Norm played too much relative to TMann, no doubt. Otoh, there were so many issues tonight and Mann was too shy that I’m not confident in stating it would definitely swing the game. Also gotta consider how the bench could look with Norm instead of him.

The argument can always be made for individual players in specific games (Morris in the previous Pels game, Russ vs Orlando, Powell tonight, EG, Powell, RoCo all have had great and horrible shooting nights…). In a negative or a positive way. What I don’t get is putting the results of a stretch of games firmly on the shoulders of a single player and then choosing a player who has clearly been solid overall, pretty damn good when others also did their jobs around him (correct lineups and decent shooting) and vastly outplays his contract.

Lakers situation was different still being on a 47 million salary. There should be absolutely no debate though that a) there’s a myriad of factors that lead to wins and losses and b) that adding a playmaker who can also carry some scoring load, inarguably has helped both the superstars and the overall offense and is a versatile defender, adding all that on a minimum salary is clearly a positive move. How that move in particular gets criticized seems highly irrational.

Does Russ equate to automatically winning games? No. You still gotta put in the effort, you still need health, coaching, shooting luck, hustle and half of your teammates having solid performances in order to win consistently. 34-year old Westbrook won’t drag you there single-handedly and like every player he will have his share of mistakes. Health, strength of schedule, Morris, Lue, Norm, at the very least those 5 factors haven’t been up to par. Imo, Russ, Kawhi, PG, Zu, Mann, RoCo, Plumlee, EG and Bones have. Tonight, you got maybe 3 guys showing up, abysmal shooting, an awful game from Powell, a poor game from the second unit as a whole and a questionable whistle. Not good enough to win.

But it ain’t one player or front office decision, not positively, not negatively.

Granted Ty is also to blame by not being a professional on winning ball games. He was too emotional that it clouded his judgement. This should be his last season. I don’t care if he walks across the hall back to Lebron because he was nothing without him.

This off-season I’d prefer to get younger. PG is damaged goods so packaging him to acquire younger assets would be preferable. If Kawhi has a problem with it, he could go to. Ballmer should take back control of this organization because believe it or not, he’s the best thing we got. Go out and hire Bob Meyers and fix this mess.

Fire Ty Lue, fire frank, trade everything besides Mann, bones, and Zu and load up on draft picks. Get ready for when Luka or Ja or whatever want out.

This whole era has been such a joyless slog.

But that’s Ty. Anything he can do to not start Mann and hurt his confidence, that’s what he’s gonna do.