Things that don't and won't work

Here's a few things from my observations about this current active roster (minus the injured DMo) that have not and are not going to work to help us win games:




1. James Harden defending opponent starting back-court players. He simply can't check smaller, quicker guys. Can't stay with them...any of them. He should never be defending 1's and 2's.....ever.....again. It's not working now. It's not going to work...at least for the balance of this season and likely for the balance of his career.

2. Any double-big lineup featuring Terrence Jones at PF playing alongside Dwight or Capela. Hasn't worked. Doesn't work. Isn't going to work. We are currently 29th in the league in DRB%. Terrence's DRB% is the lowest of anybody on this team except for Ty Lawson, Marcus Thornton, Corey Brewer, Jason Terry, and Montrezl Harrell. That should tell you something. Harden, Ariza, Beverley, and McDaniels are all better defensive rebounders than Terrence is. And if those guys were playing the 4 spot next to Dwight/Clint, undoubtedly their ORB% would increase as well to match or beat Terrence.

Terrence simply doesn't play good enough defense, doesn't rebound well enough, nor does he shoot well enough often enough to be playing the 4-spot for this team. He's a hinderance in any double-big lineup.

3. Any combination of Lawson, JET, Bev in the backcourt against opponent starting back-courts. Can't have it. All 3 of those guys are negative defenders for us right now. They simply cannot hang defensively with practically every team's starting back-court combination. Perhaps against Philly they'll be ok in combination against Philly's starting back-court.

When you put this together with #1 above, any combination of Harden/Jet/Lawson/Bev starting in the back-court and trying to play defense against opposing teams starting 1-2 combinations is not going to work except on the rare, rare occasion when we play another team that is simply awful like Philly or we're playing a team that has injuries to their starting 1 and/or 2.

4. Playing Lawson in any role besides as the point guard position on offense. Lawson has to have the ball in his hands, creating with it, to have a chance at any success. If we're not going to play him in that role, he shouldn't play at all and he shouldn't be on the roster.

5. James Harden on-the-run pull-up 3's. Isn't going to work. He hasn't worked on that shot enough to take it. He's either got to catch and shoot. Or if he's coming down, he's got to pull up, juke, step-back and fire. Harden's step-back is a much, much better shot for us than his head-on pull-up three going forward with momentum off the dribble.

6. Using zone defense for more than an occasional surprise possession or two. Doesn't, hasn't, and won't work.

7. Brewer shooting 3's from anywhere but the corners. Gotta pass on that shot. Won't work. Inefficient.

8. Throwing Dwight bounce passes and bullet passes with multiple defenders in the lane.

9. Brewer going to the rim against more than 2 defenders. He can beat two defenders (if they're not monsters) enough to warrant pushing it against two. But going 1 on 3 is a total loser. (Same goes for Harden here too. He's good but he ain't that good to be gobbling up 3 defenders. And it's foolish to do that anyways. Somebody else is open.)

10. Not looking for Dwight until late in the shot clock after the defense has collapsed into the paint instead of early in the shot clock when the D is still tangled up and not sunk into the paint yet. Just a recipe of stupidity here that is repeated over and over.

11. Not running a steady diet of pick-and-roll with Dwight early in the game to get Dwight and James both off and force the opponent into early foul trouble. (Goes right along with 10.)

12. Thinking this team is going to be fixed by simply "instilling confidence" while continuing to do 1-11 above without making any strategic adjustments to play-calling, lineups, etc.

 

Agreed. But these guys are pros. And the coaching staff has to work with what we've go to work with. Harden has never been a great defender. Harden has never gotten in amazing shape. Can't change those things until the summer of 2016. So we gotta work from here.

This coaching staff needs to work on the things I listed above. They do have the power to change lineup combinations and control shot selection somewhat and determine what defensive strategy we use.

 

I didn't list posting up Howard because it's not an issue. Howard posts up about 2 possessions a game and those are accidental possessions when the offense isn't moving, nobody is open, and as a last resort outlet Howard steps out and catches the ball on the post. We do not go to Howard in the post. We basically play a 4-man offense when Dwight is out there with Dwight standing on the baseline trying to stay out of everybody's way until the shot goes up. You guys complaining about Howard's post-ups must've missed all the games since he came back from injury last season. We haven't been working Howard on the post since early last season before he went down.

