Good to see the guys finally string together some wins against teams they should beat. Winning 5 outta 6 is always a good thing and nothing to turn my nose up at. A win is a win and they produced some impressive analytics numbers for folks to get excited about. But those numbers always have to be put into context and last night vs a good MEM team (playing a back-to-back btw) showed the difference between playing a buncha sub-.500 teams and playing actual playoff contenders. I could be wrong but the last winning team we beat was the Heat with Jimmy B injured early in that one…that was literally 2 months ago. The schedule gets alot more serious between now & the All Star break in mid February and we’ll have a much more realistic view of where we stand than wins against HOU, POR, MIN (w/o KAT & D.Russell), SAC, & ATL.
It was a nice little run..
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January 10, 2022 3 Comments
All valid points, Mongo. We’re at the halfway mark of the season and our 7th place position pretty much sums up how we’ve played to this point despite having a favorable schedule. We are what we are: a 42-40 play-in team based on what we’ve seen.
Can that change? Sure, especially when we get Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn back or if we make a big trade for Myles Turner or Jerami Grant or anything to balance the roster and give us some more size for our small ball lineups.
What’s troublesome is we haven’t beaten any of the teams we are likely to face in the playoffs in the West: the Grizzlies, Suns, and Warriors. So nobody can say right now that our resume shows we can be more than what we are. There are promising sings but they’re offset by troubling signs.
Personally, I’m not going to let last night’s game bother me. Sometimes, you just can’t hit shots and the Grizzlies are clearly a legitimate top four team in the West with no question. Simply put, we’re going to have to (1) make a deal to get more size and defense and (2) play a whole lot better the second half of the season and peak heading into the playoffs.
I’m always gonna put more weight on how we perform against good teams. Steel on Steel. We ain’t gonna see SacTown in April & May…
It was a nice little run. Now comes the real deal. Frittered away the easy part might be the thing that makes this too hard for these guys. Also hard for me to see a different player or two resulting in a sea change but you never know. That certainly has happened with teams in the past where a guy moves into a better situation and rediscovers the joy de vivre.