jskinny35 wrote:Nalod wrote:BlueKnickers wrote:jskinny35 wrote:Would we be a better team if we somehow swapped KAT and filler for Myles Turner and Divencenzo? I get Turner is overpaid but he plays solid defense and shoots well enough from deep to continue our offensive spacing. Pretty sure Milw could send Portis or Kuzma to Minn if they can pair KAT with Giannis. Not worried about that pairing because they don't have enough guard play. Divencenzo coming back would give us more shooting and depth as well.
I doubt that would happen because Giannis would have to feel this is a step back towards contention and I don't think it would be.
That said, yes, we'd be better defensively. We have the scoring already so losing KAT just means more for the rest of the squad. Scoring isn't our issue. Losing KAT wouldn't stop us from rolling offensively.
More for JSkinny, what is "filler? Deuce? Mitch? BTW, DDV and Turner make 37m between them. THats not enough for KAT. Besides the money, thats not enough for KAT. Still, he is all NBA caliber!
I get Turner has length and blocks shots, but with KAT your Talking 24pts, 12 rebs and Myles is HALF of KAT totals. Half.
DDV does have a halo on him for good reason given he was here for one season and did really well.
You get into playoffs, I like us with Mitch and Kat vs. iHart/Chet if we get there. Also confident OG can contain Chet who is very improved from last years playoffs when he not 100%. Im not thinking beyond this seaosn BTW.
Filler could involve a 3rd team where we send a pick or Pacome or someting non-essential. I posed the hypothetical question because KAT's defense is again the main problem to solve. His offense sometimes can hide a bad defensive performance, but often it's just so glaring and wrecks what our team identity has been about the past few years. The best solution is to get KAT to play more consistently and passionately on the defensive side... but he's about 10 seasons in and think what we see is what we get (kind of like Mitch hitting free throws and being somewhat unreliably physically). It's true Myles Turner only gives about 1/2 the production - but isn't 12 and 6 and can be played at the end of a close game just as valuable as the weak link in a chain that can't? I feel like KAT's talent gets us to the final 6 but than we really can't use him as much against the final 4-6 teams as much as we should be for his starting positon and salary. So we have to put Mitch in who can barely hit a free throw. Maybe Brown being a more adaptive and trusting his bench type of coach can overcome that for us?
I also have concerns about KAT as the C on a championship team.
Scanning the list of starting Centers around the NBA, on the best teams I see what I'll put into three groups:
2-way Centers
Elite defensive centers
High efficiency centers on offense (i.e. not mistake prone, makes good decisions, takes the right shots and makes them at a good clip or makes the right decision and moves the ball well)
After looking over that list, I felt KAT is the lowest IQ basketball player among starting centers on Top 10 teams.
When you combine his tendency to make bad choices and collect stupid fouls, he is also a net negative defender for a 7 footer.
Does his offense and occasional defense add up?
I'm not convinced he has what it takes to be the C on a championship team.
KAT will get abused in the playoffs more often than not. He had one stretch that stood out in that regard was his defense of Jokic. It showed what is possible for him, but he has not gotten back to that level since. It was a blip in the scale of time he has played.