 

That's a positive suggestion. Harden is a much more competent defender on 4's than on 1's and 2's. Gotta put Thornton and Brewer on 2's. They're the only logical defensive solutions out there other than experimenting with KJ, which I see no reason not to do at this point. We need to see what KJ looks like with the starters. We have absolutely nothing to lose at this point.

 

No they're not awful. They may not be the ultimate defensive stoppers but they are a positive upgrade defensively from any of Harden, Lawson, Terry, and Bev.

 

The reason I started this thread is because there is no time left and those are things that we have to stop doing to have any chance of winning anything this season. And those things need to cease immediately.

The balance is to come up with other things we can do that could possibly work that we haven't tried yet.

1. We're going to have to make a trade or two to become championship competitive.

2. One thing we should try is Harden at the 4 with Ariza at the 3, and some combination of Thornton, Brewer, McDaniels up top. Harden's a better rebounder and defender than Terrence is on 4's. There's no reason not to play him there.....except.....he probably don't want to have to bang and grind down there.

3. In lieu of not playing Jones in any double-big lineup, that means we gotta play smalls around one of Dwight/Capela OR we can try a double-big lineup of Dwight/Capela together. There's you another out-of-the-box suggestion. For goodness sake if we're going to play double bigs, why not have the two guys who are defensive and rebounding difference makers in there together? We're not getting spacing out of Terrence. His man drifts inside and convolutes our drives. And Terrence only shoots about 1 3-point attempt a game out there. So, if we're not getting spacing at the 4 we should at least get the ultimate defense and rebounding.

What if that works and it shuts down the paint??? Then we can go back to seeing what different perimeter combinations look like with the Twin Towers out there. Perhaps...perhaps....we could actually run two subpar defenders together on the perimeter if we had Dwight/Capela in there together.

"Oh, we can't do that because then we don't have a backup center", says a whole pile of posters. Then you go small. Play the two centers together, sub a small in for one of them, so you're playing with one big and 4 smalls again. Then if you need to give the other big a break, run Jones out there at the 5 in a super-small lineup against an opposing 5 that Terrence has a chance to beat. All Terrence is is an undersized 5. That's the only role he can possibly play for us that will yield any kind of positive results. But perhaps you can work him in as the backup center for a few minutes while you spell both your other bigs. They you get him out of there quick as soon as one or both of Dwight/Capela have gotten a break and get back to your 4 smalls/1big lineup and your true double-big lineup with Dwight/Capela.

Daryl has stated very clearly he doesn't tell the head coach what do to and who to play. So these things are on JB. JB has got to realize that it's going to take some drastic changes to kick this team into gear...if it can be kicked into gear.

Probably the biggest thing JB has to do to have any chance of retaining his position is to not coddle Harden into some of these changes. As far as Harden playing the 4, JB simply needs to make him do it. Don't ask. Just tell. James, go get the PF...period. James, you're going to check so-and-so...period. And then if James lolligags the assignment or switches out of it....pull his butt, sit him down, and tell him he has to take the assignment he is given for us to have a chance to win.

Another critical thing is simply to outline the beginning of the game. We're going to run pick-and-roll with Dwight and force the opponent to foul or change their defensive focus to stop it.

Another critical thing is JB has to get Lawson out there, give him the basketball, and tell him to run the show...period. Pick-and-roll with the big with everybody else staying out of the way and moving around the perimeter to get open. You make it happen. Lawson is NO GOOD TO US unless we get him to run the offense. He has no defensive skill. He's not a spot-up shooter. So, if we're going to get anything out of our alleged 3rd best player then we've got to hand him the basketball and state to him and the team what he is to do with it, run the offense, run pick-and-roll, and find guys and finish.

All of these things are things JB CAN DO, if he just takes the bull by the horns, quits worrying about stroking Harden so he can get Harden to like him so he can retain his job. And they are things that if he doesn't do and try he's not going to be a coach here or anywheres else for that matter. JB cannot let James run this team and expect it to win. James just got McHale fired for doing that. JB has got to make the decisions that have a chance of working, stick to them, and refuse to let the things I mentioned above continue to happen.

 

Harden defended Tony Allen the last game. Allen is a 3/4, not a 1/2. And Allen still beat him often enough.

Harden cannot defend 1's and 2's. In the Portland game he was checking Lillard and McCollum. That's stupid. Should never, ever happen. But that's what happened throughout the whole Portland game.