Grab bag of thoughts

Hey all,

I've had some thoughts that don't quite make full posts on their own, so I thought I'd put them in a grab bag here. I'd love to hear other people's opinions, both on what I suggest but also on whatever else is on your mind (your own conjectures about the team). 

In no particular order...

• On the one hand I understand completely the interest in Gay and Lee, and on the other I can't understand it at all. The closest I can come to figuring it out is that Rambis views the perimeter as being a play creator and two scoring wings, hence Wes and Gay together feeding off of Rubio. Lee would be too expensive, IMO, given that he duplicates much of what Love already does, but from most accounts he moves far better and was a 20 ppg scorer last year, so he might fit just a smidge better on a running team. I don't think we sign Lee, though.
• Offensive system. What is it? It's certainly not going to be the triangle. I think it's becoming clearer and clearer that the triangle was a teaching tool. Hopefully enough of the guys from last year are around this year to make use of it, otherwise the decision to run it seems a bit short-sighted. Maybe it was all run for Flynn's benefit, as it will be the thing in hindsight that helps him become a stud PG. I don't know. Oddness. I do trust Rambis as a coach, though, knowing what he's doing. I know many other probably disagree, and that's OK. I think we'll get a much better sense of Rambis as coach this year, as he's coaching to win for the first time. This team appears all in on Rubio, using a running system led by creative playmakers/passers (Rubio, Bjelly, Sessions, Love) feeding very good scorers (Gay, Wes, Brewer even, Webster?, Ellington, Pek). Jonny Flynn moves to the bench as instant offense/change of pace - he could lead an all offense unit of Flynn-Wes-Gay-Love-Pek.
• Team building. In look and feel this is really starting to remind me of the Hawks and Nuggets, and I suppose to a lesser degree OKC. I'm not going to go back and revisit my research from many months ago, but the Nuggets - when they drafted Melo - shifted from trying to be a low-post dominant team to a more perimeter team. While Camby and Nene put up 'worse' numbers, their defense improved and that appeared to ripple through the rest of the team, improving everyone. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that roles and expectations were more clearly defined to player strengths and everyone benefitted as a result. The commitment to Darko and Pek, as well as the (potential as it may be) acquisition of Gay/Wes/Webster strongly suggests to me that this team is looking to rely on its perimeter scoring to set up everything else. Darko is a commitment to defense instead of offense at the 5, with Pek replacing the low post scoring of Al at a fraction of the cost. Love can play inside but also hit perimeter shots. On the perimeter we're getting quite an assembly of long and athletic three point shooters, two of which can play very high above the rim (Gay and Wes, if Gay is signed). All it needs is a guy like Rubio, with Sessions in the short term (or even Flynn, if they start working the PnR or PnP a lot more). Anyways - starting to look like a Nuggets model, but even more like an Atlanta model - get lots of talented, young prospects, let them grow for a few years and watch your win total go from 13 to 53. 
• Anyone else struck by the comparison of Wes to Wally World? Similar size, similar shooting ability (Wally was better). Wally was a pretty good player given his limitations, and I'm beginning to wonder if Wes will be better than we think because of his athleticism. Certainly KG helped Wally immensely, so we'll see whether Wes will struggle with that at all. Both guys had comparable numbers in college, near as I can find, with Wally being a higher volume shot taker (and thus scorer), and Wes being the superior rebounder and shot blocker. Shooting percentages were quite similar though (caveat - I'm using last year only for Wes, as that's the indicator for his potential). 
• Finally, after the break, a quick retrospective looking at how we compare to the initial post-KG rebuilding squad.

PG:

In 2007-08, Bassy (6'-0") and Foye (6'-4") were our PGs of the present and future. Today it's Jonny (6'-0") and Ramon (6'-3") and eventually Rubio (6'-4"). Ultimately Bassy turned out to be a solid guy, but not a starter. Ramon is like our  Bassy of today, but with better size and ability across the board. Jonny, in my opinion, is a better prospect than Bassy long term, and at worst has a better physical profile for a 6' PG than Bassy. Foye, it turns out, was better suited as a SG.

