I would play a zone and sag off Westbrook, Perkins, and Thabo and deny the ball to Durant. Allow Westbrook and Thabo to shoot as many threes as they like. If they make it, fine. If one of them makes 4-5 straight then play them tighter. Each time they miss grab the rebound (long rebounds are risky, but they help you get up the floor quicker) and try to score in transition. If they stop the ball then pass it around the perimeter to see if anyone missed an assignment. That should leave 15 seconds left to set up a play or pick and roll. I would set a lot of screens on Durant and have Parsons cut to the basket. Make harden run around screens the entire game as a distraction to get open looks. He has to be passive and other players have to keep moving. He should finish the game with at least 8 assists. The game is to increase the number of three pointers taken on both sides and we have better shooters than them. Also, play mind games with Ibaka by sagging off him and tightening up sometimes.
more passing.... harden does not hold the ball at the beginning of shot clock, he's only allowed to do that when the play is on it's second/third phase with 10 seconds left. No home run passes from J Lin - that means no full court or cross court passes, that doesn't mean he can't try and thread the needle off a pnr or from a pentration, no help d from J Lin, stay on your ficking man...sick and tired of seeing him help Tell the team to play more physical?? Maybe better off with saving the physicality until we get to our home court... our bench line up needs to be Jlin/Harden Bev Parsons Delfino Asik/T Jones With Lin and Harden interchangeable and Asik and T jones interchangeable. That is the do or die three point line up... Hopefully it would bag us one game if we go red hot from the three point line.
Have Harden hang out with his old pals Westbrook and Durant. Take them to some strip clubs...go out to eat...maybe they will get food poisoning or something
We'd actually play a great zone with Asik Smith and Parsons' length. Harden and Lin are both good at picking off the passing lanes so they could be valuable to denying to ball to the middle (the zone killer). I don't think Serge or Perkins are decent passers out of the key. Collison might be though.
Perhaps try starting TJ at the 4? Smith is not cutting it. It's risky but could be high reward. He's quicker, longer, more athletic, has more range and a better offensive rebounder. Their big men don't score a lot anyways.
I would absolutely start Delphino at the 4 and bring Greg Smith of the bench at the 5 spot. I would keep the Lin/Beverly rotation the same but when the urge strikes to use 2 point guards and Harden at the 3, I think I might try AB as the other point guard along with Lin and Harden instead of Beverly just for some added fire power on offense.
Start D-Mo. I'd rather see him miss corner threes than see our bigs fumble some passes in the lane. This also opens up the lane for our guards and takes Ibaka out of the lane.
there seems to be little off ball movement because 1.) we dont have set plays 2.) because we are winging it, shooters are afraid to "clog the lanes" with movement. the end result is iso with 4 people ball watching. i want to see some off ball screens for mid range shots
Pretty simple. If I was the coach the first thing I would do is move Delfino to the 4.This would give us a weaker rebounder in Delfino as opposed to Smith. Also Ibaka would have a mismatch with Delfino guarding him. But I think if Delfino guards Ibaka that would mean OKC would try to get Ibaka more shots which I'm ok with. I would rather try to make Ibaka beat me then Durant and Westbrook. That will also mean Parsons and Lin probably won't get in foul trouble because of less touches for Durant and Westbrook. Make Ibaka come out and guard Delfino at the 3 point line. This will allow the Rockets to spread the floor. It will create better driving lanes for Lin and Harden. Ibaka dominated the paint last game. He had at least 3 blocks I think plus all the shots he changed. If Ibaka has to guard Delfino this will remove him from the paint. He won't be able to rebound, block shots and change shots like he did when he could pack the paint guarding smith. With Smith out there Ibaka will continue to dominate the paint.
