Taj Gibson

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Khans, It's not just about shooting league average in percentage terms. It's about volume. We were dead last in attempted and made 3's last season. Teague + Butler + Gibson minus LaVine + Rubio does not move the needle on 3-point shooting.

Thibs has literally zero high-volume three ball shooters on the roster. I have a hard time seeing us move the needle much from the #10 league offense with an old-school offensive roster.

Defensively, I see a lot more movement in the right direction, which is a good thing. It's tough to coach up shooting though.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

We didn't need another 3pt shooter in the starting lineup. We have 4 guys who shoot league average including Towns. We needed defensive toughness in the frontcourt especially at the rim. Gibson will likely guard the opposing center and Towns will follow the 4 on the perimeter which works great as Towns has been struggling down low with guys at times. We had bad 3pt shooting this year and still had a good offense with the exception of 4th quarters. We needed defense more than we needed 3's and that's what we got. I think everyone is so focused on needing 40% 3pt shooters that they are underselling guys who can shoot league average and get to the bucket and draw fouls. I don't know how a team with 3 20pt scorers and a 15pt scorer is going to struggle for offense at the end of the day which seems to be the underlying tone behind the desperation for 3pt shooters. We're going to be able to score and defend now. This isn't Westbrook surrounded by Oladipo, Roberson, Sabonis and Adams. We have 4 good enough shooters in the starting lineup. That should be enough to not be a problem.

That's a good analysis, Kahns. But it goes beyond the string 5 in my view. My concern is that we have no 3-point marksmen in our rotation. And it was Thibs, not just me, who's been repeatedly talking about the need to upgrade our 3-point shooting. Now we're out of cap space and he hasn't moved the needle at all in the three-point shooting department. Admittedly, there's still a chance to add rotation-level three-point shooting through the room exception.

Yup, except now they are pure specialists that can't do much of anything else (e.g. Rush).

Is James Jones still playing!?

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

We didn't need another 3pt shooter in the starting lineup. We have 4 guys who shoot league average including Towns. We needed defensive toughness in the frontcourt especially at the rim. Gibson will likely guard the opposing center and Towns will follow the 4 on the perimeter which works great as Towns has been struggling down low with guys at times. We had bad 3pt shooting this year and still had a good offense with the exception of 4th quarters. We needed defense more than we needed 3's and that's what we got. I think everyone is so focused on needing 40% 3pt shooters that they are underselling guys who can shoot league average and get to the bucket and draw fouls. I don't know how a team with 3 20pt scorers and a 15pt scorer is going to struggle for offense at the end of the day which seems to be the underlying tone behind the desperation for 3pt shooters. We're going to be able to score and defend now. This isn't Westbrook surrounded by Oladipo, Roberson, Sabonis and Adams. We have 4 good enough shooters in the starting lineup. That should be enough to not be a problem.

That's a good analysis, Kahns. But it goes beyond the string 5 in my view. My concern is that we have no 3-point marksmen in our rotation. And it was Thibs, not just me, who's been repeatedly talking about the need to upgrade our 3-point shooting. Now we're out of cap space and he hasn't moved the needle at all in the three-point shooting department. Admittedly, there's still a chance to add rotation-level three-point shooting through the room exception.

Our starters all average like 35 MPG's. The bench isn't as big of a deal here as it is on other teams. There's gonna be 22 wing minutes that we could use a shooter. Outside of that Butler and Wiggins will be getting the rest. Tyus and Teague at the PG spot are both acceptable shooters. Towns is on the higher end for a big who can do everything he can so maybe a 3pt specialist big would make sense, but I would argue defense and toughness is far more important given our terrible frontcourt D the last few years. Dieng can shoot corner 3's and Belly stretches the floor even if he isn't a great shooter because he can create off the dribble. We have the room exception and there are plenty of shooters on the market. And since teams usually aren't built in one off-season we add the MLE next summer to get another shooter. Defense and toughness are far more valuable to this team this year than shooting because it will better shape our two best prospects moving forward to be more than just scorers. Bench shooting is a supporting piece, not a transformative one like defense and toughness. I think it's much smarter to save what little we have for the shooting specialists than pay them and ask where the defense is going to come from at the end of the day.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Khans, It's not just about shooting league average in percentage terms. It's about volume. We were dead last in attempted and made 3's last season. Teague + Butler + Gibson minus LaVine + Rubio does not move the needle on 3-point shooting.

