Betrayer

Why is Killian getting minutes? He's not an NBA player. Same with Wiseman. Also, can we stop rolling out the entire bench at once? How about keeping one of Cade and/or Ivey in the game at all times to have someone that can create for himself and others? Is staggering a lineup that hard for a Detroit coaching staff? First Casey and now Monty, neither understand how to stagger. While you're learning how to coach, is calling a good play out of a timeout too much to ask? On a positive note, Stew was injured and so we rolled out a starting lineup (if you squint real hard) that actually looked like a real NBA lineup instead of two Centers. I don't expect Monty to figure that out and make a change, but there it is. Knox isn't that guy in the long run, he's like the G-League version, but he fits the profile of the type of player you need in that spot: Length, athleticism, spacing, can attack a close-out and finish.

I read that Burks called his own number and the call was actually for Cade. Burks was a train wreck in many, many ways this game. Not that Monty doesn't have plenty of things to answer for as well.

I'd say it was when he hired Flip. A regular season, jump-shooting coach for a defensive minded, playoff team. Square peg in a round hole. Ben left a year later and we all knew that team was going to put up some regular season numbers but would never make it back to the top of the mountain.

Wait, is OG being called a "4 man"?

As a player, I'm sure I'd cope with crying while swimming in my pool of cash like Scrooge McDuck. The guys who shouldn't be coming back to work are the ones you fire for failing at their jobs: Monty, Troy, and Arn. And while you're at it, fire yourself, Tom.

Me too. Imagine that. If everywhere you go you smell crap, maybe check the bottom of your own shoe.

Yep… I swear this guy is my spirit animal or something.

Nerleans Noel is out there on twitter making comments about this front office and coaching staff: and followed it up with...

This guy is pretty much me watching this team right now:

I'd say both the roster and Williams have been a disaster for sure. Even look at their record last year after the trade deadline. They only won 2 games. This roster isn't just bad, it also doesn't make sense. You can't have zero wings and almost no players who can play both sides of the ball in today's NBA. Then Williams comes in and makes it worse by alienating players, giving minutes to G League level players, and taking 25 games to supposedly start "learning the players."

If they're trying anything it's to blitz him on every pick and roll because they know he and Bogey are all we've got. He's doing what he's doing in the 100th game of his career, coming off a season long injury, with zero help, and constant defensive pressure because they don't have to guard anyone else. Yeah, this season is bad, this owner is bad, this GM is bad, this coach is bad, and this roster is bad...but a developing All-Star in Cade is one of the few things we have going for us. People act like this dude should just walk in and dominate as if he's in his prime in what amounts to his second season in the worst situation you could put him in.

Let’s go! I’m heading to the game now. Time to break this streak. Maybe I can hit a jump shot if they put me in.

Spurs because they're in year 1 of rebuild, not year 4.

Was someone saying to get rid of it? I think it's fine. However, I do think it's too early in the season. The real slog is January, not November when the season has just started. In fact, why not move the games from November to January and have All-Star weekend be the true middle of the season with these two teams playing for the championship to cap it off. Add more skills type competitions and mini-games for the rest of All-Stars to compete in, but remove the useless All-Star game in favor of this game. I also think they should learn something from these games and change playoff seeding so points count somehow. Either make point differential the first tie-breaker or make it so teams get points for each quarter they win (I think summer league does this), or something like that.

The whole thing they've been doing where the stats don't count (the play-in games as well) just drives me crazy. It makes no sense. As if these games are somehow going to skew everything worse than the rules changes already have. Also, you're right, even if they wanted to make it 82 games for everyone it's easy to fix.

I'll be at that game, so I really hope that's the one. I was stupid and bought the tickets before the season since it's only about a 5.5 hour drive and we were looking to book a couple of extended weekend getaways. Edit: Talking about the Hawks game.

Because the Lakers played.

Literally the words I was going to come on here and say. I think I said it in a previous post as well. How does this coach take 20+ games to figure out you need spacing around Cade? How does he take this long to learn how to use Ausar (roll man, DHOs, dunker spot)? How long to figure out Ivey needs to play more than 20 minutes? How long to stagger the scorers? How long to shorten the rotation to 8 or 9? How long to move Stew to the bench? How long to move Hayes to the bench? He either wants to go home and earn all this money from his couch or he just had more talent than people thought when he was in Phoenix and the guy from New Orleans is the real Monty. I'm beginning to the think it's the latter. I thought he was Casey 2.0, but he might actually be Casey 0.5.

