Week 13 - Golden self reflection

Changing up the week 13 vibe a bit. Moving away from a global JBL look and just focusing in on my Showers squad – that I love – but also hate. A little self reflection this week in Golden.

What went wrong in Golden? While the season is only 50% over, this Golden team has some fatal flaws that cannot be rectified at this point in the season. Trying to recover from horrible performances in both 3PT% and BLKS is virtually impossible at this stage of the season.

So, I wanted to dive into the big issues – and let these serve as reminders for other JBL teams heading into next year’s auction. Diversification and luck.

And I will start by saying that this Golden team actually isn’t that bad. At the time I’m writing this, 1^st in scoring in the JBL.  3^rd in ATO and top 6 in 3 other categories. The issues – 12^th in blocks and 13^th in 3PT%.

So, for starters, the big men in Golden have all been disappointments.

Nurkic has been hot and cold all year. He’s averaging 13 and 10 which is decent but pre-season projections had him blocking at least 1 shot per game. Instead, he’s at 0.5 blocks/game – which is 20 blocks in 38 games. And hey, 20 blocks is OK, but here’s a list of some other players and their block totals.

Facu Campazzo – who we all know is likely under 6 feet tall – he has 19 blocks.

Mike Muscala – a big white guy who barely plays – he has 22 blocks.

De’Anthony Melton has 22 blocks

Devin Vassell, Patrick Beverley and Drew Eubanks all have more blocks thank Nurk.

The point is, Nurk is 7 feet tall and known as the Bosnian Beast.  The sad part is that there are roughly 90 NBA players, most of whom are shorter than Nurk and don’t have nearly as intimidating a nickname – all have more blocks than him. I’ve had Nurk for 3 seasons now and he’s going back to Auction next season. I love the guy because he’s a Blazer (for now) but I can’t see him being a draft day target in the future.

Then there’s Richaun Holmes. He’s coming off a season where he averaged 14 and 8 with 1.6 blocks per game. This year, he’s only averaging 1 block per game and he’s missed a lot of games. Another case where I was expecting more blocks and I’m just not getting them.

And finally, there’s Beef Stew, Isaiah Stewart. Yes, he’s averaging 1.3 blocks per game but that’s the same as he averaged last year. I was expecting the breakout year and more minutes for him and he simply hasn’t progressed in year 2.

So, my 3 Centers have all underachieved. Or at least they haven’t been as good as projections or expectations. Couple that with my duplication of resources (Hayward, Middleton, and Ingram) that all don’t block (or steal much) and I was doomed in the blocks category. And, as we all know, it’s not like you can find an impact shot-blocker on the waiver wire these days. Instead of having 3 small forwards that all do the same things – I should have gone after another shot-blocking big man.

My other glaring weakness is 3PT% and again, coming out of the auction, I thought my team would be quite strong in this category. Boy, was I wrong.

Look at the difference a year can make with some of these guys…

Miles Bridges shot 40% from downtown last year – this year he is just 32% on way more attempts. Double doozy.

SGA shot 42% last year and this year he’s an atrocious 28%. Yes, that’s a 14% drop! Fourteen percent!!!

While he only played 10 games in Golden, Lillard did his best to sabotage the 3PT% category shooting just 24% on almost 10 attempts per game.

Beverley has been 26% from downtown in his 16 Golden games.

And then you have those couple guys on the roster that take the odd 3 pointer here and there– which in turn can add up to something really bad. Stewart and Nurkic are a combined 10/57 from deep (17%). So you see the odd 0/1 here and there and before you know it - your 3PT% is destroyed. 

Oh plus, you can add in the rookie sensation Giddey’s 29% from downtown and this team is doomed from deep.

While teams can still be successful in this category with a couple bad 3PT shooters (ie. Chilliwack is 3^rd in 3PT% and they have Westbrook jacking at 28%) – you can’t have three quarters of your roster all shooting career lows from deep.  And it’s not like I can say – well, I’ll just trade away those shitty shooters – ummmm, that’s the bulk of the squad. HAHA.

Anyways, Golden is still looking like a 5^th to 8^th place finisher this season. And who knows, maybe we can push for a top 4 finish with some luck. That doesn’t appear to be in the cards – but who knows - stranger things have happened.

That's it for this week. My self reflection is over and Golden will carry on the good fight. Maybe the boys can get hot and we can make some noise and play spoiler down the stretch here.  Bye for another week.