The Lakers and Wizards aren't the defensive powerhouses we need to gameplan for. Maybe Amen's cutting and overall finishing is more effective than Jabari's outside shooting, but good defensive teams will be the actual demonstration.
Lol, what a weirdo.... it was frustrating when he was playing like ass, it's a breath of fresh air when he gets hot. Do you ever have a take that is competent and based in reality?
It’s not a non-sequitur. The premise of my post is that spacing is not the end-all be-all. You disagree, which means, in turn, you must believe that a better shooter should start over Amen. Again, noted.
Spacing may or may not be overrated. But using a game against the 6-28 Wizards who has the worst defense in the NBA to make any point about a team offense is definitely... a choice.
God you're stupid. The premise was that spacing is "overrated"... which is something that is a facially absurd statement. Can a player be good enough to overcome the inability to shoot? Yes, it can happen if they are good enough defensively and a tall forward or center.... but that doesn't mean spacing is overrated. There, I spelled out the obvious to you.
I think it's a good question to ask. In short it's not that spacing is overrated - the Warriors just showed us the ceiling of what that can be across an entire decade if you have the type of shooting that can stretch defenses even further than the 22ft 3pt line because then it becomes physically impossible to play effective team defense schemes and still be able to prevent open 3s from 26ft+ from accurate shooters. To speak more to your point though: - defense is underrated - hustling to win loose balls is underrated - limiting TOs is underrated - Offensive rebounds are underrated - having a deep squad of NBA rotational players is underrated (in the regular season at least) Houston is proving that you don't need to be gifted with a good offense or great offensive players to necessarily win games in the association provided you win the TO battle, the hustle stats, the rebounding battle, etc. Ultimately your team performance is the sum of all those things.
The last 12 champions only one has ranked outside the top 8 in 3pt% (the Lakers bubble title), and they are usually in the top 5. No spacing sure as hell is not overrated in todays NBA. Particularly when coaches have a chance to gameplan and adjust over multiple games in the playoffs.
My main takeaway is that the "it's a copycat league" chasers are overrated. Remember in the early 2010s when everyone said the warriors could never win a championship because jump shooting teams don't win championships? And then they said small ball doesn't work because you can't play without a big man? Then the warriors became a dynasty. And then remember when they said Giannis could never win a championship because he didn't have a jumpshot? They can't win unless he can learn how to shoot 3s. And then he won. And then they told us Jokic could never win a championship because he doesn't play defense? Your center has to be your goalie, you can't have a fat unathletic white European as your last line of defense, that type of player will NEVER win a championship. And then he won. Anyway I'm not saying spacing is or isn't overrated, but I think being rigid in your ideas of what "works" is a mistake. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't, but I'll be really interested to see how our offense is impacted by breaking the "rule" that you can't play two non shooters because there's no space. I'm in favor of experimentation.
Spacing is not overrated but not every team will be able to put rosters like Boston or okc. You have to do the best with the skill set of your players and Sengun and amen are very unique players that can let a creative coach try things that wouldn’t make sense elsewhere.
Everything is overrated except finding really smart (Amen, Sengun, Reed) and gifted (Amen, Jalen, Jabari, Cam) basketball players and giving them the tools and schemes necessary to succeed. The NBA game looks like **** right now because everyone thinks that they have a Steph Curry or James Harden on their team and they dont. Kawhi won a title. Giannis won a title. Jokic won a title. The Super Celtic Bros won a title. Entirely different team constructs. We have a 1A talent on the team (Amen Thompson). We need to see if Alperen Sengun (most likely), Jabari Smith (maybe), Jalen Green (ehh), Reed Sheppard (maybe) and Tari Eason (health?) can give him the support necessary.
