re: Late/undrafted finds and Paul George injury fooled us on Griff

quote:

---

but I wonder if that's why we haven't seen too many 2 big sets other than JV and Jaxson last year?

---

Nance is very capable as a closing small ball 5, but Coach Green has used him as a full time 5 and he just gets worn down. Coach has likely been hesitant to use him as a 4 because doesn't offer the biggest threat beyond the 3 as a spacer. However the defense has been compromised since Zion's injury, playing undersized (height/weight) wings at the 4.

I believe he even hinted in a recent interview that he can't rim protect as much as he'd like because he doesn't have anyone else to put a body on bigs and wings crashing the offensive glass. There is obvious frustration on-court with this team when either Val or Billy attempt to switch as the team would like to play and has led to inept paint defense for near 3 months now.

Once Coach Green saw this (wings at the 4) was not working either he could have altered the play style with less switching allowing Val to play down on screens and slowing up the game, or give Hayes/Nance run with with BI, Herb, Naji, and TM3 sliding up to their natural positions (SG/SF).

Ooh, I like the grades, good stuff! That's good board discussion material.

quote:

---

Year 1 - Grade C: Makes outstanding trade for AD but then... Favors, Jax, Naw, keeps Al

---

The AD trade was so good, I think you gotta go B there

quote:

---

Year 2 - Grade F-: Adams, Bledsoe, Hires Stan draft Kira

---

Unless there's something I missed, can't disagree there

quote:

---

Year 3- Grade B-: Gets 0 for Lonzo but hits on Herb, Trey and Jose, makes good trade for Nance/CJ, hires Willie, gets raped on Graham trade. Brings in Jonas. swings and whiffs on overrated old PGs or this is also an F.

---

Herb/Trey/Jose/Naji, Nance/CJ, Jonas...like you said couple of misses, and nitpicking by me admittedly, but that was enough good for near A level or B+ at worst IMO

quote:

---

Year 4 - Grade F: Extends CJ unnecessarily. Drafts Dyson while talented but a questionable fit. And basically does nothing else. No added shooters, no athletic rim protector. Gets off an earlier mistake in Graham but doesn't improve roster at all.

---

Not an F imo, but not much of note. I'm not sure why you'd view the Dyson draft pick as a negative. He's 19, there's potential, that's still a positive. Also, wasn't that CJ deal going to end this offseason if we didn't extend him? I'm not sure how the CJ addition is touted as a good move if you don't then extend him. I'd also ask to then tell me who we could have gotten for Hart+1st that would be anywhere near as good as CJ if that extension was a negative move. I think the extension goes hand in hand with the addition. I'd bet anything that was already determined with the trade, and we wouldn't have traded for him if he didn't agree to it, nor would he have agreed to come here and Portland probably doesn't send him here if he tells them he didn't want to go here. Lots of layers to it basically.

The main issue is just about every team that isn’t tanking made moves to improve in the off season or at least tried too. We went 36-46 last year and didn’t do ANYTHING in the off season.

I do see how Griff keeps his job with 4 straight losing seasons.

The coaching and training staff have to be able to get more production out of the talent on the roster.

All rosters have weak points. I am not saying Griff is awesome, but we have ended up with a ton of talent. It has been recognized around the league and got us to the number 1 seed until a collapse. We are also not big into the tax.