Crawful and Failton

[Natebishop3]

God I wish we had traded them... what is the point of giving these guys minutes if they're not going to be here after this season?

 

[illmatic99]

I don't get why Crawful shoots 21 shots. It's totally pointless. This is the time to develop a killer instinct in Nic and Wessy, and hope to have them develop some cohesiveness with LA. Jamal chucking 21 shots under pressure does nothing for our future.

And Nolan looks GOOD! Play him more minutes.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I don't get why Crawful shoots 21 shots. It's totally pointless. This is the time to develop a killer instinct in Nic and Wessy, and hope to have them develop some cohesiveness with LA. Jamal chucking 21 shots under pressure does nothing for our future.

And Nolan looks GOOD! Play him more minutes.

Nic needs to be more agressive if he wants to get more shots. He was totally timid. You have to earn your shots, not wait for them to fall into your lap.

They both have good games and you shit on them. Who said they won't be here next season, all bets are now off that Nate is gone.

 

[illmatic99]

They better not be here next season.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

or else!

:MARIS61:

 

[Wheels]

playing Felton >_ to Tanking (in terms of ping pong balls)

 

[STOMP]

God I wish we had traded them... what is the point of giving these guys minutes if they're not going to be here after this season?

Why play Nolan Smith as most agree he's not talented enough to be a major player and certainly not a good player today? As bad as you feel they might be, Ray & Jamal are two of the PTB's best backcourt options. They were lotto picks not reaches from the 2nd round. You want the vets to feel they're trying to win the game not just planting some seeds making the rest of the season an exercise. If they go with your suggestion (playing less then their best), the team risks the strong possibility of slipping into a complete malaise making it that much harder to turn this around down the line

STOMP

 

[magnifier661]

Crawford kept us in the game in the 4th. I had my fair share of hate on both these players but they hardly played like shit tonight.

 

[illmatic99]

Jamal took 21 shots for 23 points, and he had 1 assist. His game wasn't all that great.

 

[magnifier661]

Regardless of his game not being all that great, I liked his shots and selection. The team is actually playing well and the youngsters like Babbitt and smith got burn. What more do you want? Also Batum played more like shit than either one of those two. Like I said, I've done my fair share of hate on both of em, but they weren't why we lost. Hell Crawford wasn't even in the game for most the first, which ironically was when they pulled away.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I like the improvement from Nolan. Certainly needs to be a better playmaker, but his offensive skills are evident. I agree that you don't just want to bench Crawford and Felton. I would gradually cut their minutes so Nolan and
Fylnn can get more each game.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Hell I could almost set a clock to what's about to start happening.

Felton and Crawford are both going to need new contracts, the best way to do that is putting up a lot of stats and playing as little defense as possible ... to conserve energy for all the shots they plan on taking. They are officially playing for next year and what you saw tonight against OKC is going to be happening a lot.

Just don't be fooled into thinking that what they are doing is playing winning basketball; this is about contracts.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Hell I could almost set a clock to what's about to start happening.

Felton and Crawford are both going to need new contracts, the best way to do that is putting up a lot of stats and playing as little defense as possible ... to conserve energy for all the shots they plan on taking. They are officially playing for next year and what you saw tonight against OKC is going to be happening a lot.

Just don't be fooled into thinking that what they are doing is playing winning basketball; this is about contracts.

No doubt. That's why Caleb needs to do it gradually or they will rebel. Unless he wants to suspend them once they start to bench.

 

[RoyToy]

Hell I could almost set a clock to what's about to start happening.

Felton and Crawford are both going to need new contracts, the best way to do that is putting up a lot of stats and playing as little defense as possible ... to conserve energy for all the shots they plan on taking. They are officially playing for next year and what you saw tonight against OKC is going to be happening a lot.

Just don't be fooled into thinking that what they are doing is playing winning basketball; this is about contracts.

[video=youtube;JDZBgHBHQT8]

 

[HailBlazers]

No Doubt Whatsoever. Thats the Only Possibility.

 

[jlprk]

Felton has been our best player for the last couple of weeks. His shooting coach came to town a month ago and he stopped taking many careless shots. Where was similar advice from our coaching staff. Why did it take an outside coach.

Crawford is a 4th quarter player. The rest of the game, he's warming up and missing high-risk shots. Sometimes it pays off at the end and sometimes it doesn't.

If these guys are here under a new coach (probably not), you just might change your opinions.

 

[Natebishop3]

Flynn should be getting serious minutes as soon as he can. I want to see what he can do to assess if he's someone we should be keeping after this season.

 

[jlprk]

Flynn should be getting serious minutes as soon as he can. I want to see what he can do to assess if he's someone we should be keeping after this season.

PER rank of his PG teammates
2010-11...Timberwolves...Ridnour > Telfair > Flynn
2011-12...Rockets...Lowry > Dragic > Flynn

He will explode like Lin did.

 

[MickZagger]

Hell I could almost set a clock to what's about to start happening.

