In the big picture, we really need Norm back. Kawhi can take as long as he needs, but our core team really focuses on Beard, Zu and Norm.

Maybe, two or three games ago, there was a broken play, and Kobe ended up getting the ball near the left, but instead of putting up a contested shot, he passed it out — but, there was less than 2-3 seconds left. The camera shot to Coach Lue, who had a very disgusted look on his face.

Agree with your breakdown of T. Mann and Bogi, but it is the deal that we have.

At least, Bogi is taking the shots, and in Lue’s system, I doubt if T. Mann would have awaked his Playoff Spirit (vs. Utah).

We could have won this game if Bogi made a few more 3’s.

Zu had a 13/15 game but only 11 shot attempts. Harden was tired, played extremely hard and creatively, but shot 5-22 and got into too many matchups with Ausar Thompson instead of moving the ball to essentially take the best defender on Detroit out of a play.

Batum was really good and I actually think he should be moved into the starting rotation but limited to 20 mins/game. He provides length, height, spacing and just smart basketball instincts.

DJJ had an excellent Q3 playing at the baseline and on the rim, but he’s fallen off overall as a quality rotation player. He’s really a 3, not a 4 and the size differential and his lack of a true handle limit what he can do.

Bogdanovic took a lot of shots, which I like, but didn’t make many of them.

Coffey was atrocious outside of a couple of memorable plays. He was a -10 on the floor and since Jan 25, the team is +11.6 when he’s off the floor and -11.4 when he’s on the floor. While that stat can be misleading at times, in his case it does check out. He always seems to get matched up on great scorers and isn’t able to stop anyone. Yesterday, Cade’s big plays came when isolated on him.

The bench without Mann/KPJ looks atrocious. We have a lot of one dimensional players and filler. I don’t know why Kobe Brown and Beauchamp can’t get any run.

If Norm and Kawhi continue to be out, it’s going to be tough to make the playoffs.

The biggest issue now is the reality that the only way to compete for a chip in this league is by landing a fresh 20 year old unicorn and slowing building around them with other good draft picks for a couple years. We tried the 213 gambit of combing two veteran superstars and I would expect Ballmer et al to be gunshy of that approach again. So unless we find a Jokic in the rough with some miracle late-1st or second round draft pick we could be in the wilderness for many many years.

I expect that after this season they will take a hard look at trying to get some draft capital back for Zu, Norm and DJJ. Only Zu might bring back a 1st but we have to start gathering kindling for the next era.

I’m not totally out on this season yet—IF Norm and Kawhi can return relatively soon. But given the our history of terrible injury luck I’m not holding my breath.

Bogi can’t be any worse than he was tonight. No where to go but up from here.