I am sorry but James Borrego sucks.

[Eazy-E]

I liked what he was doing early in the year and spreading out minutes and rolling with the hot hands and not favoring under preforming vets. He was giving solid minutes to our young guys like Malik and Bridges. as the season has progressed, Bridges and Monk have been getting less and less minutes even when the guys ahead of them are playing like absolute dog poo. I said it last year but if we aren't willing to roll with the punches and give our future playing time why in the fug did we not just trade them at the deadline for some random vet that can actually contribute?

The game against the Pacers last night made me want to punch my tv. I know we don't have a ton of talent but what coach in his right mind just sits there and watches Nic Batum brick 7 fuging 3s (and I mean they weren't even close) and still be on the floor to score his first two points with 20 seconds left in the damn game. Jeremy Lamb was having an off game as well and seems to have free reign to just keep chucking up shots. Marvin injured his toe and came back into the game completely ineffective on offense. All 3 of these guys played over 30 minutes while our your first round picks played 10 minutes each.

Monk missed an easy layup and shot two 3s and that was the only opportunity he got. Lamb chucked 22 shots in 38 minutes. I don't care how much we are paying him Batum should not be playing 35 minutes a night. I don't care if he is inexperienced, Bridges should be getting the bulk of Batum's minutes. Miles is the future and it would be really fuging hard for him to play worse than Batum is this season. How a coach can't see that playing Batum 35 minutes a game is costing us wins is fuging beyond me. We are essentially playing 4v5 for 75% of the game. Teams aren't even guarding him on offense anymore. One could make the argument that MKG is a bigger offensive threat now.

Oh yeah and we got a Frank sighting tonight for a whopping 4 minutes. Why? His rotations at this point in the season are as bad as Clifford's were and surprise, the results are the same. Kemba playing hero ball while a bunch of vets get paid 100k for every 3 pointer they brick.

Play Miles and Monk over Batum and take some minutes from Marvin and Lamb and we will still have a shot at the 7th or 8th seed while our young guys actually get a chance to develop. I'd be willing to bet we would actually finish with a better record.

[Eazy-E]

Oh yeah Shelvin Mack LOL. Before the game when they asked JB if Mack would play he said "Oh yeah, Mack will play", with this smirk on his face and this confident nod like bringing in Mack was some kind of sneaky good signing. The guy has been in the league for years and fuging blows and in his first fuging game still gets more god damn minutes than Monk. I know he isn't a PG but who the fug care when your other 2 back ups are both injured.

[rhyslloyd]

Yes.  Yes he does.  I know it's still early for them, but I think Monk and Bridges are role players at best.  How are we ever going to find out, though, if they don't get meaningful minutes?

[JakeDel5674]

40 minutes ago, Thelt said:

I agree with the frustration you guys are feeling but the plus minus tells a different story. We were +4 with Batum in the lineup but -13 with Bridges.  We were +11 with Lamb but -20 with Monk.  I hope those guys pan out but they are not ready yet.  Our bench lost this game not our starters.

Not a big plus/minus fan, honestly. I've seen Kemba go for 60 in a game and his +/- was 1 or something like that. 

I'm not a big efficiency fan with these players like LeBron & Zion. LeBron for 12-13 years shot 32 percent outside of 4 feet. But, because he was so "big" and "unstoppable" against these push overs in this day and age he was tremendous around the rim, hence the reason his efficiency is so amazing. One issue though, he couldn't shoot, and Zion can't shoot. Simple as that. 

[Proudiddy]

I think it's a lot of politics going on that is out of his hands...  if what I heard and saw from him early is truly him, then he is the best coach we have ever had...  if this recent stuff is of his own volition, then yeah, he's another retread.  

What I suspect is that he is a good coach, but if being forced to play guys by MJ and Kupchack.  What do they look like sitting Batum?  Yes, he sucks, he is a worse version of Diaw, but if we sit him, we lose any and all remaining leverage we have in trying to get rid of him.  Them again, he keeps on putting up goose eggs and it won't matter...  what a horrible investment.

I think the other decisions are bc, as Mitch talked about post-deadline, they're desperately trying to make the playoffs and I think most of these lifers automatically default to seasoned vets to get them there.

[Eazy-E]

6 hours ago, Thelt said:

It may just be that Batum playing helps us win more than Bridges does at this point.  I know that is hard to grasp given Batum's pathetic stat line but rookies are going to make mistakes.

 

I just can’t buy into that. He isn’t some elite defender or getting crazy rebound or assist numbers. Even if he was, the name of the game is to score more points than your opponent. JB played him 30+ minutes against the Pacers and he scored 0 points. (He scored two points but I’m not counting them because they came with 20 seconds left in the game). How as a Basketball coach can you sit there with a straight face and say that what Batum contributed was going to help us win the game?

I have been a major proponent of either benching him or a buyout because he is a detriment to the teams current success and it’s future.

[archer4364]

11 hours ago, Thelt said:

I agree with the frustration you guys are feeling but the plus minus tells a different story. We were +4 with Batum in the lineup but -13 with Bridges.  We were +11 with Lamb but -20 with Monk.  I hope those guys pan out but they are not ready yet.  Our bench lost this game not our starters.

Yeah everybody here is crazy for thinking Monk getting more minutes would have been a good thing in the Indiana game. He looked absolutely terrible and was just unplayable. Matchups change game to game. He did have that 4 game stretch of great play but he hasn't shown that he can be consistently good enough to merit more playing time. Lamb was inefficient as fug, but he was the only one besides Kemba able to facilitate anything in that game, especially with Parker and to a lesser extent Graham out. Bridges has been getting solid enough minutes, though he's still a rookie and is prone to mistakes. I think he definitely could play more, but people in this thread are definitely overlooking how important Batum is on defense despite his disappointing offensive impact sometimes. 

