AD, DLO: Not much needs to be said. They were aggressive and effective.
Rui: He was aggressive getting to the rim, and somewhat effective, but noticeably lacked touch around the rim. Could be from the extra muscle. He looks like he’s going to put a lot of pressure on the rim this year.
Vincent: Loved his pesky defense. Not as fast as Dennis but more stout. Has a nice shot although it didn’t fall.
Prince: Too eager to make a defensive stop so fouled a lot. Shot also wasn’t falling. I expect him to be a solid back up 3 for us.
Vando: He hit 2 3s!!! That got my giddy because it would dramatically open the offense for us. However, he’s still got a little bit of a hitch in his shot. Makes me wonder about the consistency of his shot. I’m rooting for him.
Max Clamps Christie: He played well. Good 3&D activity but then flashes ball handling, BBIQ (trying to make the right passes, rotating), shiftiness, and strength. I’m high on Max and expect him to have a breakout year.
Wood: You can tell he came into the game intending to work on the defensive end. Was moderately impressed by that, but other bad tendencies were apparent (not setting a good screen). He was also gassed very quickly because, honestly, he looked out of shape. At one point in the game we couldn’t score and he got like 6 straight points. With some film to highlight the bad tendencies, leaders to keep him accountable, and some cardio to lose the fluff, he’ll round out into shape. I’m still optimistic.
Hayes: Was low key impressed by him. He’s a lot more mobile than I thought. He’s also super high energy. Combine those things with actually caring on defense, and I thought he played well. Had good hands. Moved his feet well. He’s also a generally big dude. I’m super intrigued to see him play w/ Bron.
Reddish: Im rooting for Cam, but he looks absolutely terrible out there. Set aside clanking shot after shot after shot, he was making terrible passes and couldn’t dribble. Chalk it up to the nerves, but he had the worst outing of any non-rookie.
Rooks: Most of them struggled, which is to be expected.
Shoutout to Hodge, who was very active on defense. He’s got quick hands on defense and a lightning fast release. Whenever he needs to put another 10-15 pounds of muscle, he’s going to be a problem.
Hood struggled on both sides. Offensively, he was trying to force too much, which led to bad shots or turnovers. On the plus side, he got 6 boards, which is good bc other than Max we don’t really have rebounding guards. It’s his first game as a pro. Let’s give him a year or two to get his sea legs before we call him a bust.
Castleton: Got limited minutes. Looked comfortable out there though. Rebounded and dribbled the ball up court to initiate the offense. He has good touch around the rim but I wanna see him take some more middies. He took one, which didn’t go in but it looked good. I’m high on Castleton.
Thoughts? Comments?
by LearnedToe
17 Comments
the starters preformed well, I hate how people are making it seem like the whole team flopped, I still have high hopes for this team, but the bench needs more cohesiveness they looked lost out there
Wood and reddish didn’t perform. JHS is going to get a lot of heat if he doesn’t perform especially when the players taken right after him seem to be playing decent.
……..Cam Reddish
Reddish needs to have better shot selection. I hope he has a rebound game next time.
Solid take thanks for not hating on our boys. 100% valid take although I really think JHS was just trying to make winning plays (which pissed max off lol) but it’s cool they basically got the game as close as it was at one point.
The game was already interesting for me in terms of what the rotations will look like cause at some point (*knock on wood) Lebron will miss time one way or another. Obviously Austin will start in place of Gabe, but I’m not sure about playing both Rui and Vando together just yet. Kinda need more than a game to see if they play together.
I’ll just hope for the better games for most of our new guys actually to see how well the team can be. Hope Cam is alright tho
I agree with everything. If Rui actually finishes at the rim he’s an all star.
Ad looked very good and I think dlo was looking shiftier but maybe I was so brainwashed into dlos a bum I didn’t realise this is just his game and denver was an outlier of which we won’t see again
Also max could be a closer by the end of the year he is a far better screen navigator than vando and is just as laterally quick
Your take was on point with everyone. I’ve never watched Cam play before but I’m so confused as to how some people thought he had sky high potential when he got drafted. I’ve heard his motor runs low, but I was at least expecting him to have a deep bag or explosiveness (like a JR Smith or Nick Young type). Didn’t see any of that. I guess that’s why he’s been on 4 or 5 teams already.
Its all gon be better on offense side by the time they have lebron back. Hes gon make everyones job easier, he attracts defenders and that opens a lot of shots for his teammates. I can alr see him running with hayes/wood on pick n roll for an easy dunk. The only thing that worries me is how can 39 yr old Lebron be more productive defensively. He might preserve energy on D, to produce more offensively.
Gotta chill, its pre season , lets start shitting on them when they’re losing when the season finally starts
Jhs needs to be in g league all year
Mas christie is a bucket!
I thought I was looking at LeBron but it was Rui. He definitely added new tools, just needs to finish at the rim
That Max vs Cam battle…
I want Rui to get a bigger role on offense his shot looks nice he just needs to get more aggressive with the ball in his hands. It would be lit if AD Austin and Rui had most of the touches tbh. Bron and DLO spend more time playmaking.