His release is quick, the releasing point is high. He will be better than Head behind the arch during playoff time.
I was thinking last game, this is one of the first times Novak actually looked like he knew what was going on with the offense. He was moving with purpose, trying to get free, forcing the defense to move and react. His percentages are eye-popping for a pure jumpshooter: 51% FG%, 49% 3P% It took Kapono a few years to get to where he is, and I have some hope that Novak can be a similar type role player.
It's been obvious to me for a long time now that Novak's position is strictly at the small forward spot. He's a slow small forward. That's it. And I love the guy looking to get off his shot. This is a player that needs to be way more selfish and look to get his shot off, not just off the spot up, but taking the ball and doing something with it. We've seen this step back/over move for the 3, a couple games ago, he upfaked and went underneath for the easy 17 foot swish. Novak has an offensive skillset that needs to be exploited. Granted, it is all plays based off his jump shot, but he does have a more developed offensive game than he has shown so far. I think we are starting to see little pieces of it now. I still think he is ideally suited as McGrady's designated backup to come off the bench and spell McGrady and have the offense focused around getting him the ball and letting him create a little bit with it. That is what he did at Marquette. Their offense was designed to get the ball into his hands off all sorts of picks/screens and then let him either shoot it or make the pass because the defense is doubling and overplaying on him. I think he would be most effective in this role with a second unit that has some spot up shooting, maybe one finisher and a garbage man to clean up his misses-messes. Novak can come off those downscreens like McGrady and get his shot up very, very quickly and at a very high percentage made. I've never seen the Rox do that yet. Once Adelman starts designing plays for him to receive coming off picks, look out. One of these days, Novak is gonna light up some team to the tune of about 35 points on 12 of 16 shooting.
Although Novak is pretty one dimensional player, he's a great shooter and his game stepped up in last few games. I'm not going to say stupid things like this would never happen in JVG system but one's for sure Steve Novak likes more high motion offense. Just remember when T-Mac was saying all those good things about Novak? Well some of them are coming true...
I like Novak. He doesn't look clueless anymore. You know how when you watch a tee ball game and the kids are in the outfield picking flowers? Yeah, he doesn't remind me of that anymore.
Novak at least won 2 games for the Rockets this season. 10 pts vs GS was huge. So is his last shot vs Kings.
Yeah, Peja was already an established player in Europe before joining NBA and much better player than Novak. I think Adelman sees some similarity in shooting prowess, height, etc. of Novak with Peja and try to train to improve the other dimensions of his game.