About Borrego, I do agree with OP a little bit though. It seems like any time Kemba gets doubled by a team in the fourth, our team is completely neutralized on offense. Even when the Knicks went zone in that game earlier this year we couldn't do anything. That 20 point comeback by LA was terrible and Rivers absolutely outcoached JB. Still, the team sucks besides Kemba so it's hard to tell how much of it is his fault. 

[Eazy-E]

21 minutes ago, archer4364 said:

Yeah everybody here is crazy for thinking Monk getting more minutes would have been a good thing in the Indiana game. He looked absolutely terrible and was just unplayable. Matchups change game to game. He did have that 4 game stretch of great play but he hasn't shown that he can be consistently good enough to merit more playing time. Lamb was inefficient as fug, but he was the only one besides Kemba able to facilitate anything in that game, especially with Parker and to a lesser extent Graham out. Bridges has been getting solid enough minutes, though he's still a rookie and is prone to mistakes. I think he definitely could play more, but people in this thread are definitely overlooking how important Batum is on defense despite his disappointing offensive impact sometimes. 

About Borrego, I do agree with OP a little bit though. It seems like any time Kemba gets doubled by a team in the fourth, our team is completely neutralized on offense. Even when the Knicks went zone in that game earlier this year we couldn't do anything. That 20 point comeback by LA was terrible and Rivers absolutely outcoached JB. Still, the team sucks besides Kemba so it's hard to tell how much of it is his fault. 

Monk looked terrible in 10 minutes while the rest of the starters not named Kemba or Cody looked terrible for 30+ minutes. The defensive effort was lazy and Batum has been average at best on defense and abysmal on offense all year with a few outliers.

Monk has shown he is the only player besides Kemba who can catch fire and score in bunches which is something this team lacks terribly. Monk could go scoreless for 10 minutes but has the ability to drop 15 in the next 5 but rarely get the opportunity to stay on the floor and get into a rhythm all while Batum and Lamb brick shots all game long. It is crazy for a coach to basically call on a second year player to go in and immediately start scoring points and if he doesn't in the first 5 to 10 minutes he is banished to the bench. That is just poor coaching a a terrible way to develop a young players confidence.

[archer4364]

49 minutes ago, Eazy-E said:

Monk could go scoreless for 10 minutes but has the ability to drop 15 in the next 5 but rarely get the opportunity to stay on the floor and get into a rhythm

Monk cannot go scoreless for 10 minutes. He has a negative defensive impact, like way worse than Batum, and even worse than Lamb. If he's out there for 10 minutes and not scoring any, no matter if he drops 15 after that, we're going to be getting cooked. 

[Eazy-E]

30 minutes ago, archer4364 said:

Monk cannot go scoreless for 10 minutes. He has a negative defensive impact, like way worse than Batum, and even worse than Lamb. If he's out there for 10 minutes and not scoring any, no matter if he drops 15 after that, we're going to be getting cooked. 

That is my entire point. We are getting cooked with Batum and Lamb out there regardless. Lamb wont be here next year but he at least has a positive impact when he is on the floor most of the time. Batum gets roasted defensively on a nightly basis. Tobias Harris roasted him the other night. He is literally just a body on the court which is why we have been actively trying to trade him for over a year now. I really think the only reason he gets playing time is in the hopes that he can start to produce anything so he regains some sort of trade value. If we bench him we may as well buy him out.

We should be playing our future and getting them experience because right now it really doesn't get much worse than Batum. A good coach would not be giving him 30+ minutes a game. If the plan was to keep giving Batum heavy minutes we should have just traded Monk, Bridges and our first at the deadline for someone who would actually be allowed to contribute. Like @Proudiddysaid, I hope his hands are tied and he is just a puppet because his rotations have been awful and he is being out coached practically every game.

[yasuhara2241]

@Eazy-E I agree 100% with your statement. If Monk misses his first few shots, he usually won't see the court for the rest of the game. Also, what do you expect when he has no opportunity to get into rhythm? Usually he comes in with 3 min remaining in the 1st or starting the 2nd and gets until around the 6 min mark in the 2nd. So basically 6 - 9 minutes in the half. Then he's usually doesn't see the court again until the 4th quarter and will only see 3-4 minutes. There is no way you can ask for a young guy to have any impact with those types of minutes.

Also, they have him just sitting in the corner when he shares the court with Kemba. Kemba is very ball dominant and seems to usually look to the right side of the court. Monk is sitting there on the left not doing anything. He should be on the right so that Kemba has larger driving lanes or can kick it out to Monk. 

As for Miles, run some plays for the guy! When they do, he does well. One thing I like about Parker running the 2nd unit, he seems to do a good job getting Miles and Monk involved. Parker knows that the team goes as those young guys go. They have the potential to change games. This should be a coaches a job to put the players in that position but only Parker seems to be able to do it. I put that on the staff. 

[bLACKpANTHER]

the 76ers head coach was a laughing stock his first fews years when the team was tanking.. funny how he was viewed as a terrible coach - and then Simmons, Embiid, Butler and Harris arrive and he is a great coach.. maybe the players have something to do with it!?

[Eazy-E]

7 hours ago, bLACKpANTHER said:

the 76ers head coach was a laughing stock his first fews years when the team was tanking.. funny how he was viewed as a terrible coach - and then Simmons, Embiid, Butler and Harris arrive and he is a great coach.. maybe the players have something to do with it!?

A lot of people are still questioning him because the sixers are under-achieving in a lot of people’s eyes.

[Eazy-E]

Just now, bull123 said:

We are losing by 35 to Orlando at half time

Probably because the players are mentally checked out ready for All Star weekend and JB didn’t do his job and have them prepared to play. He should be laying into them right now for pathetic effort.