Paging Rick Adelman. Rick Adelman, you're wanted in the Toyota Center on any line. Paging Rick Adelman.
The more I think about why we had Adrien playing in an actual NBA game, the more I realize that we're tanking.
The comments attacking Martin are unfair. He had a very poor offensive game, to be certain, which more than exposes his typical defensive weaknesses. Martin's problems are not going to go away. I say this not because he is emotionally dismissive of the team since the trade attempt. Rather, that Martin is a system scorer who requires a motion offense to be effective and efficient. He is not a spot-up shooter. He has an awkward shot and average handles for a SG. He needs to move off picks, and in that set he is a dynamite SG. In our new iso/inside-out offensive sets, Martin will never be the player he was last season. Terrence Williams and Courtney Lee are much more skilled for that system. The same is true for Budinger. I would not be surprised to see both traded before the season ends.
It was supposed to be an intercom....sheesh. edit: ...but F....I just typed that and realized nobody uses intercoms anymore either. Touche. Touche, my friend.
Okay this "free-flowing" offense is not going to work. We need off-the-ball screens and much more movement. Like it was said earler in here, you need a superstar for all of these isolation plays. Even the teams with superstars, still run alot of screens and picks - Magic, Spurs, Heat etc... What makes Mchale think we can be productive with isolations? Sounds like lazy coaching. I would rather see Kelvin Sampson implement some offensive schemes. His OU teams were fun to watch offensively with all of the screens and picks that were set.
Well, Martin better adjust. For a $10M/yr guy and a guy with ambitions to be an All-Star, he better prove he can score with any system and any coach. McHale and his teammates gave him enough chances.
No you aren't! I liked what I saw of Dalembert at the 5 with the other starters. Also liked TWill when he played in the team concept. Didn't like him bringing the ball up, waving off Drago though.
Actually, this tanking thing is holding more water for me as the insightful comments roll in. Could it be? Did Les actually sign off on "tanking" considering this is a half-assed joke of an NBA season anyway? PLEASE SAY IT IS SO!!! Strong draft. Shortened, dumb lockout season. THIS is the time to tank if we were ever gonna do it. edit: I was impressed with Dalembert tonight as well. More than I even thought I would be. Dude hustled and did his job.
I thought the team looks very rusty. Dalembert, Lowry, T-Williams, and Courney Lee looked great. Kevin Martin looks like he is playing in his first preseason game. I think he will be fine once he get into playing NBA minutes in the first few games. Good Effort but need to improve Defensive rotations, looks very slow. Go Rockets!!
well we kept it close until the 4th (sounds familiar?) we were expected to lose this game, and orlando was hitting their shots. especially turg and reddick, there was no answer for dwight. although i am pleased with jhill, he surprised me and dalembert looked good also. delembert was definitely a good pickup. as others have said, it seems the offensive flow we left off with last season was not there tonight. it looks like that lack of summer camp really took a toll on us. i think this will take time to improve, new players are in the rotations and some of our young guys have more pressure on them with there increase in minutes. guys like jhill, twill, morris and dalembert need to learn the offense better. in regards to our players performance- lowry and scola are ballers. jhill has shown significant improvement in the post, dalembert looked good for his first game and will most likely improve. martin and bud... well. martin has been in a shooting slump, and i expect him to get back into it. no knee jerk reaction with martin, the guy can shoot lights out and has the numbers to back it up. the main liability with him is, that if he is not hitting his shots than thats 2 major hits- 1. hes receiving the ball and missing- while the other team gets the rebound and possibly scores on the other end & 2. he is a defensive liability, which makes him **** when hes missing all in all. so martin was a big factor in this games loss, but give him time he will start hitting his shots again. bud, is pretty much similar, neither players really create for other players and dont make many assists. dragic- meh, i thought he should have been more aggressive in general he could have done more. clee did good, hes getting better and more under control hes taking his time. twill, well with him it was a give and take and i think he got a lot of luck with some of the shots he missed because there just so happened to be players around to pick up the scraps. EX: that miss that resulted in a quick tip in by scola. what im getting at is, that hes still playing a bit risky at times and was lucky enough to have players clean up lost plays tonight. i thought he did a really good job sparking the offense, and successfully taking advantage of easy shots. but again he could be smarter at creating for his team mates. i think he was right when he said he was more of a PG, i think he is. hes got the vision and passing abilities AND he can slash. but i think with him is he needs more playing time BUT he needs to be more selfless. he is really good at attacking a and getting team mates involved without throwing out many assists. sounds kinda like a wafer, which could be bad or good. but he is improving, he just cant get too cocky he looked really good playing under control and you can tell he wasnt stressing himself and shots just opened up for him.