Felton and Crawford are both going to need new contracts, the best way to do that is putting up a lot of stats and playing as little defense as possible ... to conserve energy for all the shots they plan on taking. They are officially playing for next year and what you saw tonight against OKC is going to be happening a lot.

Just don't be fooled into thinking that what they are doing is playing winning basketball; this is about contracts.

To be fair to Felton, he was trying real hard on defense against Westbrook tonight. Even fighting through screens. Imagine that.

 

[Natebishop3]

PER rank of his PG teammates
2010-11...Timberwolves...Ridnour > Telfair > Flynn
2011-12...Rockets...Lowry > Dragic > Flynn

He will explode like Lin did.

The guy was a high lottery pick. I think he's worth a look. Of course he wasn't getting minutes behind Lowry and Dragic, and in Minny they were runnin the triangle, which doesn't really work for a pick-and-roll point guard. It's more suited to Steve Kerr or Derek Fisher type guards.

 

[Denny Crane]

I didn't see the game, but Crawford was one make away from shooting 50% for the night. He drew no fouls, so his points/shot was near 1; the 3 3pt shots did help. 23 points in 29 minutes is close to a point a minute, which I think is quite good.

Felton 6-10 with 7 assists and 4 turnovers. The turnovers really hurt, but he's still close to 2:1 assist/turnover ratio, which is pretty good.

On the other hand, LMA shot about 33% and scored about 7 points less than his season average. Between him, Joel, and Batum - three of your starters - you got 27 points, or one point less than Westbrook.

 

[jlprk]

Aldridge is the laziest, saddest excuse for a "best player of the team" that I've ever seen. He's the opposite of Noah in energy and drive. He just stands straight up like a statue and waits for teammates to wait on him like waiters.

If only we could hire our new permanent coach now, we could re-measure and re-evaluate all players, to decide whom to keep this summer. There would be surprises. We might like the guards more and dislike the forwards more.

 

[Natebishop3]

I didn't see the game, but Crawford was one make away from shooting 50% for the night. He drew no fouls, so his points/shot was near 1; the 3 3pt shots did help. 23 points in 29 minutes is close to a point a minute, which I think is quite good.

Felton 6-10 with 7 assists and 4 turnovers. The turnovers really hurt, but he's still close to 2:1 assist/turnover ratio, which is pretty good.

On the other hand, LMA shot about 33% and scored about 7 points less than his season average. Between him, Joel, and Batum - three of your starters - you got 27 points, or one point less than Westbrook.

You're failing to see the fact that we don't want them to do well.... we want to lose. We want a higher pick. They're both gone after this season, so who cares how well they do.

 

[Denny Crane]

Heh. I think you want guys to do well so you keep them next year, but you want to lose. Like you did.

 

[STOMP]

Flynn should be getting serious minutes as soon as he can. I want to see what he can do to assess if he's someone we should be keeping after this season.

Jonny's mentality is that of a shooter not a PG. But with less then a 2-1 assist to TO ratio and a career shooting percentage of 40% he sucks at either backcourt role. His predraft measurements in height, length & weight were pretty much the same as Felton's. The Blazers are his 3rd team in 3 years and his contract is up at the end of this year... I've seen JF plenty & view him as an expiring contract

STOMP

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Okay, so the Blazers tried DESPERATELY to move Felton and nobody wanted him. We're stuck with him. On the other hand, supposedly they found a deal for Crawford, but the Wolves owner killed it. I wonder if Crawford would agree to waive his option for next year if we released him now so that he could latch on with a (real) contender?

I bet this would've happened if Elliot hadn't injured his shoulder...

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Heh. I think you want guys to do well so you keep them next year, but you want to lose. Like you did.

You think we want to keep Crawford and Felton? You are sadly mistaken.

 

[magnifier661]

You think we want to keep Crawford and Felton? You are sadly mistaken.

We definitely don't want to keep them, but they did play well last night.

 

[PapaG]

God I wish we had traded them... what is the point of giving these guys minutes if they're not going to be here after this season?

I agree, although it could be argued that Felton gives the team the best chance to lose, which should be the goal at this point of the season.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

We definitely don't want to keep them, but they did play well last night.

I didn't watch the game, so I can't say. They did put up nice numbers, but I think we went on a run when Nolan replaced Felton. And I think there's a serious problem if we get reliant on Crawford hitting a bunch of threes in the fourth as everyone else stands around and watches if he's gone next season. I suppose one scenario is that we fall in love with him and he with us, and he comes back. But I never liked his game, and so would not be happy if that happened. As it is, what good does him playing well really do us? At this point, with Phoenix playing so well and Utah picking up its game, the chances of us making the playoffs are looking vanishingly small, and if you miss the playoffs there's no advantage in just missing them.

Get rid of them, on the other hand, and Batum HAS to take more shots and get more involved in the offense. Nolan HAS to run the offense through Aldridge and get better.