Here's my early season wishlist.
Giddey is pretty ineffective. But damn son, he's trying so hard to make it work. I'm actually impressed with his play, despite being a wonky shooter and someone who loses their rhythm with the smallest of shifts. He needs to cover the mid-space because that's where he's most effective, and whoever is directing the defense needs to speak up and get him in his position(*cough*, who are we kidding, nobody has picked up that defensive leadership, and Zack sure AF needs to guard the perimeter, because he's useless everywhere else. Thus, he Zack can't see the switches and you have Giddey opening lanes.
So things I'd like to see.
I'd like to see Vuc become an 82-game player and be given the keys to setting up the teams defense. He is a terrible defender at this point in his career, but he knows where everyone needs to be. I guess thats what happens when you are a veteran, you can't just play the same game you played when you peaked. If we need to sift through a major development project, then this team is better off losing games trying the neccessary changes SOONER. And even if Vuc isn't here long, you want part of the system established.
Billy is a fantastic coach, he doesn't make a lot of mistakes on time management and substitutions. But , BIG BUT here....he wont allow his bigs to lead. He didn't let Ibaka dominate matchups and took KD's keys and handed them to a cocky ass Westbrook who turned into the leagues worst stat padder of perhaps, all-time. I'd like to see Billy learn from this mistake.... finally. Bigs.....must.....be.....developed. You don't just draft or sign them and make them into guards. Stop it. Just stop. Your guards know how to dominate a game when they get hot, that's only going make you a 500 team at best. The best teams have bigs that get hot, and dominate. Doesn't matter how, whether they do it mid/low or if they play in the modern outside style. You need to spend a lot of time behind the players you committed to, and build your bigs up first. Patrick Williams should not be this bad!
I'd like to see Dalen Terry become the 2nd unit captain, and use Sunmu as his chess piece, not Sunmu using Terry. Both players are worse, and they both get stuck with rotation players that really are top-tier G-Leaguers.
Matas is Matas. We can see this is a 2 year project. He's simply too thin and weak, but he has the rest of the game figured out. And quick bulking players never works unfortunately. Those guys wind up with tons of injuries. Two years....
I'm glad we got THT. He'll get better as the season progresses. And I'm good with Jalen Smith. If PWill gets hurt, I think Jalen Smith will steal that job. And maybe that's for the best. I have no problem with my projected 2nd unit, I only hate the contract.