We have no player on this team that we can throw the ball to that will be a mismatch and can either take his man from anywhere on the floor or will force a double team and get his mates wide open layups and jumpers. dobro brought this up another thread about Martin's problems. But I'm talking on a larger scale. Even going back to last year with Chuck Hayes. Hayes provided us very good high post offense with his passing ability and then using the dribble to keep his defender honest. But Hayes couldn't pull up and shoot the J to go along with it. We have NO ONE on this team that can't be shut down one-on-one. And we are playing one of the most boring brands of basketball I have seen in a while. I almost fell asleep in the 4th quarter last night, had to flip over to the Knicks game and watch Lin knock down a game-winner, one-on-one, from the top, to wake back up enough to endure the boring, predictable finish to last night's unthriller. All we got right now is guys scrambling around with the dribble trying to create their own shot off a screen. It's unwatchable, boring, and sleep-inducing. When you look at Scola, he's probably the closest thing we got to a go-to player. Unfortunately when he drops into the low post, he has been totally negated by the opponent using their center to defend him, not go for any fakes, just stand there and block the shot while still on their feet. Scola, at his best, is a secondary go-to guy on a good team, a guy you go to when the opponent is trying to shut down the go-to guy and overplaying the go-to guy. Martin......we already know, dude has to run off screens and cut to get his. You can't throw him the ball and expect him to dribble it and create his shot against the defense if need be. He simply can't do it. When he tries, his efficiency goes in the toilet. He's gotta have help scoring the ball. Lowry.....at his best he's gonna break down and his shooting percentages are going to go in the toilet. He can create a shot, that's for sure. But when he has to create and the defense is bunched up on him, he can still get it off but once again, just like Martin, it's not efficient. Looking at the defensive schemes being used against us, it seems to be going this way. Play off Lowry and Martin slightly on the perimeter with Parson's man cheating on him and not worried about Parson catching and shooting or driving or dunking or doing whatever Parson does. Everybody cheats off Parsons to provide help on Lowry/Martin and sagging in on Scola's side. Lowry comes down, defense bunches in front of him from both sides, he passes the ball to Martin on the perimeter, defense drops over to Martin, he passes to Parsons and Parsons dribble drives for the slam or shoots the wide open J. It's funny how many of these games, Parsons looks like he's red-hot for the first 4 minutes of the game, then the rest of the time, he's a total non-factor on offense. When they throw the ball to Scola, in the block, Dally is on the low block on the other side. If he comes out high, the defense ignores him. They'd love to funnel the ball to Dally and let him take all the 17 footers he wants all night long. Scola knows this, knows it's a bad play, knows if he throws it to Dally out high, he's gonna take that J, so Scola tries to operate against a pseudo double with the defense collapsing on him even more when he starts the dribble. So, then the next best option is to drop Dally down low and bring Scola up high. That's our best set. So, what are Luis' choices. Well, that's why he's shooting so many 17 footers. He's not gonna throw it in the post to Dally. Dally's not being asked to get out of the post to provide space for Martin to cut because if Dally went out to the far baseline, his defender is still going to cheat off him to cover the cutters. Scola has 2 choices...shoot the J or fire it back to the perimeter. My premise: If it were possible to plop Pau Gasol into the high post without losing any of our other players, Lowry, Martin, Scola...I say Pau could single-handedly turn this team into a top 4 team in the West. Not championship capable. We'd be knocked out in the 2nd round or the WC Finals. But a lot better than we are now. With the opportunity to make some trades or groom our youngsters to get better. In lieu of not having a go-to player we should be: Giving Marcus Morris rotation minutes to see what he could develop in to on the perimeter. We have no other player that can possibly be the go-to type player that is capable of getting his all the time. Morris may not be that guy either on the perimeter. But he's got a size mismatch at the SF and he's got a big time jump shot. The possibility is there. But we aren't even looking at it right now. We're just peddling along in mediocrity. This is why I say we are a lottery team treading water. No go-to guy and not developing one.
