Ariza and Luc Mbah Moute played with HOFers CP3 and Harden. Nothing against FVV but he is couple notches below. It would be great if they get to 38 wins. Different dimensions, different expectations.
$86 million wasn’t enough to truly inspire him so we made sure to add an extra $1 mil per year if we make the playoffs that year…
My theory is that Udoka does not trust any of the young players to pan out. This is exactly why I don't like coaches having too much say in personnel decisions. They want to win now. They don't care about long term development. I get that we can't expect all the young guys to fulfill their potentials. Sooner or later they have to get rid of some of them. But they should at least take a good look at them before they give them up. They give up on Garuba and TyTy without seeing how they would work in a larger role. They should have used the last two seasons to experiment on as many scenarios as possible. Instead, they locked in to the KPJ-Nix experiment and held on to Eric Gordon. And they gave the 26-year-old Tate, a guy who doesn't have a high ceiling, a big role. KMJ couldn't get much PT before they finally got rid of Gordon. You can see the pattern. All those are short-sighted desperation decisions. The Harden infatuation earlier was pretty much the same thing. Good thing Udoka didn't want him. But it wasn't because he was thinking long term. He just doesn't think Harden would fit what he wants to do.
That Smart player never learns, I am looking forward to technicals. How many US players played there....
@CXbby I am curious what his overall stats were in these 28 games? Are you able to pull that data? I am assuming/hoping his efficiency was higher in these games taking less shots.
Dillion should end up being an useful player even if it was an overpay. (we still shouldn't have overpaid that much). As far as Udoka being skeptical of the young guys, I do believe there is a healthy dose of this. As lot of people from the outside has had bad perception of the team last three years. Prior to Ime getting the job, I doubt he was glued to the Rockets and watched all of our regular season games. This also could be why they didn't bat much of an eye in letting Garuba/Christopher/Tyty go. Trust is earned so hopefully young guys gets a real fair shake at the job. Vers are needed but pay scale aside, lean towards meritocracy as much as possible.
People do not understand as much as Udoka is being liked around the league, it is still his redemption tour after what happened in Boston. Anything other than a full success, and his career is probably not taking off quite like he would have liked it. To bet his career on Van Vleet and Brooks, two guys that are about to be steering towards 30 years of age and the rest of near teenagers, it is likely not all sunshine in Udoka Land.
Udoka is doing everything he can to win. He knows this is his ticket to getting back to a successful career after the Boston scandal. That's why he would rather bet on VanVleet and Brooks who are in their prime than on the unproven young players. Of course, if the kids outperform the vets, he'll play the kids. He's not Silas. But in terms of team building, he is going to want as many proven guys as he can get. If he can get his hands on players better than those two guys, I'm sure he will do it in a heart beat.
Then there lies the conundrum. VV has just proven that without Lowry, Derozan and Kawhi, he can only help a team to 37-38 wins. Brooks has never been a solid 2nd or 1st option. Might as well just go with Alpe, Jabari, Green, KPJ, Amen and the guys. The inexperience gap is not that great to call it a landslide.
No kidding. But that's the best he can get under the circumstances. I think he will get some slack in his first year. If he can improve the team to a +10 wins over the last season, he will be viewed as a success. Nobody is expecting this team to be a championship contender in a couple of years. So he doesn't have to achieve that to be recognized as a good coach.
BLopez was the total package they missed out on. Can do everything without demanding touches and shots. Heads and shoulders taller. Every other guy seems to be Plan A minus or Plan B.
Missing out on Brook might prove to be a blessing in disguise Time to see how Sengun responds to a make or break season... either he is going to earn himself a very fat extension this season or he will be traded, is my prediction.
....I don't disagree with the math - 16% is a lot for a role player but remember we are starting cap smoothing(AKA, the Kevin Durant rule in the new CBA) meaning the payroll raises incrementally every year until it gets to the new cap figure. I'm too lazy to do the math, but every year he makes a little less relative to overall payroll which also makes his contract more movable on the back half of it. I am optimistic that once Udoka gets him taking less of a "creation" role offensively, that his offensive numbers will be a little more palatable(since the low FG% is a direct result of taking shots he should never be taking) and his contract value will be high enough(all defense wing defender+decent offensive role player production) we can move him when Tari is ready to be the dude full time. ...objectively too, we have a lot of young players who even if they get paid on their first contract still project to be very reasonable contracts relative to production. Ultimately I don't think Brooks hurts us that much if at all - but it will look a lot better on the back half of the contract than it does today...but remember we need to spend A LOT of money today to prevent us from signing more people who will cut into our young guy's already stretched playing time.
It's weird to me how for years we've all been terribly disappointed in how this team performs defensively, but then we add an All-NBA defender and nobody seems to be excited about it. Well I'm excited about it.
