this game and was a pain in his own way like Minot and Gonzalez. My guess is that Joe is looking at their rotation of minutes across games rather than within a game.
I may be wrong... I also suspect that with all the changes and the lack of ego / established starters, Joe sees this squad as an opportunity to tailor our team to each opponent.
For sure, he'll be trying combos and working out strengths, but I also suspect he'll like the freedom of having more tools in his toolkit. Joe is a thinking man's coach, he loves to tinker and try new stuff.