Each made lob pass from Scoot will count as 5 points in my book. Ayton smiling and looking happy will be a good sign. Shaedon talking his ish to the opposing team like in summer league. The Anferno barking in general.
What else is gonna be fun despite the box score?
Team defense - with a younger, more athletic team with mobile bigs, I’m curious to see how the team defense looks this year. I understand that Rob Williams is going to get injured and miss time, but our starting lineup Scoot/Ant/Thybulle/Grant/Ayton should not be a statistical bottom-5 starting lineup defensively like we were last year.
Sharpe in a creation role - for most of last year Sharpe was in a purely play-finishing role (catch-and-shoot, catch-and-dunk). Throughout the tank and the preseason, we’ve seen him in more of a creation role, with some PnR touches and Chicago actions and things like that. I’m excited to see where that can go, and what is offensive ceiling really is.
How Scoot will deal with defenders going under screens - he shot around 39% on midrange jumpers last year, the vast majority of them being pullups off the dribble. The form and footwork look good, but most defenders are probably going to continue going under screens until he can consistently make them pay. So I’m curious to see if the percentage can come up a little bit.
Ant’s defense - he’s made it a huge focus on the offseason to improve on defense and not be a liability on that end. I’m interested to see if his effort improves and how he will look defensively this year. Last year he already improved from “worst-in-the-league” to just regular bad, and if there’s ever a time to take a leap it’s now.
How our halfcourt offense will run - Chauncey has preached about being uptempo, fast, and playing in transition (which is great) but I want to see how our halfcourt offense will function. After 10 years of being one of the most efficient halfcourt offenses in the league mostly because of Dame, I’m curious about how we will look without him. I don’t expect it to be good this season, but at some point we have to develop a functional halfcourt offense to win games in the playoffs.
Ayton in a creation role: in Phoenix he was catch-and-dunk, catch-and-hookshot, catch-and-turnaround jumper, or catch-jabstep-jumper. I’m interested to see what happens if he actually gets the ball in some sort of creation role, and how he will look. He averaged 18ppg last season but 91% of his FGM were either assisted, or putbacks (so basically he was never in any sort of self-creation role). Interested to see if that changes.