Nice assessment! I too turned it off in the fourth quarter. Painful to watch. Almost looked like Martin was afraid to shoot as he dribbled out of several shots in the third quarter he would most definitely normally take and passed off to other guys to try to beat the clock. When your goto guy doesn't want to be gone to the offense is going to suck!!
Great post. My two cents is that it would help a TON if Parson's could hit an outside shot to save his life. If the defenders would have to respect his outside shot, it opens up a lot more options for us in the post. Unfortunately I do not think we'll get a go to player any time soon. Unless we get extremely lucky in the draft. No superstar player wants to play for this team.
We need to draft one. We also need to build a better core in our youth, Morris needs NBA min, Patterson needs to get more limber in the post and we need a center damn it.
I would rather see Parsons be a brick layer than pass out of all the open looks he gets. Maybe we should free twill. Jk.
I really loved this comment, jopatmc: Looking at the defensive schemes being used against us, it seems to be going this way. Play off Lowry and Martin slightly on the perimeter with Parson's man cheating on him and not worried about Parson catching and shooting or driving or dunking or doing whatever Parson does. Everybody cheats off Parsons to provide help on Lowry/Martin and sagging in on Scola's side. Lowry comes down, defense bunches in front of him from both sides, he passes the ball to Martin on the perimeter, defense drops over to Martin, he passes to Parsons and Parsons dribble drives for the slam or shoots the wide open J. It's funny how many of these games, Parsons looks like he's red-hot for the first 4 minutes of the game, then the rest of the time, he's a total non-factor on offense. When they throw the ball to Scola, in the block, Dally is on the low block on the other side. If he comes out high, the defense ignores him. They'd love to funnel the ball to Dally and let him take all the 17 footers he wants all night long. Scola knows this, knows it's a bad play, knows if he throws it to Dally out high, he's gonna take that J, so Scola tries to operate against a pseudo double with the defense collapsing on him even more when he starts the dribble. So, then the next best option is to drop Dally down low and bring Scola up high. That's our best set. So, what are Luis' choices. Well, that's why he's shooting so many 17 footers. He's not gonna throw it in the post to Dally. Dally's not being asked to get out of the post to provide space for Martin to cut because if Dally went out to the far baseline, his defender is still going to cheat off him to cover the cutters. Scola has 2 choices...shoot the J or fire it back to the perimeter. It's been frustrating to watch. Nice insight.
Great insights in this thread. My only concern that a great many posters here think M-Mo will be the go-to guy. Unfortunately, he is not that good -- perhaps he will evolve into a decent role player but not a primo scorer. If Bud had a more selfish outlook, he would never have to worry about being beaten out by Morris.
I just want Morris to get as much rope as Bud has gotten and see what happens. Morris must have pissed off the wrong person because he can't be worse than Bud defensively. And hell if he isn't 3 play him at the 4. You gotta see what you're lottery pick can do.
Wish we had a guy who could take his man one on one in the last 10 seconds of a game and hit a game winning three.
the guy hits one game winner and all of a sudden hes the next jordan... give me a break... he has done very good and its a touching story, but he isnt a rocket anymore , who gives a ****... lowry has made game winners more than once this season, yet(yes im playing the race card) because he is asian the media is annointing him the next tebow, or the next great pg... he lucked into a good situation with no type of supporting cast with the stars out... the truth is he wouldnt break anything more than a 5mpg avg for our team... we have better pointgaurds... yet we dont have a goto guy at the end of the game everynight... we have lowry, and when its clutch time i see him make some freaking ridiculously tough shots, even if he is having a bad night... and if you honestly dont think lowry could make the shot lin did, here you go... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slsDLTb4iVQ yeah its three minutes instead of 3 seconds... same concept and is still clutch... and if you look it is the same exact play... lowry called for isolation and nailed the three as shot clock expired...
Spoiler Cleverly disguised trade peanuts for Pau and finally free T-Will to another squad to make room for Morris thread! No but seriously, great points and analysis. Obviously we're missing a focal point in the offense that would be the "man" on this team. We're working on it and hopefully the patience will pay off sooner rather than later.
Greg smith is still in the d league. I'm officially on the get James harden in the offseason bandwagon cause we ain't getting Howard.
