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Message: [QUOTE="NineOneSeven, post: 3636300, member: 871"] Honestly, I am in the minority here but I did not mind the shots from Joe after we were up 65-62. Could we have gotten something better? Almost always is the answer. The one from 35 in transition that the announcer seemed to love, that was bad. There are like single digit players in the world that should take that shot and 2 of them are Steph Curry and Damian Lillard. The one off the curl, which seemed like a play, I thought was OK. The follow-up to it was the problem as it led to transition. But the shot itself? Eh. Looked like he rushed it a bit and was not fully squared up. We've run those plays for guards a lot. If he made that shot, taking our lead to 6, it would have been hailed as a huge dagger. Then the next one in front of our bench, was also a relatively open look sort of in a scrambling situation. Can't recall what the shot clock was, but it looked like he had a chance to drive off the head fake. Again, not the worst shot in the world, nor the best. What happened after this sequence makes these plays seem a lot worse than they were, imo. The inability to guard transition and stop guards driving is the bigger issue in this game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Girard only playing 15-20mins, even less, maybe sometimes more depending the game. I never expected him to even play too much the first two years here. We must remember that. Last year, given the depth issues, was a surprise to all. He, all in all, completely outperformed expectations given the amount of playing time he wound up with. If his minutes are scaled back this year, all it does for me is align with what I expected to see when he first got here. I think game shape is a big factor at the moment. Need him to get his endurance back up. We know the limitations. Those are not changing. But improvements can be made from an effort and cardiovascular standpoint and I expect to see those. He finished with 6 assists as well. Made some really nice passes in the second half. This is not me finding "silver lining" or trying to counter the net negative plays. Just simple facts. I also expect to see a 4 guard rotation at the top of the zone. Already this year we have seen 5 guys play up top. We need to continue these rotations with Buddy back. We should see Buddy and Joe together for 5-10mpg tops (again game dependent). Too much roster flexibility this year to reduce our defensive ceiling so significantly for long periods of the game. [/QUOTE]

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