Strengths:

  • Tyrese Haliburton is our point guard for the foreseeable future and he is quickly becoming MVP calibre.
  • We have one of the best head-coaches in the league.
  • We have a lot of flexibility going forward in how we want to construct this team.

Weaknesses:

  • Our supporting cast is not as established as we may like. Many of our other players are on short term deals.
  • There is no guarantee we are now a ‘player’s destination’. We like to hear how TH is a dream to play with, but would that get a top FA like Siakam or Anunoby to commit?
  • Defens. Yes, I missed the last e, it is so obvious that our defens is crap that I don’t even need to spell it out.

Opportunities:

  • We have some talented young players on the roster, but progress has been slow. Mathurin and Nembhard are stalling this season so far and Walker and Sheppard don’t see much of the court. We could switch tracks this season to focus on development, we have our own pick as well. (Yes, that is me saying we start thinking about losing a bit more)
  • We can strike whilst the iron is hot, do we make a win-now move? It’s definitely a possibility. We have some decent assets that may get a deal over the line. We traditionally value our picks highly, but we have a decent group of young players coming through and we’re not going to get a pick better than mid-range this year anyway.

Threats:

  • Indecision is a real threat. Carrying on as we are currently (8-6) does not achieve anything. We are not developing our young players and we are not signalling intent for the future. Having the best offense in the league is awesome, but it won’t be long before we are in the same (bad) boat as Atlanta has been in recent years. Great offensive leader of the team, but incapable of consistent performances due to no defensive identity.
  • Fans lethargy. It almost feels normal to score 131 points in a loss. We’re currently offering an unbalanced experience and fans will start to get fed-up with losing, especially giving up 132 against the Raptors and 128 against the Magic. Both teams are firmly in the bottom half for offensive rating by the way…

Decisions that may set a direction:

  1. Finish the season and look to attract an FA. Key position is forwards, a few options coming up, Siakam, Harris, Anunoby, DeRozan???, PG24???, Kaw… OK, I’ll stop there. Of the big name players the only realistic addition that fits our timeline would be OG Anunoby. Would he come? And for how much? And is he actually worth it?
  2. Our defense is so poor because we are consistently looking for transition offense. What about tweaking our schemes a bit and actually crashing the defensive boards? If we have to sacrifice 5ppg of our offensive rating in exchange for gaining -5papg and boosting our defensive rating… It would make such a difference to the way this team looks and feels.
  3. Make a mid-season trade. We need a better option for our forwards. But who? And what would it cost?

I don’t actually have a preference (although I hate the option of not doing anything), I don’t think any decision will be made before the new year anyway, but I am curious where you, as fans, lean?

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  • crowezrBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Nice write-up. Agree with a lot, but not all.

    Re: fan lethargy: this team is just now getting on the radar of the casual so I wouldn’t worry about that anytime soon, maybe even at all this season. I think we’ve only had one sellout. We’re getting into the time when local fans start to pay more attention around the holidays, and then when the Colts season winds down. Once people discover we have a legit budding superstar, I think they’ll latch onto that and hope for win. They probably won’t think too much about things like being the worst defense ever as long as playoffs remain a possibility. 42-44 wins should get the play-in for the East.

    Re: focusing more on development: I’d be hesitant here, given Tyrese’s stated goal of playoffs. Granted, this is likely a play-in and early exit team, but that is a good experience and is its own form of player development. Plus, you’d have to tank hard to get any sort of a good pick and this draft class seems meh anyway. This team already can’t get young guys on the court enough, let alone with another 20ish year old in the mix.