The team cannot scrape together a win and people keep pointing fingers. Who’s fault is it really?

Our injury report currently lists Jose, Trey, Larry, Herb, and CJ as out. I’m not the first to say that this is a massive hit but it is. Each of these guys offer a unique skillset that is crucial to our roster construction.

Jose - his skills as a backup PG are severely missed at the moment. People often recognize him fir his defense and hustle, but offensively he’s just a smart player. He doesn’t turn the ball over a lot, and he can bail you out of possessions with a floater game that takes opposing bigs off guard.

Trey - His shooting is most important, but he also offers an incredible amount of length on the perimeter with a 7’1 wingspan. Last season we had a top 10 defense and Trey’s added length on the perimeter was a big reason for that.

Herb - Herb is an all league level defender and is crucial for having any chance at winning close games against MVP level closers

CJ - As much as we love to hate his streaky shooting, CJs ability as a tough shotmaker helps save offensive possessions that would otherwise be dead

Larry - to be honest Larry is probably who we miss least on this list, as he has fallen off athletically, but he’s still probably better than Cody Zeller

All of these missed skillets add up. Part of the reason that Zion was able to bring us to the 1 seed last season was because all of these guys played. In the modern NBA depth>star power and currently all of our depth is gone.

Now for the bad on the court.

Zion and BI have had a relatively rough start to the season. Not only have both of these guys historically taken a few months to get into their close to 30 ppg forms, but the roster isn’t giving them much to work with in terms of spacing, which is forcing these guys into a bunch of tough shots. These 2 can be playing better, Zion especially has had questionable decision making at the end of games, which probably helped cost us a win in houston.

In terms of our other role players we currently have playing, only 2 of them are NBA caliber players. Dyson and Naji are solid in their normal role as off the bench defense first hustle guys, but we have been forced to put them into roles they aren’t comfortable with. Dyson has been struggling dealing with the pressure of being a starting point guard, and both Dyson and naji are below average shooters

Kira, Matt Ryan, Seabron, and Hawkins are not NBA level contributors. Hawkins and Ryan are the closest out of the 4, but Hawkins is still developing as a rookie and Ryan’s only NBA skill is shooting (There is a reason teams don’t keep him around). For the other 2, seabron gets more leeway as he is a rookie, but Kira gets no sugar coating. He has not developed a single thing since his rookie season. his finishing is still awful, he’s a poor decision maker, and he still cant shoot to save his life. these guys simply do not contribute to winning basketball right now. Both dudes (Kira and Seabron), to their credit, can occasionally make good help reads on defense that have led to runouts, but offer little to nothing on offense.

On top of all of this we have the worst defensive centers in the league bar none. nbauniversity posted a rim protection graph the other day that confirmed this suspicion of mine, placing Jonas dead last among starting centers in expected opponent Fg% at the rim. Larry ranks worse in expected fg% as well, and Cody did not qualify. This is simply not a winning formula in the modern NBA, and is one of the only issues with this team that is not immediately fixed by everyone suddenly being healthy. Our center rotation is our most glaring roster issue and needs to be addressed (issue is that great rim protection is hard to come by). I know that everyone loves Jonas, including myself, but he just doesn’t make sense on this roster. He eats up space on the floor because his main offense is posting up and, while his shooting is good, he is not quick to pull the trigger.

Compound all of these things with the fact that our schedule consists of some of the toughest teams out west right now, and you have the formula for an extremely rocky start.

There is some positive to this team, even in the ditches. Jordan Hawkins looks great even if his shot isn’t falling right now. his confidence, especially pulling up out of the pnr, is really exciting to see and the fact he’s getting so many minutes now will help us later in the season. Did I mention the seasons just started? The film side to us playing all the toughest teams out west right now is that our schedule in the second half of the season is (theoretically) much easier. not having to go through Denver, Dallas, and Minnesota in February and March could allow us to pull off another magic run like we did 2 seasons ago, given good health for Zion and BI.

Many people have been extremely reactionary when it comes to the current state of this team, but it is simply not the fault of one or two guys that we are in this position. Firing Willie or trading Zion simply fixes nothing and is reactionary finger pointing. The bigger picture is still bleak, but I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe it’s my fault for having any faith in this team at all, but if I couldn’t look at the bright side I wouldn’t be a fan lol.

tl;dr we stink but anyone who didn’t expect that needs to take a step back and look at whole thing, not the faults of one or two guys