An opposing team’s scout breaks down the division heading into the season.
Klay Thompson is a huge addition. You got a guy that can play off the ball. You got Luka Doncic. They need somebody that can play without the basketball because he’s got the ball in his hands the whole time. Thompson doesn’t need the ball to score and to be successful. Doncic wants the ball the whole time. You got Kyrie Irving that has the ball. So, you finally get a guy in there that can score without having the ball and you can’t help off of him.
I love Naji Marshall, he is a hard nose, does-everything kind of guy, shoots the ball really well. He does all the effort plays on defense. He can guard one through four. He’s a utility guy on both ends. He just fits in seamlessly with his effort. The Rockets were about what I thought they would be last season. They outplayed what I thought they’d be at various points in the year early. When Alperen Sengun went down, they went on that run for a while where they were cooking. But at the end of the day, record-wise, they pretty much finished about what I thought they’d be: a competitive team, but play-in-ish type team.
I’m not in love with Sengun the way some others are. The fact that when he was out, Green killed it and they went on that long streak tells you something. He’s going to score some points that look good, but at the end of the day, is he making them a better team? He’s a tough cover, but you’re not necessarily winning, especially if your center sucks defensively, you better be really good.
I’m not in love with Dejounte Murray either. He’s more of a point guard defender, and an upgrade, in some ways, over McCollum, but he’s not the answer to all their problems. Defensively, he’s pretty good, but not probably quite as good as he was advertised coming out of San Antonio. You saw some of that in Atlanta. He’s a nice defender, average to plus, but he’s not out of this world.
Morant is a dynamic, explosive athlete even if he is not the greatest shooter. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images When you look at their team, they all have overlap and there’s a lack of ability to shoot the basketball that you’re better off not having one of these guys and getting somebody else in here who can actually make a shot.
We talked about you don’t front him in the post, versus mismatches, as much as you try to push him out, because you front him, and they throw it up, nobody’s getting to it.
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