Like everyone else, I'm sure people have been disappointed as our performance over the first 21 games. There have been flashes of what could be, but mostly it's just been a long string of "YUCK" from the guys in green.

Particularly difficult to swallow has been the performance of our "5 star" lineup of Horford, Brown, Tatum, Hayward and Kyrie. Only Kyrie seems to have met expectations out of those 5 guys, with Hayward really the only guy who has an excuse. While those guys have been really good on the defensive end (97.9 DRTG per nbawowy), the offense has been a shell of what is expected (only 93.0 ORTG per nbawowy). On the surface, this makes sense. None of the guys save Kyrie are playing great, with Brown and Hayward being particularly bad. Hayward has a pretty good excuse - we knew he would be finding his way back early on. But the other guys just seem to be having one collective slump. What gives?

If you look at some other lineup stats, the 4 returning starters from last year haven't been struggling offensively when paired with other guys:

*Numbers courtesy of nbawowy (https://www.addmorefunds.com/nba-wowy/)

So while the 4 returning stars have been struggling offensively when on the court with Hayward, that's not necessarily true with everyone else. They have particularly good with Morris and Smart, and when paired with Baynes at 5, they have been less successful offensively in a small sample than they were last year (though it's worth noting, still defending very well as a unit). I was wondering what each individual player's performance would look like...

Specifically, I looked at the numbers for those 4 guys playing together in 2 groups: 1. when they were playing with Hayward, and 2. when they were playing with anyone else at that 5th lineup spot. Here's what that breakdown looks like:

*Numbers courtesy of nbawowy (https://www.addmorefunds.com/nba-wowy/)

I will be honest, I expected some guys to be playing worse with Hayward, but not like that. Remembering we are talking about only a couple hundred possessions either way (but still - we are talking about a couple hundred possessions!) these differences are stark. Brown and Horford have completely stunk when playing 4.5 on 5, and Tatum has been significantly below par as well. It may not be an accident that it looks like these guys are no longer slumping since Hayward was taken out of the starting lineup.

Now, we move onto Kyrie. He actually has looked better with Hayward on the floor with him. While this could be a bit of an anomale based on the small sample size, but I suspect this has something to do with the fact that Kyrie is actually a bit more effective when he's playing with another primary ball handler to allow him to mix on-ball and off-ball action.

So my overarching theory is that the team overall is having a hard time playing offense down one fully functioning teammate. When you think of this system and how egalitarian it is, that's not a surprise. Trying to make this work with one guy not fully functioning should be a struggle, especially against opponents best lineups.

It looks to me like our 3 starters struggling has had something to do with trying to do their thing while Hayward works himself back into shape. It is probably a good idea at this time to let the rest of the starters regain their mojo while Hayward gets back into shape from a reserve role.