Yeah, we do need to ease off on the salary thing. At least Ryan Anderson contributed on the boards (!) in the first game and in other ways in the second. We do need his outside shot to return. But let's not worry about his paycheck. What, are we going to request a refund for his bad games? Would he pay? Besides, next season, hypothetically, if Morey wants to trade him (I'm not saying he does) and free up cap room for someone, it isn't impossible. But that's only an "if" to consider if some star free agent is begging to play in Houston. A big "if".
yeah hes rebounding, you think he doesn't rebound? and go back to other points of my post rather than nitpicking
Anderson is worth what he's paid. Can anyone remember the last time we had a 3 point specialist like him that teams actually feared from deep?
Do we think the Thunder will change their defense to sag off of Ryan and Ariza more this game tonight and plan on seeing if they can hit shots or continue to struggle? Ryno especially is due for a game where he can't miss from 3. Those games we usually devastate the other teams but we will see. If he has A GAME where he shoots lights out in the playoffs its money well spent. If he continues to struggle the rest of the playoffs its going to be tough to win many more close games where the team has to rely on Harden getting in the paint continuously.
Please let them sag off Anderson, PLEASE! Anderson slept at a Holiday Inn too.. uh oh! Road Ryno! What gives me hope is that others are stepping up even when Ryno is struggling. If Anderson can't shoot, but Lou, Gordon and Beverley are on.. well what can we complain about? OOh yeah we can whine about Anderson's salary #WhineAllDay
made some shots inside the arc but also missed some key open 3's tonite. the killer with playing him is his fairy defense that's usually an automatic 2 for whoever he's guarding.
What about the clutch shots to get the Rockets close? the clutch drive that should have been an and 1? you guys suck. you really do. He had a better game than Beverley and EGO! 18 pts 6 rebs.
i just don't like how shook he is at time in this series. he'll be open then hesitate and allow his defender to close out. i do like however that he's using his drive and midrange.
The strategy of Ryan spacing the floor at 30 feet from the basket doesn't seem to be helping much. He's missing most of his shots and OKC has athletes to close out on him regardless.
He has actually been his own best defender. Pick and pop with Harden at 3 point line ---> Anderson rolls towards the top of the key after setting a screen ----> Double team on Harden -----> Harden swings the ball to a wide open Anderson who is standing 2 feet away from the 3 point line ----> Anderson shoots hesitates because he is low on confidence ----> OKC recovers on defense ---> Harden has to come back and take the ball and start over ...that just wastes seconds off the shot clock and breaks our offense down. Stop hesitating!
The Anderson at the 5 experiment needs to end. If we keep doing that we'll lose THIS SERIES instead of the next one. All OKC has to do is keep picking on him with either Taj or Kanter and he's toast. Taj especially since Taj is such a versatile defender. Anderson is going to have more limited functionality in the playoffs because when you play better teams, most of them are coached well and they have better, more versatile big man defenders as well as more length and athleticism. You can't play Anderson at the 5. He'll get horse whipped. That means he's stuck at the 4. Most teams and especially playoff teams have small ball rotations that work very well. For instance, OKC with McDermott. When they went to McDermott at the 4 he was able to turn off the spicket of Anderson shots. Then he was able to stretch Anderson out himself. As I said before the playoffs started, for us to win anything Harden and Ariza are going to have to play substantial minutes at the 4 with the other wings and smalls picking up the rest of the minutes at 1-3 along with Nene getting more minutes than Clint. You saw the worst of our team last night. And you saw a preview of what the Spurs are going to do to us a lot more that OKC. I THINK we've got enough to get by OKC. But Donovan has both the defensive and offensive formula to unravel us. I simply doubt whether OKC can execute it for another three games and I don't believe Westbrook can hold it together that long. He almost succeeded in unraveling that whole game for OKC last night. Nevertheless, the formula to beat us is simple. When CC/Andeson are playing together, you put a body on Capela and deny him even coming up for the pick, and you let the other shooters catch but you smother them after the catch and force them to put the ball on the deck. Simultaneously, after Harden gets rid of the basketball, you deny him the catch with a long athletic defender. Offensively, you spread us out and attack us in the post. Go straight at Capela and make him defend while iso'd in the post. Old school post basketball. Capela cannot defend down there. He'll foul or get beat. Just like last night. Pau is going to make Clint obsolete down there. Donavan knows how to beat us. He probably doesn't have a patient enough Westbrook to get it done. But there should be no doubt Donavan is exposing us for the Spurs, like Pops needed any help anyways.