re: Jesus Mac, start the GD game thread edit: f it this is the game thread

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You worried about your win % son? Get on it

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March madness had me distracted and some other stuff. I’m either super early and ready or I’m late. No inbetween

I deserved my call out

Hayes now has more made 3s on the year than Street Clothes and Triple Single and closing in on Jimmy Butler.


Hayes 14-38 (37%)

Street Clothes 12-66 (18%)

Draymond 13-47 (28%)

Jimmy Butler 17-89 (19%)

Naji MJ Marshall 18-86 (21%)

The tragically named Tre Jones 3-35 (8.5%)

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Jimmy Butler 17-89 (19%)

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This is wild.

Nah they just had to start him at the 4

I’d love you find where I’ve said Jax has improved literally zero things in three years.

Your Jax sensitivity is amusing, Here’s what I said, and it remains true

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Fact is, he has had a ton of opportunity to learn, observe, and be in the shadow of very good, high IQ skilled bigs at areas Jax has lacked proficiency and in three years his defense has barely progressed, his rebounding remained largely stagnate, and he’s mostly just added only very basic skills into his arsenal. He’s got the physical tools to be an all time great but he has so far not converted those physical tools into improving the key areas he’s most needed to improve.

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Nothing I said there is untrue(I also previously said if you put BI’s brain into Hayes body he’d be trending into a top 20 player, implying, rightly, that Hayes’ roadblocks are mental) His defense, especially when it comes to playing the 5, which is key to his long term future here, remains suspect(remember after pages of pushing you on how much you would pay Jax, you basically admitted you wouldn’t offer him much more than I was willing because he would be a back up still and has so many areas needing improvement), his rebounding remains pretty bad, and he still relies mostly on one step or no step moves, and to take that next step as a player he needs to be more than an outlet option taking advantage of bad match up teams. And for our team, he’s gonna have to learn to play the 5 or he and Zion will struggle to exist in the same air space. What of that is incorrect exactly? Since you are wanting to relitigate this?

If he can be a consistent 3pt or pick and pop threat that would be one key path of improvement, and this recent streak shows some promise(we’ve also seen guys have stretches like this, certain people crown them, only for them to revert back over the long term once defenses adjust, see: NAW, DG) but he’s still without any of those go-to, advanced moves he needs to develop to be more than a offensive Deandre Jordan around the rim with a occasional jumper. Which, is not a bad player, but to be a true great one, those fundamental areas still need improvement, and he’s gonna need to be more than someone needing to be hidden amongst a great wing and center, do you not agree??

And as I said in that thread as well, the improvement you see so far has been him getting better around the margins of the things he has shown to at least have in his arsenal: floaters, jump shots, cutting, simple drives and layups. And I expect he will continue rounding out those skills, and to be clear, if he does, that’s a very nice offensive PF that probably can start and thrive on certain very good teams. But to really excel, and be one of the 5 guys for this team, Hayes is gonna have to step up in those other areas too, and step up big.

As to the shooting, very encouraging, and the form is solid enough, at the same time, we need to see it done over longer sample sizes when it comes to things like the shooting. He’s taken 38 threes this season. He makes one more and he’s a nearly 40% shooter, one less and he’s 34%. That’s just not a reliable sample size. And we haven’t seen teams really adjust to his shooting yet either. So far, like early season Jonas, teams are just giving him that shot.

After Jonas’s career night there seemed to be a fundamental shift around the league in guarding his three, and since that night Jonas has struggled to both get the clean open looks, and hit them. So I want to see what Jax looks like after teams adjust to his recent hot streak and see if he can maintain it before I crown him the next great stretch 5.

The perfect scenario for the Pels would honestly be that he is able to be resigned for a lower than Timelord like deal, and Jonas will want to stick around for cheaper in a couple seasons and you just naturally alter their roles as time goes on.

But i suspect that won’t be possible. However the other catch is Jax is becoming one of those players that probably holds more value to us than anything another team would be willing to give up in a trade, or that we can realistically get back with the contracts we have, and have coming up. So I can also see why it would be difficult for us to part with him even though we might run into an untenable scenario next off season.

if it comes down to JV vs Jax I think you have to choose JV considering zion is your 4. Jax is zion insurance at the moment (meaning, you can run out a credible frontcourt without zion). Herb has covered for harts absence and he’s obviously a keeper. Jonas can rebound a bit and he can score in the paint well enough. Unless zion never becomes a linchpin Jax is superfluous as a starter. Can you pay 15-20MM for a backup/spot starter who can’t defend?

His value has never been higher and likely will never be higher. But I do think that Jax is a big part of the good vibes on the team and treating him poorly will backfire

It’s an interesting situation. Zions situation is all business, shite or get. Jax is more nuanced