That holds true when playing a 3 or 4 guard lineup. If that lineup isn't hitting shots then they'll be giving up too many shots.
That's any line-up. It's a make or miss league. But the times when a four small line-up won't be hitting shots will be far less than any other line-up. By the way, when I say four smalls I'm including SFs as smalls in that context. On our team you can look at 4 guards IF Harden is willing to get his big butt down and defend 4's, which I happen to think he does a magnificent job when he plays the defensive 4. In that case, just like with Ariza at the defensive 4, you can then put three other guards around him. So the only "4 guard line-up" I would consider on this roster would be with Harden essentially defending the 4 with the other three guards handling 1-3. But......that is the lineup that I do want to see more experimentation with. Because I believe we would have a huge net rating with it provides Harden was willing to d up on opposing 4's. It's not just this season. Harden dropped to the four in the playoffs I think it was against Portland and maybe some last year too. Can't remember. But I do remember he was very good defensively fronting those 4's and then when they attempted to play him up he was solid as a rock and forced bad shots and inefficiency. I am convinced Harden at the 4 is a secret weapon that we could pull on teams like the Warriors and possibly beat them with it. He'd destroy Draymond offensively and I think he'd beat Draymond defensively. It would force Draymond to the 5 and if we countered by downsizing again with 5 smalls and letting Harden still take Draymond defensively then the Dubs would be at checkmate. They would have no more counter moves left.
More so when you have a lineup featuring offensively oriented players. Harden can guard 4's in spurts, he did against Portland like you said and he did it against Blake Griffin as well. You'd have to quantify Harden's defense at the 4 because I would describe it "he can hold it down in spurts". Harden won't beat Draymond defensively, that guy is an elite defender who can guard multiple positions (especially the 5). Durant has also became pretty good defensively who can guard multiple positions with his length so his health will be a bigger factor than tinkering with our lineups.
Wait a minute. Are you saying Harden can't defend Draymond or are you saying Harden can't beat Draymond's defense with his offense or are you saying both?
We need anderson, noone has the balls like him to shoot anywhere on the court. These wanna be 3 point shooters are just lame. We so need anderson back.
Ummm NOPE. Re-watch the Rockets win @ Golden State and you'll see why we NEED Anderson. He's probably the best floor-stretching player in the entire league because of where he spots up to shoot threes. We literally needed 3 more threes to go in to beat the Warriors tonight. You need a good Anderson to beat them in the playoffs.
We obviously need Ryno. But remember the Warriors had one of their two best players missing tonight as well. Our problem tonight wasn't missing Anderson. He would have been covered as tight as everybody else was. He's not giving us us some magical playmaking that Ariza couldn't give us. Sure he's a better shooter. But you know what he shoots when he's covered tight? The answer is he doesn't. He gets rid of the ball. This is what I have been saying for months and what I just told you today. In the playoffs teams like the Spurs and Warriors are going to take away the three ball. They're going to play tight. That means we have to either force the three, or we gotta get it back to Harden, or we gotta dribble drive. The origin we had tonight is there is nobody else on this roster that is a great playmaker for others besides Harden. He was fined a little, they covered the shooters, we had nothing else to go to. Anderson isn't going to help in that scenario. He can't create off the dribble and dipsy doodle to the rim, collapsing the defense and either finish or dish. He can't. Ariza can't. Lou can't. Gordon can't. And Bev can't. We need another great playmaker that we ain't got. Anderson ain't him. Sorry.
don't try to justify what you said by saying " covered tight" Ryno could hit a 3 anytime and he always surpised us with needed 3s whenever he has a bad game or 2. He also stretches the floor better than Ariza and its like they covered everybody "tight" like you're claiming, we missed wide open threes, Lou and Ariza missed about 3 open threes each when unguarded.
We need to replace Ariza with a Gordon Hayward or Paul George. That's really what it comes down to. They can be that secondary playmaker that we need. I'm praying for Paul George even tho we'd have to wait until next summer when he's a free agent. He can create a little bit plus provide that defense that Ariza brings. He's also a better volume 3 point shooter than Ariza. He's basically a star version of Ariza who can also create his own shot. That is exactly what we need in order to become a true contender and not just a team that can hopefully give the actual contenders a tough series.
