I think a some readers are taking what Van Gundy is asking wrong. It's not so much about taking 7 or 8 more shots a game as it is about not passing up open shots just to get the ball to Yao or Tracy when their shot selection may not be as good as Shane's. He has given Shane the green light to shoot when he is open and expects him to do it. The point is that if Shane takes and hits his open shots then it will force his defender to guard him much more closely which will give both Yao and T-Mac more room to work with one less defender on them. That is much better than just being able to pass it to them when they are double teamed. BTW, I loved the part in the article where Coach K called Shane every day to ask him if he could see himself as a 20 point scorer and every time Shane failed to answer correctly Coach K hung up on him.
In Memphis,they were trying to get a franchise off the ground and develop young players.The Grizzlies didn't possess anything resembling the talent,experience,or depth we have.Combine that with Shane being SUCH a team guy and you have that true pro,who is a diamond,but with some untapped "upside" offensively.Yes,Battier will still do his dirty work,but he'll put up slightly bigger numbers tour offensive and defensive schemes are taylor made for Shane.......and of course the real numbers we care about are wins...Get ready.
what in the preseason so far makes you think battier will put up bigger numbers than his career. unlike v-span who I unfairly criticized after two games, this guy has been in the league for a while now. especially rebounding, how is he gonna be a more effective rebounder. battier has come to a team with more superstar presence than he ever played with in memphis. he's gonna probably get even less shots, and jvg has shown an affinity for hayes, who is gonna get a lot of minutes it seems.
He's going to get WIDE OPEN shots 24 -7,playing off Yao,TMac,and Bonzi. Wait until this team is together............
Novak. This year. Before that TMac and Yao. I am also one that was estimating that Shane would give us 15 to 16 a game before we acquired Bonzi and Snyder. I kinda wondered after we got Bonzi whether or not Shane would get enough shots to become that scorer. I still wonder if more like 11 to 12 ppg is what we will see from him if Bonzi and Novak come along. And I am a little concerned with Shane's shooting. He is such a great fundamental player that I wonder if the reason for his shooting percentage being so good is he simply doesn't take any questionnable shots and only takes those shots were he can plant his feet and fire it without the defender even flying at him. So, I'm a little bit concerned that Shane may not be the pure shooter that JVG thinks he is and as a result he takes more shots and his percentages from deep go down to the mid 30's. I hope not. JVG sees them everyday in practice, so he has to know more about these guys than we do. It's just the whole idea behind becoming a highly efficient offensive unit is you have to maintain right at a 40% percentage from the 3 point line. If we can maintain that percentage without passing up shots, then we are really set because the defense has to scramble so much to even slow us down that it opens up the whole floor for 111. I've seen enough this preseason to feel that Novak should be getting at the very minimum 6 looks a game, and maybe even as many as 10 on some nights. He is just absolutely astoundingly efficient offensively. And we all know how efficient Bonzi's game is. I'd rather keep that efficiency going even if it meant Battier skips a few shots. That is unless these next couple preseason games, Battier fires them up every time he is open and hits at around a 40% clip. To me, if I was coaching these guys, with as many shooters as we have on this team, if a guy fell below 38% from the 3 point land, I would start curbing his minutes and shots and start examining his shot selection and mechanics and in the meantime, I'd give more looks to another shooter (Novak). I just worry a little bit about Shane's efficiency going down with a higher volume of shots. Of course, it worked will at Duke. But this is the NBA.
the whole point of surrounding shooters around yao/mac is to for them to SHOOT THE BALL! i mean even in street ball..you always leave that 1 guy open who you know won't make anything..and then he starts making 3s. then everyone is like hey who the crap is guarding him?
You said NEVER? How do you know? Vspan has potential, high bball iq, and quickness. You can't deny that much from watching the last 3 preseason games. He's still very young and under a good NBA coach like JVG, he'll quickly learn how to control the ball and commit less turnovers. Look at manu, he was turnover prone when he first came over and look how well he learned the ropes of the NBA.
Hehe... I was thinking Ryan Bowen. Anyway, I don't think Van Gundy really cares about who takes how many shots... he just wants guys who can make these shots to take them.
Thank you. Thank you. Battier averaging 15 points a game with TWO superstars is virtually impossible. That's just the way it is. After the first 10-15 games, this will be obvious. At the same time, I completely agree with JVG here. Battier MUST make PFs pay the price for slacking off of him or he is a liability on offense, pure and simple. All he does is post up smaller players and shoot jumpshots and we need him to be aggressive doing both, especially jumpshooting. jopatmc, you bring up good points. IMO, his shooting % will not suffer even if he somehow gets off more shots because his shots will be wide open. Shane can still afford to be somewhat selective but he's got to pull the trigger when unguarded, which will happen quite a bit. All of our role players must have the mentality to take good shots whenever they have them so defenses will be forced to adjust.
I think they ought to try Novak as the starting 4 or at least give him as many minutes as Battier. If Novak can score 15 PPG and bring defenders out to the perimeter away from Yao then his shooting strength may negate his weaknesses. One thing I like about Vspan that I don't think anyone has given him credit for is his high bball IQ. He plays within himself and makes smart plays when he is on the floor, he knows his strengths are passing, driving to the basket and defensive intensity and that's what he tries to do when he is on the floor. He doesn't take too many outside shots for the same reason, knows that shooting isn't his strength, so he doesn't jack up a lot of low percentage shots.
i think it is funny to read that article while imagining Battier as a politician after retiring. Battier: [phone rings] Carl Rove: "Can you picture yourself as the next president." Battier: hemm haw CR: [click] Battier: [phone rings] Carl Rove: "Can you picture yourself as the next president." Battier: hemm haw CR: [click] . . . Battier: [phone rings] Carl Rove: "Can you picture yourself as the next president." Battier: Yes. I'm the MAN now DAWG! CR: cool. Now we're going to need you to Shoot much more! Battier: What do you mean shoot more. CR: [click]
Good point. I think it also goes back to quicker offensive possessions too. Battier isn't going to take bad shots, so if he's open he needs to shoot. I don't know if JVG's ever wanted a fewer possession game, but his teams have tended to bear out that criticism. And the trouble with that is you get a team that is not used to playing quickly offensively you have more difficulty coming back late in games when seconds are precious. But to me it's still not going to matter if the opposing team gets more possessions than in previous years because a JVG squad is going to hold teams to a near top-of-the-league low shooting percentage. That alone should favor us if we have even a middle-of-the-pack offensive team in terms of efficiency. I think anyone who's open should take the shot (excepting pgs before they start the offense). JVG can always rein in whoever he wants to, but a fluid offense should benefit everyone. And I believe that suits Yao's game more than we realize.