Thibs has literally zero high-volume three ball shooters on the roster. I have a hard time seeing us move the needle much from the #10 league offense with an old-school offensive roster.

Defensively, I see a lot more movement in the right direction, which is a good thing. It's tough to coach up shooting though.

Teague and Butler are both good creators off dribble penetration which is gonna open up more looks for Wiggins and Towns to start taking volume 3's. Wiggins is going from the secondary creator to Ricky to just a pure wing feeding off Teague and Butler plays. He will be taking a lot more 3's this year. I think the same will happen with Towns. I think we'll be better in volume although not to a Houston/GS level, but that should be enough with the defensive improvements.

[TheFuture]

I like the signing. I didn't think Aldrich being our 4th big was very good, so Taj adds much needed depth, and may even earn a starting position. A bonus is he knows Thibs and his system.

But we still have zero backup wings. I guess that is where the Room exception will be used, and then a roster filled out with vet minimum guys.

So right now, here's our depth chart, as best I can tell:

Teague/Tyus
Wiggins/
Butler/
Taj/Belly/Payne
Towns/Gorgui/Aldrich/Patton

Whoa! Belly can probably play a little 3 when needed, but it's clear where we need the depth. We could match Bazz, but the dude can't shoot threes, so I'd let him walk.

Ok, let's pencil Patton in for the G league all year. Payne is just bench insurance. We really need to find a taker for Aldrich, because that's wasted money on this roster, and it would give us (7 million?) more flexibility to add a great shooter on the wing.

Thibs is going to play only 6 or 7 guys big minutes, and maybe only an 8 man rotation overall, so I think it's more important that we get the best possible backup wing with the biggest chunk of our money left, and fill in the rest with vet mins.

Assuming we can dump Aldrich, does that mean we'd have both 7 million PLUS the MLE? I don't understand how the cap works at this point. Can somebody help me out?

We have no MLE and minimal to no cap space at this point. We have to pull Bazz's QO to sign Gibson. We have a room exception which is like 3 million and minimum deals. So dumping Aldrich would open up 7 million, but who are you signing for 7 million that is that much better than the 3 million dollar guy and likely the first round pick you have to ship out with Aldrich to move him? That guy may be out there, but you'd have to have him lined up before dumping the first round pick with Aldrich.

I did a little research on our current cap space. Assuming we are renouncing all our current cap holds (which put us at around 111mil), then we come to about 94.75 mil. Leaving us 4.25mil left to sign someone, shipping off Aldrich would open up 11.5mil. Then we also have the room exception that is 4.3mil. Does that sound right? If so, we should be able to get two more decent bench players with that combined 8.5mil (assuming we keep Aldrich, as attaching a first would not be a good idea right now. That makes a ton more sense around the trade deadline. Remember, He can be bought out next season for 2 mil), and then of course vet. minimums as well.

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

There is more than one way to win basketball games, but winning with defense is a tried and true method. I really like the signing a lot.

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

There is more than one way to win basketball games, but winning with defense is a tried and true method. I really like the signing a lot.

[TAFKASP]

Why no talk of the mentorship benefits?

Too soon?

[TheGrey08]

and there goes Bazz....

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

There is more than one way to win basketball games, but winning with defense is a tried and true method. I really like the signing a lot.

That's true, but let's not kid ourselves. Gibson is a solid defender, but he's not elite. Guys like Draymond, Horford, and Milsap are all better.

My hope is that Butler and Gibson do more for us from a defensive culture perspective (going back to Monster's point) in the same way Prince and KG did when they played with our young starting unit in 2015-16. It was amazing how getting two solid, fundamentally sound defensive players - even in their old age - on the court brought everyone else up a notch. I was hoping Dieng and Rubio could do it with KAT/LaVine/Wig last season, but it just didn't happen.