It's even scarier considering that Weaver is under major pressure now so he's going to try to save his job with a Blake Griffin type move that's going to damn the franchise for years to come. Might be better to fire him now before he pulls an SVG on the way out the door. But even if you clean house by firing Weaver, firing Tellem, and negotiating a buyout with the coach who you overpaid to take a job he clearly didn't want, you still have the biggest problem lingering: Gores. A bad owner who likes to meddle at the worst times and thinks that basketball works like a corporation where you just hire the big name Exec that just left some other company to make the optics look good (SVG, Casey, Monty). This whole thing is a mess.

Haliburton has been phenomenal, no doubt. But most stats, especially counting stats, just don't make sense anymore. Just look at how many points allowed is considered a "good defense" now.

Monty is putting on a masterclass in how to get the bag and then go home to watch tv from your couch. This will be the third big name coach that Gores has hired only to watch them be even worse than everyone said they were when they got fired from their last job. Maybe one of the few things Weaver got right was to disagree with Gores about hiring Williams. Ivey the 11th man. Rolling out a lineup up of Sasser, Burks, Thompson, Livers, and Wiseman to immediately lose a 7 pt lead. Starting Stew and Hayes. Taking two months to realize Cade needs spacing. Taking an 18 game losing streak to say he needs to shorten the rotation and find time for Ivey. Never changing the defense when we're absolutely getting rolled by a single player. Never running an out-of-timeout or out-of-bounds play that works. Never running anything resembling an offense in the 4th quarter. Monty has already lost the locker room and we're not even a quarter of the way into the season. I knew he was just Casey 2.0 when we hired him. I wanted Udoka or Quinn, but I never thought it would be quite this bad. I'm not absolving Weaver here. This roster has been an abomination for 4 years, especially after all the offseason talk about wanting to win and then signing just Joe Harris and Monte Morris. No wings, no backup Center, and not a single 3 and D player to speak of. And now Duren is hurt (again) and it looks bad. That's the third ankle injury for him this season and he had them last year too. Someone get this kid some high tops, or tape his ankles, or get him some braces or something. Can't wait to hear JEIII say something like, "Let's wait until Duren comes back so we can evaluate this team."

If Monty has a say in it, I don't see it happening because if he thinks Ivey doesn't play defense he would go crazy with Lavine. But I'm not sure it's Monty's choice, and I'm not even sure it's Weaver's choice anymore. Gores has to be ratcheting up the pressure after all his preseason talk and the fact that he backed up the money van to Monty's house to try to win this season. It would be Blake 2.0. We'd probably get one fun season that goes nowhere before he's injured and then we wind up waiving and stretching the contract.

They won the 1st and 3rd quarters with the three guard lineup. Nice to see Ivey get more playing time, but Monty's comment about "fluid lineups" doesn't make me happy. Taking a young lineup and giving them more instability and difficulty finding their role doesn't sound like a good idea. Ausar had a really rough game. Maybe it was the mask, but he's looked lost since being moved to the bench. He'll need to adjust or spend every day taking 1000 jumpers until he can provide some spacing. Best I've seen Duren look since injuring the ankle. He looked springy again. But yeah, we don't need the Andre Drummond dribble drives from him. I'll say it again: Stew's role is a bench big man. Sometimes playing the 4, sometimes playing the 5. He'll still get significant minutes and might even finish a lot of games at the 5 in switchable situations (and if we ever make the playoffs). You don't have to be a starter to be a locker room leader.

I called it in my season preview, but now it's looking more and more real. Ivey will be gone before game 1 next year or sooner. Monty has decided to make him this team's Ayton. Listen to him after the game when he says "Hayes and Sasser are the best compliments to Cade out there". He even talked about Hayes' ability to "knock down shots"! Everyone in Phoenix said that Monty would come here and pick a baffling favorite player that he'll give way too many minutes too and have a grudge against a young talented prospect - sure enough, here we are. Just trade Ivey now because it's obvious where this is going and his value will only go down from here. Maybe use him in a package to get a 3&D wing for this starting lineup. Monty also continues to take the wrong people out of the starting lineup. We all know it should be Stew coming off the bench. He's a solid backup but not a starter in this league. He also helps Bagley a lot by adding some muscle and defense to that bench unit as we saw last night when they staggered him with the bench a bit. You also gain the option to use him as the backup Center in certain matchups to allow for more switching and to let Ausar play in the dunker spot without crowding the paint. Speaking of Ausar, he relegated to 13 minutes last night and still got 7 rebounds in that time. So, that's two top 5 picks that are now on Monty's bench. Can't wait until we collect another one this offseason. On Livers: Why do people like him? The answer is simple. Weaver has constructed a roster full of players who can either shoot the 3 or play D...nobody that can do both. Livers is the one guy that projects as even a mediocre 3&D player. That's how desperate we are for 3&D players in the lineup.

The job is apparently to talk down to the fans who are the reason your job exists. Can't stand JEIII and his arrogance.