Only 3 games in and people have already come to final conclusions. Never change Clutchfans never change.
Sucks for us if this is the case, although honestly he managed 14 pts with no 3 pointers so I think he's just playing bad. He sort of redeemed himsef in my eyes this game this is the effort on the boards and D I expected from him, just needs to get his shot back.
I think Anderson is used a lot on strong-side to facilitate plays. And my theory so far is that him being hot (or not) is not an indicator of how his play helps open the lane for Harden...and we can see it already in how Capela is using the lane as a rolling playground. I want to stress this is just a theory. See my post on previous page regarding the dangers of theories like this (confirmation bias). That said, wanted to drop this here as an example of what Anderson does *merely* by being on the court with Harden. Key indicator I'm looking for how often defenses won't leave him an inch, even if that means a worse poison is exposed. --------------------------------------------------------- Harden ISO on the *Strong Side* imo, this is a good 15' jumper for Harden in crunch time of the 4th (1:45 left up by 4), when MDA is also trying to milk the clock...albeit he misses. I post this, because I find it astonishing to see Harden attack strong side like that. Notice how Carlisle's defense will *not* leave Anderson. If Barnes shows to Harden, Nene will back pick him for a wide open Ryno 3, or Barnes simply doesn't recover in time. If that's Ariza, my theory is Barnes shows to force a last sec pass to Ariza and Bogut runs out on Ariza's slower 3 shot vs Anderson's quicker/higher one. And imagine if it is DMo, with an even slower release from 3 than Ariza's. Regardless, I can't recall seeing a Harden ISO play attack the strong-side wing like that, almost begging Barnes to help...yet he doesn't leave Ryno. I"m betting we will see this play again. I'm assuming MDA has practiced this; otherwise, Harden just makes standard use of that Ariza pick earlier in the clock to attack the middle.
From Cleveland Game today: Here's another example of what I'm talking about wrt Andreson helping Harden just by giving him picks. Here's Grant Hill explaining how the presence of Ryan Anderson on the strongside with Harden gives the high PnR better angles / better lane / harder to defend. Dribble Double Drag PnR, plus a second play, Simple PnR with nifty pass by Harden Here we are doing our Horns double pick out high. Instead of a simple PnR with only Capela and Harden in the middle...this play (which we do a lot) has two pickers for Harden Grant Hill is talking about how this action causes defense to take a different angle to Harden Sorry my edit clipped the full action, but it is in my PnR Video Playbook....with several different defenses of it.
too easy for kevin love. love hates facing physical opponents. when anderson tries to muscle up he telegraphs all his shoves and dirty plays so doesn't get away with it. brewer might've been the rockets best option against love on defense as he is strong enough not to get walked up.
Is MonstaTrezz in the doghouse? Surely he'd've helped stop some of that bleeding we were doing on the boards. They seemed to be out-hustling us to every 50-50 ball.
Davis is the best stretch 4. Love is second. Ryno is 3rd tier. But 20mil is what those types of guys get, like it or not. Anderson's value goes up if there is a great C who can cover up his mistakes on defense and punish teams for the spacing he creates on offense. We just have to find one of those.
Holy shitake mushroom, this guy has been putrid. Well, I mean at least he's hitting threes. Not sure why he's reluctant to take them. One thing I didn't realize about his game is that he isn't the most willing spot up shooter. He's passed a ton of open shots to try and drive a bit, or post, and do one of his insanely difficult post fall away shots. All of which, of course, ignores his defense (atrocious) and his rebounding (some of the worst you'll ever see from a big). Every year I care less and less. And I know, that makes me a lesser fan. But I still care a ton. They're still my squad. But how much can you watch a trainwreck as its happening and not lose some passion. Horrible chemistry and personality and coaching clashes ruin last year. Coaching search leads to one of the most confusing and dumb hires of all time. Followed on by $20 million (even in a new era of money, that's overpaying) to a guy with known and obvious flaws in the exact areas you need to shore up. This is plain as day. The team will have some good runs, and some bad runs. They'll finish with 38-48 wins ... a wide enough range to get them out of the playoffs to maybe even a top 5 seed... but they'll lose in the playoffs and it won't be one of those "this team is on the up and up just wait till next year" type playoff losses. And then rinse, wash, repeat next year.
The best aspect is either they do not know, do not care enough or they pretend everything is fine The Rinse wash repeat process.
I think this is the offseason which really was/is the breaking point. And as I noted in another thread, I'm not laying this all on Morey. I think its 70% on Les. His dumb criteria for coach hiring. His insistence on remaining relevant enough. Heck, his lack of effort to get the horrible uniforms changed! Which also speaks to his pandering to China - I mean wtf with that draft pick. But 30% of it is squarely on DM. As you've noted, 10 years, in a league abundant with really really good PGs and PFs, and he has yet to find some keepers!
They are all very different players. I watched Montrezl Harrell play a few times in March Madness for Louisville. Montrezl has good energy, undersized but rebounds well, shot blocker, athletic and plays above the rim. Harrell doesn't have much of a jump shot. The last game he was slashing to the rim a lot and was the beneficiary of Harden finding him, typically wide open. The defense paying so much attention to Harden and other threats allows him to be more open. Montrezel could see sporadic minutes as he's buried on the depth chart. Sam Dekker hustles and brings high effort off the bench. Dekker can shoot the 3 and has a spot in the rotation. Dekker is able to play very hard in limited minutes so he's a good fit off the bench. I have not seen Motiejunas play, and he's not playing for the Rockets at this time, so I'm not going to speculate on him at this time. If the Rockets are able to sign him, I would expect him to backup Anderson off the bench with most of his minutes coming at PF and maybe a handful at C. So the big man rotation would be Capela/Nene/Motiejunas and Anderson/Motiejunas. I can speak about Ryan Anderson. Anderson has been a polished scorer a very long time. Anderson averaged 28.9 PPG as a senior in CA and he didn't do it all at the 3-point line, he did it primarily in the post. Westbrook averaged 25.1 PPG the same year as a senior in CA. Anderson led the former Pac-10 in scoring as a sophomore in an absolutely loaded NBA talent conference. Westbrook, Harden, Love, the Lopez twins, Mayo and other NBA talent was in the Pac-10 that year. Now Anderson doesn't have the foot speed to keep up with quicker defenders, he's going to struggle defensively, however he's an above average post defender. I've watched Anderson do an admirable job guarding Cousins. Now lets talk about overall impact. Anderson isn't just another 3-point shooter. Anderson isn't even an above average 3-point shooter. Anderson is an elite high volume 3-pt shooter at PF. Anderson must be guarded wherever he is on the court. What Anderson brings with spacing the floor can't be replaced by the other big men. Anderson doesn't foul much, good FT shooter, sets screens, boxes out every play, and good offensive rebounder. Anderson is a high character person and likable guy coaches and teammates get along with.
The one thing disappointing so far has been Anderson's lack of shot attempts. A combination of Anderson not getting as many touches and him being a little too unselfish have resulted in 3-5 less shot attempts per game than one might expect. Ryan Anderson should be averaging 16-20 points per game in this offense and he's at 12.2 right now. He's currently at 42% from 3, highest on the team of those who take more than 1 attempt per game which points to the direction that he should be attempting more 3's.
