It isn’t 2004 anymore, defense doesn’t win championships. What does win is having many offensive weapons. We have minimal. That’s why we can’t get a win. We’re running a lineup of 5 dudes, 2 of them cannot shoot at all, 2 of them have a decent shot (Cunningham ivey) and 1 dude has the slowest jumper in the league that isn’t considered threatening to other teams, because he can only shoot if he’s wide open (stew) We are not going to win in this league until we get more shooting. This lineup will not cut it. Cade and ivey could look way better if we had bogdanovic back. And that jerami grant guy in Portland looks like a solid piece too. If only we could get a guy like that on our roster instead of Isaiah livers. Imagine this lineup: Cade Ivey Bog Grant Duren Time to make some hard choices. As much as we love Ausar and stew, if they can’t get their jump shot right, I don’t know how we’re supposed to win with them.
A big factor in the lack of shooting is we are rolling out a bunch of young guys with no vets to steady things. Young players tend to suck at shooting.
There are certainly exceptions to this generalization but almost every good to great player is shooting significantly better 5 to 10 years in from 3 than when they were as rookies or second year guys
Weaver tried to surround the young poor shooting core with knock down shooters (Bogey, Monte, Burks, Harris), but Harris’ regression last season wasn’t him getting over an injury. He’s cooked. Burks seems like he’s playing hurt. Bogey and Monte haven’t played a game.
Sasser was drafted for his shooting and he’s been up and down (which is expected). Livers was injured and hasn’t shot well. They pushed Stew to become a shooter and he’s had some success, but he’s still far from being a legit floor spacer.
It is true that we do have too many non shooters in the roster, but it’s been a perfect storm of bad luck that everyone who can space the floor has been injured or is too young to be consistent.