Any expectations of contention this year were completely ridiculous.

It basically always gets brought up.

He’s too slow to guard point guards and not strong enough to guard wings. He seriously sucks at on-ball defense and I’m not going to try to blame all of it on the rest of the team, but in an ideal future, he will be surrounded by better defenders and not in a scheme that switches at the smallest semblance of contact. I have more hope that he can be hidden on defense than I do for some of the popular comps he gets (Nash, Trae) just because there’s a solid chance he can eventually be hidden on the worst perimeter player on the court instead of being forced to guard at the point of attack.

The next move is to take a step back and a deep breath.

We have a 23 year-old superstar whose game doesn’t rely on athleticism and is under team control for a long time. We have all of our draft picks and then some, and nothing but good contracts on the roster. Be patient and don’t rush a quick fix that doesn’t make us a contender and also handicaps our future ceiling.

Did you think this team was a serious contender before this game?

Josh Giddey by a mile.

A guy whose weaknesses shooting and defensively make him profile as more of an 82 game player instead of a 16 game player except that he’s also one of the least efficient high-volume players in the regular season and his team consistently plays better when he’s not on the court.

I’m not sure, I’m mostly just excited to see this debate on this sub every day for the next five months.

You don’t even have to go back to the 60s. As recently as 2004, the Minnesota Timberwolves offered Latrell Sprewell a contract that couldn’t even feed his family.

No, the big part of Zion hype is that he was American and played for Duke. Not in the same tier as Wemby as a prospect in any way except for the hype they had before they entered the league.

Basically no consistency with this list regarding if the first 10 games of the season mean nothing or everything for some of these guys.

Maxey is ranked ahead of Dame and Donovan Mitchell for a 10 game sample where he played at the level those two have played at for years.

It says a lot about how silly our defensive scheme is that Turner is having an elite year as a rim protector and we are allowing by far the most points in the paint because of an unprecedented volume of attempts at the rim.

He was more efficient than almost every other higher volume rookie last year and nearly any scoring guard prospect in the last few years because he lives at the free throw line.

Picking a guy who is an absolutely abysmal fit on a team doesn’t mean he’s automatically the best player available, therefore making it a good pick.

But even in a world where Anthony Black was the best player, is there any way he would look good in lineups without any shooting whatsoever and with every other player on the court wanting on-ball reps? Their reluctance to factor in fit whatsoever is creating an environment that compromises player’s developments.

Dude has been awesome this year except for one half against the Suns which he got absolutely roasted for.

He wasn’t annihilated by the media who consistently had him in the top 5 discussion leading up to the draft. He was annihilated by armchair scouts here and on Twitter.

During that preseason NBA GM poll, McConnell was one of the top responses to “Which active NBA player will make the best head coach someday?”

Billy Donovan is gone by December 1st.

Yep, they are doing what the Celtics, Grizzlies, Cavs, and Bucks did last year by playing their shotblocking 4 as a weakside defender instead of as a primary rim protector.

Those were the top 4 defenses in the NBA btw.

The NBA Live 2003 Song by Fabolous is a damn classic.

Yes, this thread is silly and we should not be comparing Patrick Williams to Kawhi. But just because he isn’t Kawhi doesn’t make him a bust.