Really? I saw us run about a total of 6-7 plays the entire game including after timeouts. Not nearly enough compared to other teams, theres hardly any action at all let alone weak side action. You can say Thunder don't run as many plays as well but their talent level is heads and shoulders above that it allows them to do that.
I always thought Scottie Brooks was an absolute turd of a coach, and that 'brook was one of the dumbest guys in the league, but they completely trashed us tonight anyway. Mchale has got to be one of the 5 worst coaches in the nba right now. Morey's a bright guy. I know Les doesn't want to throw millions of dollars away. But if they want to take another step forward, they've got to hire a real nba coach, not some castoff who embarrassed himself as a half-assed GM in Minnesota.
I believe running a set that may be complicated if it has lots of option A B C etc is better to teach to a young team then letting them trying to figure it out and keeping it simple like go set a screen roll, cut to the open space. In theory the second should be a lot easier but with lack of NBA level experience it can lead to chaos. Obviously implementing the first would be incredibly difficult and have many hiccups but eventually we'd have a system. We should attempt to run a play most times down the court with many options if the first is cut off and then if all fails you revert to the isolation/pick and roll at the end of the clock. It is disappointing the number of times recently our players stand outside the 3 point line not moving.
No time to learn, no time to put into practise, no time to cement into the mind. We'll see next season.
What you are seeing, or not seeing, is the team run it's motions and no openings being created, then an iso play having to be run because the play never materialized. This is happening for three reasons: 1.) We are relatively inexperienced. Players don't know the timing of the motions and how to move if their initial line gets cut off. 2.) We are not a terribly talented team offensively, specifically at the 4/5. This limits the spots on the floor where those guys can be effective. For example, we could probably get Asik open on the elbow at will, but what good does that do? Nothing really. Scola, Bosh, Camby, Ibaka, etc. all can hit midrange shots, we can't. 3.) OKC plays good defense and has size/length on top of that to seal off openings.
We don't have any. Didn't you watch the Rockets during the regular season? Harden-iso, and if that fails then Harden-iso. The Rockets can only score when they run and OKC can run too. They get back on D in transition too so there goes any easy fast break buckets that we got during the regular season. Factor in we suck in a half-court game while the Thunder have multiple options. If Durant and Ibaka were off tonight then Westbrook would have stepped up.
You are correct, having Patterson would really helped us in the short run I don't know if we should have kept him or not but I guess time to move on and Smith is definitely not a solution at the 4. If we are going to start Asik who is beast defensively but offensively completely terrible we need to start a 4 with a perimeter game and preferably not a pancake on defense.
If we want to get something out of this series, it has to start with the offense from our bigs. OKC knows our game pretty well. Serge Ibaka single-handedly killed our penetration game and the rest we have was just ISOs.
We run motion with a dribble hand off, basic curls and a couple of pin downs trown in a couple of simple cross screens across the paint to Smith or Asik (which is useless) then its screen and roll for Harden. To be honest these plays are really simply to easy to stop, and I think even our own offense don't really buy into the idea that it will work and thus leading to a lot of less convincing cutting and ball movement, leading to stagnant isos. Our lack of a roll man has also completely destroyed our drive and kick game. We got away with it in the regular season because we would have breakout performance here and there from our big man but nothing consistent to rely on. I guess it comes with being young. Lets just hope they can really develop and gel this offseason and training camp!
Not sure what everyone is saying. We do run plays. A lot of the time the opposing team disrupts our sets because of good defense or because the play is so simple but doesn't mean that we don't run plays.
Lin mentioned in a post game that the teams success is predicated on transition and spacing. That was pretty much on point. Without a transition game were basically 4 guys standing around watching one guy try to do something. And usually ic the guy is not garden he's too scared to do something even if he creates space for himself. The team seems like I'll fitting pieces of a puzzle mashed together to create a grotesque image. Lin can't handle pressure. Harden is insefficient without the whistle. Asik is offensively limited and relarively immobile against athleticism. And on and on. This is depressing stuff
This team regressed so much for the last few weeks that I don't believe they can beat Suns in a 7-game series. Very disturbing.... Young team suppose to play their best at the end of the season as they gain more experiences with one another. They are looking worse when the season started, worse than 7-game losing streak...playing like crap at the worst time possible. What the hell happened to this team?
"We dont have any set plays." -Chandler Parsons We hire jerry sloan and we win minimum 50 games. true story.
Read and React, that is the answer I got from asking the very same question a couple of weeks earlier.
