Chicago are off to a 3 win 0 loss start. Surprising.
They have beaten 3 teams expected to be in the playoffs in the East in Orlando, Detroit and Atlanta. They are doing this without Coby White (arguably their 2nd best player) who is injured.
G: Tre Jones, Ayo Dosunmu
G: Josh Giddey, Julian Philips
F: Isaac Okoro, Kevin Huerter
F: Matas Buzelis, Pat Williams
C: Nik Vucevic, Jalen Smith
I am watching their game against ATL from yesterday. They pull most of their starters and put their 2nd unit in. Keep Tre Jones. So Jones and 4 bench guys. Dosunmu in the backcourt with him. Huerter and Pat Williams at forward. Jalen Smith at center.
Then later in the quarter they pull Jalen Smith and put back in Okoro. They were playing Pat Williams at center. Vucevic played 34min, Jalen Smith 7min. So they went small with Pat Williams or Matas Buzelis at center for 7min. In Q1, Pat Will was matched up with Okongwu who is a small big (6-8 240lbs). So that is comfortable enough for Pat Will. Okongwu plays some PF as well so they would be matched up at times anyway.
Anyway, the lineup was Pat Williams at center. Huerter and Okoro at forward. Both undersized SFs to big SGs. Then two PGs. A tiny lineup.
Chicago are killing ATL in transition. There doesn't seem to be much paint protection from ATL either. Neither Porzingis or Okongwu protecting the rim. ATL's defense is coming from their wings 2-4 or not at all. They look poor defensively. Just looking at the box score. ATL had 1 block for the entire game.
Kennard is awful defensively. Both a terrible athlete + terrible awareness. They gotta get him out of their rotation. I don't think Kennard is a rotation player in the NBA. Not anymore. If he ever was. But certainly you cannot carry someone that bad defensively when you already doing everything possible to cover Trae Young.
Porzingis looks bad. He looks good on offense but bad on defense. Like the player he was a few years ago when he was only playing one side of the floor. Disengaged on D.
That Mataz Buzelis at center lineup had Giddey at PF, Okoro at SF, J Philips at SG, Dosunmu at PG. ATL had Okongwu at center. Giddey had their best combination of height / bulk in this lineup but Buzelis took Okongwu.