Betrayer

SGA really stands out in the cut vs drive graphic. Really wish the Pistons could've landed Atkinson. I'd love to see more off-ball movement, cutting, and screening like GS does. Nobody wants to chase Ivey or Ausar around the court and few can vertical space like Duren and Ausar. All of the core 4 are good passers as well. Add Fontecchio to that mix who can movement shoot. They'd feast. The whole idea behind drafting 4 dudes who supposedly have high IQ and can make passing plays is not to run one dude into triple teams all day while the other guys sit in the corner.

Ku Kahil dropped a show today talking about the misuse of Ausar in this offense. Basically discussing the (false) idea that you always need 4 shooters on the court. He mostly referenced a lot of JJ Redick's info, so I'll post one of JJ's pods below where he talks about this concept in reference to how Willie Green is using Zion and even how Ben Simmons was used when JJ played with him. On a previous pod he talked about this concept using some of the actions that Quin Snyder runs in Atlanta. And, of course, you've all heard me talk about how the Warriors use Draymond and Looney together with the other three guys running off-ball screens to free up shooters and otherwise bend the defense. Nobody is saying that this core has the talent level of some of those other teams, but every time you see Ausar standing in the corner and the Pistons playing 4 on 5 offense, that's on Monty. The only thing worse than his lineups are his offensive sets and lack of creativity.

Pistons will probably hire Vaughn to sit on the bench next to Silas. This organization likes to collect other people's junk.

Here's my rough framework to fix All-Star weekend: 1. Move the In-Season tournament to mid January. It shouldn't have been so early in the season anyway. 2. Move All-Star weekend to late January, right at the actual mid-season mark. 3. Add a 3-on-3 tournament (or something similar) for the All-Stars on Saturday afternoon with ascending prize money. 4. Retain the Saturday evening events with greater (monetary) encouragement for stars to participate. 5. Cap off the weekend with the In-Season Tourney Championship Game instead of the All-Star game on Sunday. Basically moving a more competitive game to the marque spot and creating a bunch of fun All-Star stuff around it to build up hype and make the whole thing a big production. It'll add more gravity and attention to the in-season tournament, which will now be a mid-season tournament. I also think you'll get more competition out of a 3-on-3 tournament with the All-Stars because there's isn't a 15 man team with substitutions and so many other guys on the court. There's more pride when it's just you and 2 others trying to win a tournament. The ascending prize money could help as well. As a side benefit, this will also put All-Star weekend before the trade deadline again, where it belongs so GMs can meet in person to discuss deals ahead of the deadline.

Also, I just want to say that I used to enjoy All-Star weekend. Now I just sit there looking at Booker, Mitchell, and Haliburton while shaking my head in disgust as I think about Johnson, Kennard, and Hayes. Did anyone else notice that in the skills competition they had a "First Picks" team. They took the guys who were drafted first overall from 2020, 2022, and 2023. Skipped right over 2021.

Can't imagine the players like it. It has to be distracting with all that light reflecting up into your face.

Watch Monty play Ivey for 12 minutes and Fournier for 32.

The first half of this game was the worst basketball I’ve ever seen.

Monty is such a train wreck. On Wiseman: On Fournier: It doesn't matter how many people you trade or release, you can't save him (and us) from himself. I realize the team was always going to be bad with Weaver's roster, but Monty has found ways to make them worse. I thought Casey was bad, but now I realize there's a new low bar that's been set. I've never seen a team under-achieve like a Monty team.

Except I feel like players are better when they first arrive, before they learn this system. After a few weeks they stop cutting to the basket, moving off ball, and screening properly.

Exactly. Got rid of aging vets who took usage on the offensive end and couldn’t play defense. Got 3 and D wings in return. Yes, it was poor asset management because they waited too long and let the value of those players diminish, but what they did at the deadline is exactly what I would’ve wanted a new GM to do. I certainly don’t trust him and I think it could/should have been done last year, but these feel like the right moves at this time to correct the course.

Really fun game. pistons were in it all the way and even managed to close it out. Ivey with 37, including 19 in the 4th. Imagine taking 40 games to figure out he needs to play over Killian. This coach is a train wreck, but he won’t get fired because the owner overruled the GM to hire him and then spent the summer patting himself on the back for it. Edit after watching the postgame: Monty says nothing about Ivey’s career night on the postgame, but calls out multiple other players for playing well. This is a running theme with Monty’s pressers. Goes out of his way to nitpick Ivey or say nothing, even when Jaden has a good game. Tonight he scored 37 and carried the team in the 4th. There’s a serious problem with this coach and his attitude towards Ivey.

Please be killian. Monty will be so distraught he’ll follow him and they can go backpacking in Europe or something.