SG:

Jaric, McCants, and Foye were the main players here. Jaric had a great physical profile but was too Hollins-esque in his play. He was like a bizarro-European version of Mike Miller but, without, you know, Miller's skills or instincts. McCants.... anyways... Foye's a pretty solid SG I think. At least he ended up that way for us, problem was he's a 4th option being asked to produce like a 2nd or even 1st option. Today we appear to be rolling with some combo of Webster and Wes at the 2. We can even add Brewer and Ellington in today. Talk about a huge disparity in size and athleticism and length! Wes is a clearly superior prospect to Foye, and Webster is even an upgrade because of his defense. 

SF:

Hey, anyone remember Corey's rookie year? Yup, he's in play here in 2007-08, along with a bit of Ryan Gomes. It would have been fun to see how he could have developed here if he hadn't gotten hurt. As it is, he did get hurt and now finds the 3 manned by Wes, potentially Rudy Gay, and Lazar Hayward. Hayward is like Gomes, and Wes and Rudy are simply much better prospects than a young Corey from a skills perspective. All three have great athleticism and size, so Wes and Rudy win based on skills.

PF:

Who was our great PF before Love? Anyone? If you said Ryan Gomes and Rhino, you would be correct! If we think Love is a bit undersized and unathletic for the 4, how about these two? They had mobility and strength, but Love is so far and away a better player than these two it's just ridiculous. Depending on where you see him playing, Pekovic is like a supersized Rhino - instead of rockin' the 6'-7" like Rhino, Pek's rockin' the 6'-10" or 6'-11" with similar strength and bullish attitude towards scoring. 

C:

Back then we had a pretty damn good center by the name of Al Jefferson. He was a monster in the making with only one fatal flaw - he could defend worth a damn. Today we're going in the opposite direction by committing to Darko. We'll probably give up about 8 points and 5 rebounds a night in lost production compared to Big Al, but make up for it with an addition block or two, a couple more assists, and immensely improved defense. Darko also has a size and athleticism advantage over Al, but Al is still the better player here (even if Al is ultimately miscast as a PF playing C). If we add in Pek as a center prospect, well things get a bit more interesting. IMO, collectively Darko and Pek at center beat out any Al + whoever combo they trotted out in '07-08.

Observations:

Gotta be honest with y'all - we've gotten bigger and more athletic pretty much across the board. Love, though taller than Gomes and Rhino, isn't nearly as athletic as those guys. He makes up for it by being so damned productive, though, that it's ultimately no competition. Kahn's actually lived up to his promise of making the team longer and athletic, at least if we're comparing it to the '07-08 team. A lot is still in flux with the current team, but I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of the current team than the initial post-KG squad. They won 22 games last year, and this team should win more than that. Famous last words, I know, but it's hard not to get excited about these guys if they start running up and down the floor. 

Again, I just want to reiterate something that keeps cropping up in my mind - I think Rambis is moving towards an offense that is 'freer' of traditional positional responsibilities and is instead predicated on skills. Playmakers/passers, scorers, and defenders/rebounders/fast break facilitators. We seem to be collecting a group of big men with passing ability and court vision (according to some Euro blogs Pek is under-appreciated in this regard. Can't find the link now, but one compared him to Yao in that the vision/want-to was there for good passes but the execution wasn't always up to snuff). We've got a collection of playmakers led by Rubio but augmented by Sessions, Flynn (who still could be a good PnR guy), Bjelly, and even Ellington or Webster in secondary roles. Lastly we've got all these scorers who are good either at the rim or from three point land - Wes, Webster (supposed to be), Brewer (developing), Gay even, and Pekovic. Seems to suggest a lot of pushing the ball up the floor with passes into our big guys and back out for either a scoring drive, a three, or a quick pass to a cutting Wes/Gay/Brewer or corner three. Anyone else see that? 

Well, that does it for me. Thanks for reading, and I'd love other people's takes or conjectures about the team and where it's going.