With Tmac and Battier sidelined, it's hard to completely visualize what our offense will look like. That said, I think it boils down to Adelman utilizing key pairings/trios to improve flow. Here are my thoughts on this issue: ---------------------------- Tmac/Barry/Battier and Yao: We now have three quality players to make good entry passes to Yao in the low post. Two of the three are elite spot up shooters. Enough said. Tmac/Barry and Landry: Landry looks like he's ready to take a significant step forward with his game. The mid range jumper looks ready. His one dribble move seems controlled and refined. Even without these improvements, I just think about the Tmac/Landry pick and slip. Landry has great feet and slips screens with the best of them. Tmac was so adept at feeding Landry at just the right time, which usually resulted in a dunk or 2 free throws. This combination was lethal during the streak and should be featured. Barry has shown the ability to make this pass also. This is a high percentage play and should be one of our staples. Brooks/Barry but not Tmac: Brooks is going to have to play and will get a chance early in the season. I look for these two to play together. Barry is a coach on the floor, helps Brooks calm down and play his game, and provides a good sport up shooter for the kick out pass. The defensive liability that these two present should be made up for by playing them with Artest and/or Battier. Brooks could run a Phoenix/Nash style offense for 5-7 minutes a night. I think it is important not to pair Brooks with Tmac because Brooks would have to defer to Tmac and that would relegate him to a game manager/spot up shooter, which is not his game. Depending on matchups, I would like to see a lineup of Brooks/Barry/Battier/Artest and Scola or Landry. The Artest question: we've struggled to get him into the flow. My inclination is to use Artest in the low block. I'm not sure who he pairs best with and curiously enough, I think it might be Tmac.
It seems that you haven't commented on the most important trio: Mac, Artest, Yao Who do you think complements them the best? We're going to want our best players out there for as many minutes as we can (according to Adelman), so we're going to see a lot of different line-ups at the start of the season. A great line-up, in my opinion, would be Barry as the PG, Mac at the SG, Artest at SF, Scolandry at PF, and Yao at C. Shooting, power, passing, and interior dominance. Defense could be a little suspect with Barry, but we can always switch battier in and move Mac to the point. Ah so many lineups!
something that i hope to see, AB, landry and dorsey. All is small for their position, but are some of the fastest for their position as well. This could be the "ultimate" small ball as the wings rox will be playing could be taller than the frontcourt pairing. This could be a whole different setup to the big half court set that rox will be playing when yao and tmac is playing. When this small ball could even outrun the running teams. Artest and dorsey. When the tough gets going, its time to let the dogs out.
prescient thread. I already can't help to wait for the beginning of playoff. no doubt, rocket can join the playoff, I hope to be the first in west
I like the pairing: Tmac and DJ. Against teams with elite points guards we can use DJ to try and contain them. And on offense Tmac and DJ would switch positions. We could even get DJ to make alot of hard cuts to tire out the opposing teams points guards, and still have Rafer come in when DJs tired to play good to decent defense on their PG
I agree, in this preseason we have seen little of our big 3 together. Most likely they will joined by Scola and Alston in the starting line up. Barry will get some key minutes, it will interesting who will be at point down the stretch of the fourth quarter in a close game, Barry or Alston?
Best combinations that I have seen on the court in the preseason so far this year... Tmac & Artest Barry & Brooks Landry & Chuck Artest & Yao (you can tell it's still a WIP but there were some really nice passes from Artest to Yao) Trios Landry Chuck and Mike Harris... it was like the bash brothers/triplets, there wasn't a rebound to be found that didn't have one of the three of them geting a hand on it. Aaron, Wafer and Barry ... the passing looked really good when those three were on the court together... plus the three point shooting looked good too. Yao Tmac and Artest I saved the best for last. Those three looked very good and very competitive together on the court against Boston. Yes it was chippy and physical, but beyond that they did seem to have some chemistry between them. Now if they could just get more time together on the court in the preseason I think we will be ready to go.
If we're going to play Brooks/Barry together, I think you should include Shane, Scola and maybe Hayes to the lineup. That way you get a couple guys in the frontcourt that is good at drawing charges. That would mitigate some of the liabilities of Brooks/Barry.
