re: Holy chit this was ugly. Defense killed us

This is what I see. In the Pels starting lineup, they lack 3 point shooting, rebounding, and defense. If we’re building around Ingram and Zion, we need to do our best job to highlight their strengths and hide their weaknesses.

Firstly, the pace is just too fast. It truly reminds me of the saints when they went 7-9 those three straight years. Our defense can’t keep up with our pace. We don’t have to go fast to be great offensively. Jrue is our only plus defender (Ball and Hart are solid). Everyone else is either average or worst. We run ourselves out of games because we can’t defend and we turn the ball over like crazy. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Secondly, we tried so hard to put shooters around Zion, but it’s become obvious that we need defenders around Zion and we do not have that at all. Look at the top teams in the league. Lakers, Bucks, Raptors all have an elite defensive frontcourt. It’s like they suffocate the paint. Our front court of skinny BI, unconditioned Zion, and a slow Favors is not a recipe for success.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Ingram is best suited to be a tweener between the 2 and 3. Ingram should not be playing the 4 at all and we should limit his minutes at the 3. Ingram would be excellent at the 2 he would have a size advantage and I feel like it would let him blossom even more offensively. I also think you let Favors walk this free agency. We need to get a 3 and D type SF and a defensive Center that has the ability to step out and shoot the three. I know we love the Zion/ Melli grouping offensively, but defensively... it’s just too bad. We have to remember Melli is also a rookie. That pairing is just too inexperienced.

I’d personally like to see Jrue in a 6th man role. He’d still get starter minutes, but I think it would help out our bench. I know y’all may not like it, but Ball, Holiday, and Ingram are all ball dominate and I just don’t think it works well. Making Jrue the 6th man would really just help spread that out.

And if we can’t get a 3 and D Center, I would be ok with a veteran rim running center who’s great defensively and can rebound well. Favors/Zion pairing is unfortunately just too slow. Like if our Center can’t shoot threes, he should at least be able to get up and down the court quick to be a lob option. It worked well for the Clippers with Griffin/ Jordan.