Looks like Morris is gone as well. To the TWolves for Milton, Brown Jr, and a 2nd. Edit: Tigeraholic1 got it with a link. Also, please don't tell me this means more Killian minutes now that Morris is gone.

Fonteccio is actually a pretty good upgrade over Knox. Jazz fans are sad to see him go. 28 years old in his second year in the league, so it's not like he's 30+ on the downside of his career. He's shooting 39% from three and hustles on defense. It was a small, but solid move. He should start at one of the forward spots - I say "should" because Monty still hasn't figured out that Stew is a bench big and since it took him 40 games to figure out that Killian shouldn't play 30+ minutes a night, I won't hold my breath.

Sources tell ESPN

He thought he might get traded to the Pistons, so he decided surgery was a better idea.

Why doesn't Monty challenge that call against Ivey? Clearly an offensive foul and the game turned right there. I've never seen a team so terrible at using their challenges. Glad to see Hayes was a healthy scratch, but it doesn't excuse the fact that it took Monty over 40 games to realize that. Same with Wiseman. Why not go back to Gallo instead of Bogie to close? Gallo was having a way better game and his defense is no worse. The drop coverage with Duren is so bad. Gave up multiple wide open 3s to Mitchell in critical minutes because Duren is standing 10 feet away in the paint. I'm guessing that's Monty's scheme, although Duren's defense does still need a lot of work regardless. Ausar made a pretty big impact on the floor defensively and they showed a stat where the Pistons defensive rating goes from something like 122 to 114 when he's on the court. Yet Monty can find more than 18 minutes for him, even when Mitchell (who was 0-3 with Ausar guarding him) is steam-rolling us. And finally, this guy was more calm today but the line, "How does anybody watch this and feel good about themselves" about sums it up:

Terrible coaching indeed. Also during this stretch they stopped playing Livers and Wiseman while adding a backup Center who's got a pulse. Killian's minutes have also been going down. If you stop playing guys who don't belong in the NBA it improves your chances.

The Lavine stuff makes no sense. Getting past the bad contract and questionable player, let’s say they did actually want Lavine. How do you think you’re getting Lavine and keeping Ivey on the same team? How does that even work? It makes no sense at all unless you’re going to play Ivey 15 minutes a game at backup guard or play Lavine at SF alongside him…imagine that defense.

Nice to see a win but this game was ugly on both sides for a most of the game. Monty has said he doesn’t coach shot selection and yea, that’s pretty obvious. Duren is starting to get Drummond vibes with his offense at times and someone needs to step in and develop him properly not just tell him to go out there and score. Also his defense is just looking really, really bad. Maybe it’s the drop scheme they’re running, or the poor guard defense, but it’s got to be fixed because a non-spacing big who plays poor defense isn’t going to cut it. I love Duren’s potential, but he needs development on both ends and he appears to be regressing. Also, at one point in the fourth during crucial minutes he had Hayes, Ausar, and Duren on the court at the same time. Seriously Monty, I can coach my nba 2k team better than that and anyone can see that killian isn’t an nba player

Really wish I could watch this game without waiting 3 days for the blackout, but I live 3 hours from Charlotte so somehow that makes sense to League Pass even though most cable/streaming services don't carry Bally SE in Raleigh. Maybe I'll see if I can do a 7 day free trial to Bally Sports streaming and then cancel it after the game.

But if you create history as the worst team ever you get to keep your job because corporate heads like Gores don't want to look stupid after they give speeches all summer hitching their wagon to a new hire.

They kept it close until about the 2 minute mark when good teams do what good teams do...and bad teams make mistakes. Duren's new found freedom on offense is allowing us to see some things in his game, but it may need to be reigned in just a touch lest we start seeing Drummond part deux. Have fun with all those fancy footwork moves in the post, but no more sizing up your defender 1-on-1 and trying to drive to the hoop or mid-range jumpers. They brought Stew off the bench and it worked great, as we'd all expect. That's the role he should always be playing. I was excited for this positive change...and then Monty said in his press conference that it was just because Stew was injured and they were trying to limit his minutes. Just when I thought this coach might've learned something. Oh well, maybe in another 20 games he'll figure it out. Team's been more competitive since we stopped seeing Livers, Wiseman, and reducing Killian's minutes. Imagine that.

I'd love to see some real changes, like eliminating the corner three, but I doubt we'll see anything like that. Simple changes would be great too, though. Just give the defender as much respect as the offensive player and allow him the right to his space on the court. Eliminate fouls where the offensive player initiated the contact by driving directly into a defender. Also, get rid of the moving, leaning, and grabbing on screens (see Lopez and Giannis on every screen yesterday). Those two things alone would make a world of difference for the ability to defend. The pendulum has simply swung too far in favor of the offense. Sure, we want to see fun basketball, but we also don't want to see free throws all day. Let's not forget that better defense can also lead to more fast breaks, which can be even more fun.