2nd half, ALL these players cannot keep having career worst years and that god awful shooting putting us last in league in efg% and 3p%. And Mello back really turns around offense too.
But may have to rethink if Mello back we not bottom 5 team…if Mello keeps fouling out and playing even worse defense than he did for JB…
Cliff defense has been disappointment.
But Injuries breaking up any cohesion and not a lot of defensive minded players…though DSJ, Cody, Jalen, JT recent rotation play well defense even if have no offense.
But to overcome injujries, defensive talent deficit, etc…so much comes from pace and team defense limit opponent orb & fast break points, and not turnover, foul, and take bad shots. So much ingrained in these players, don’t know if time for in-season turnaround.
Fast break was only really buy in big time, giving up fewest in NBA until a couple weeks ago.
Cliff teams do better in 2nd half. Mello behind any learning curve that exists, improve as gets know stuff better & puts out effort and begins to act not just react…at least get back to give up 115 instead of 122.
This is his second 30+ minute game with 1 rebound the past week. Had another one with 2. Last 4 games he’s gotten 9 total rebounds in 130 minutes.
No coach can get more out of him. You either have it in you or you don’t. Cliff has been calling him out all year on effort and toughness, but you also can’t afford to sit one of your best players. I do like him as a role player/6th man type guy, but if he’s not gonna sign for that amount, I think we gotta get some value for him before he walks in the offseason, cause anything approaching $14-15 is too much for his effort level.
We bag on Plumlee all the time, but he gives great effort. I’m encouraged to see that Mark seems to go really hard, always looking to snatch the ball. But PJ’s consistent lack of effort on the boards is not covered up by his one good scoring game every 4.
JB would be nowhere close to .500. Sure the offense would be better, but we’d also have suffered many more blowouts with our injuries. His formula was too jump out to a big lead and try to hold the other team off, or get their doors blown off by the end of the first quarter and then try to keep within 30 the rest of the game.
And his personality definitely is not the type to keep the team together to believe and fight to right the ship. I’d guess the team would’ve already been checked out by now and on the way to a worse season. Cliff might accidentally win too many games the 2nd half of the year if everyone starts to get healthy.
I’d like to push back on this a bit. I notice that Mason - at times - does not seemingly know how to block out, or that to block out on rebounds. He gets a fair share due to his position around the rim but I am pretty consistently frustrated by his lack of effort to get better positioning. I know Clifford doesn’t see it similarly but that’s kind of always been my Clif-frustration, that he cherry picks his disdain.
I think this is why I would so much prefer Clifford as a lead assistant (or have a D’Antoni level assistant as his 1st lieutenant). He needs someone (with gravitas or actual authority) to hold up the mirror and allow him to see the guys that are ALSO falling down on the job that he’s not calling out.
I feel like Clifford has such a specific skill set that he would be perfect as a defensive coordinator. But adding management of a roster on his plate is just too many tasks for him to do well.
As for Plumlee, it is probably relative to this particular roster. He’s not a grind you down road dog, and definitely isn’t a banger, but I give him credit for playing hard. I guess when you’re used to seeing your forwards always running away from the ball on the defensive glass, I like seeing at least someone attempt to get a board every now and then.
But also, MW actually plays really hard and has a real nose for the ball, so I feel much better about his prospects going forward.