Nilanka wrote:
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That said, JV-Ibaka should be way better than a break even pairing. The fact that they are not this late into the season is definitely concerning. They could certainly turn it around with some good games against the softer schedule coming up, and if they do, great. But if they don't, we're getting to the point where we've seen enough of that pairing and something else might need to be tried.
In previous years, the obvious choice was to fix the starting PF. This year the choice is not so obvious, even if JV being removed is the most likely path. JV hasn't gotten very many minutes away from Ibaka (46 MP), and has done moderately well in them (+5.1 net rating, lower but still poor DRTG). While Ibaka has played more away from JV (175 MP) but has had almost identical success to JV when they are apart (+5.6 net rating, with a far better DRTG but with the ORTG dropping significantly too). Both samples are flawed, with teammate and matchup context involved. And whether to start BeBe/Poeltl, both of whom have struggled against better opposition, or Siakam, who has been great but would force Ibaka into the starting C role and matchups he's shown no interest or capability for...
The good news is the team has far more flexibility to manage any starting variation due to OG and Siakam both playing so well at the 4. So even with all the pitfalls of the various choices, it's worth a shot come, say, December 8th. Try the option we think is best for ~20 games (unless it's a dramatic failure far beyond what we've seen with Ibaka-JV) and see where the team sits come the half way mark. That leaves plenty of season to pick a rotation and get into a groove heading into the playoffs. And it's not like there are any likely combinations that will kill the team's chances of winning games in the meantime - even the much-bemoaned JV-Ibaka pairing is essentially a league average one.
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