the fact that he's getting the most blame for this is ridiculous. yes he is not good at rebounding but that has always been true, if you expected something different then that's on you.
The problem is Crowder/Bradley/Smart/Amir/Olynyk not stepping up. KO played fine last night but I really don't want him on the team next year. The team right now is built around Isaiah's drive and kicks and the Bulls defense is able to defend that easily with their length advantages. The lack of a second guard who can penetrate and create is holding the offense back. Thankfully there are a ton of creators at the top of the draft and Jaylen will play a bigger role next year.
I am totally against a "reset" or whatever because this team right now is full of talented secondary scorers, and we have the ammo to go out and get another guy using picks.
No I'm not putting the blame solely on him,although he deserves some for sure. If he wasn't soft as shit we likely take game 1 buy Lopez bullied him all night.
He also is a big reason the bulls had 8 2nd Chance points in the first 10 minutes last night. That being said here is what to blame.
-IT- his night at the stripe is telling. He's money from there but he was garbage last night. He also is turning the ball over more than usual which is particularly awful given his assist totals. This is almost identical to last post season where he was turning the ball over and his percentages dropped.
- ab0-. We disagree on ab. He's not the defender he's made out to be, because of his size and his ability to get lost off ball. Yes he can be a pitbull on ball at times, but he's overrated at that part of his game. The bigger issue however is that he's an extremely limited scorer. He scores in 2 ways, mid range off the pick and spot up 3s. He hasn't done either of those things well at all and has also turned the ball over at a terrible rate.
- horford. Ropez is making him his bitch. He's played well offensively, but not nearly well enough to make up for his significant deficiencies on the other side of the floor. I saw him get boxed out by- dwade, rondo, and Lopez in the first 5-10 minutes of the game
-Jae crowder. Jae crowder has been an enigma to me his whole career. At times I think he's the most solid piece the celts really have in terms of mid tier players. His durability is a real question mark though and he continues to SUCK in the playoffs. He's defending like pure ass and can't hit a shot to save his life. An absolute non factor on one side and a sieve on the other.
- amir Johnson. Amir Johnson shouldn't play in the NBA period. He's a corpse out there.
- the bench-. Smart has been the only player who has shown any sort of grit in this series. I've cooled considerably on smart this year and this series doesn't change anything, but he has played to and or above his ability which is more than I can say for anybody else on this team. Everybody else though? GARBAGE. Zeller? D league. Rozier? D league. Olynyk? Mediocre. Gerald green? Lol.
I've given you my thoughts on a "reset". I don't know that this team has a true foundational young player. They have a bunch of 2nd and 3rd tier players who Brad gets the most out of. I do like Al as a piece of a bigger puzzle but he's aging fast and I feel like we're still a few years off. I ate crow on IT this year but I still am not completely sold. I'm curious to see how jaylen progresses and whoever we land in the next 2 drafts. For now I think the horford signing is still a good one to show we can land the big names, and he's a good veteran transitional piece to compete in the mean time.
All of this being said it comes down to one thing imo- they can't handle the big stage. They only got the 1 seed because the Cavs were reeling. Hell they had a chance to show their " grit and grind" and got laughed off their homecourt by that same Cavs team that couldn't figure it out. The first year made sense. They didn't belong in the playoffs. They made a late season surge and the heat collapsed. Last year they were injured quite a bit which give them at least some of an excuse. There is no excuse this year. All due respect to Isaiah and his situation, and even if that was what was the problem for him, it doesn't explain the rest of the team throwing up a dud.
