I’m renaming my posts to more accurately reflect their content: my game notes. Use them for discussion, disagreement, confirmation, eye test recap, whatever.
Rebounding and second-chance opportunities killed us. 15 offensive rebounds to our 4.
Player Notes
– Bron: looks quick. Fell kind of hard in the 1Q, which had me cringing. Hit few 3s and looks good. 21st season. He’s unreal.
– AD: so effin good. Defensive system by himself (deterrence, playmaking). Vertical and horizontal spacing. Such a cheat code.
– Rui: learning from AD to contest vertically, but passive offensively. Not requesting ball and not getting to his spots until 5 min left in 3Q. Did not play well.
– AR: doing his thing on O (3s, drawing fouls). Hit one from well behind the arc. Aggressive AR is good AR. Had a movement 3 in the 3Q, which was unusual but would be a good development.
– DLO: Playing passing lanes, good strip – kept D effort going.
– Prince: not sure if I like him guarding KD bc of height difference but given our depth Prince was very aggressive. Worked out fine actually. Showed a decently versatile offensive bag (some handles, some playmaking).
– Max: Quiet first shift. Very active defensively 2H. Needs to work on handles – too loose and doesn’t change direction well. Good 4Q, shot looks good – tells me that he’s still not comfortable playing with the big dogs.
– Hayes: played for the first time in 2Q – immediate impact bc of vertical spacing. Nice 2-man game with Bron and good hands to catch low bounce pass. I really like Hayes, and in a 2-big lineup it’s hard to contain the team.
– Wood: Played bad. Not a good game for him. Plus-Minus says it all.
– Cam: Surprised to see him enter so quickly in 1Q. Seems like Cam is playing/filling in for Vando’s role? Cam lost his man couple of times and tries to do too much on O. Should not handle the ball.
Rooks
– Hodge: 3pt shot is real. Is his release getting faster?
– Castleton: Great instincts. Doing lots of little things well. Good rebounding, defensive deterrence, some offensive game, decent touch around rim.
by LearnedToe
17 Comments
Great notes. Max had a somewhat disappointing pre-season given expectations but he’s definitely won the backup 2 minutes over Reddish. Still, I only expect him to get maybe 10 minutes a night to start
I really enjoy these game notes. Will we see any in the regular season? Thanks for your work.
I am most worried about injuries to Vando and Gabe. I just want to start the season with the entire roster healthy and in place. Tired of starting behind the 8-ball.
Our rebounding is ass really need to improve on that
This game doesn’t deserve a breakdown. Nobody tryna play 6-mf preseason games, no PG minutes mid-way thru third, no effort game
Nobody cared and shots didn’t fall
Did I ask????
I like our starting 5.
Our bench needs one of Lebron, AD, Dlo, Reaves or Gabe Vincent to play with them. They were headless out there.
If we rely on Wood as our second unit interior rim protector, we are done. Too many times he was too slow to rotate.
I’m a big fan of these game notes
Good writeup, thank you! I liked that you noted the movement 3 from AR – if he starts adding those consistently, the Lakers offense gets that much more dangerous, so it was a nice little surprise
Lebron is fucking insane
Great idea OP, looking forward to these notes posts during the regular season.
I hope our rebounding is just an effort issue, we have the big bodies this season so it shouldn’t be a problem like it has been so far.
In a potential rotation I posted here, people were questioning why I sat Reaves so early in the 1st quarter.
This game is why.
D’Angelo is more used to playing longer minutes in the 1st.
So, you sit Reaves early so you can more easily stagger the minutes between D’Angelo and Reaves.
Sit Reaves 4~5 minutes into the first and then bring him in for D’Angelo at the 8~9 minute mark and then stagger their minutes from thereafter with some overlap to end the half, start the 3rd, and end the 4th.
We have to get derozan or lavine from the bulls in December/January. I promise you guys if we do we’re legit. This team is not it. Banking on young talent when we have a older Bron and AD hasn’t shown us a full season in awhile. Another veteran established player is what we need rn.
Taurean Prince is going to be so big this year. He looks like he’s gonna have his best 3pt shooting year and is a solid defender.
But his ability to attack/pass off closeouts is potentially a game changer. My hot take before the season was that Prince would play like a 6’7 KCP for us and he might live up to that.
Ham’s 3rd string Center is more impactful than his 2nd stringer in Woods. Pretty much seem it all pre-season.
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