Donatas Motiejunas & Josh Smith are hereby banished from the three-point line...

Yes you are right to a point. If he gets a wide open look WITHIN the offense you take that 3 all day. He needs to have his feet set and in rhythm.

Taking those 3's within 3-4 seconds into the shot clock while the team is crossing half-court is horrible even if he is open. He is not that good of a shooter to have the green light for that.

 

So how do you expect him to break out of his 3pt shooting slump? Stop shooting all together? It doesn't work like that. If he's afraid to shoot it's not helping his confidence or his shot. Shooters shoot their way out of slumps. I agree he needs to take shots in rhythm without forcing it. But he absolutely needs to shoot wide open shots. Remember when he couldn't miss? He's on the severe down trend from that. I'd wager that he gets back to the mean by the seasons end.

I cringe when I see Ariza out there on the perimeter. He's definitely in his own head regarding his 3pt shot. But it's such a big part of his game and our offense we can't eliminate it entirely.

 

They both should not be shooting the 3. that one of the main reasons i remember not liking Dmo last season is because he would never post up and settle for the side corner long shot. both of them do much better in the paint.

They have a much better chance faking that open 3 and driving to the lane.

 

I know how to fix this.... I'm going to put a wireless shock device in Josh's headband. Every time I see him think about shooting a long 2 or a 3, I'm going to mash down on my wireless shock remote. Just a friendly reminder for him =)

 

This is a flawed thinking. TEAM WOULD NEVER POST DMO UP. You were hating on a player because of how a coach was using him.

 

....I think this has been Houston's problem from the start. There is a philosophy to winning games that Morey has latched on to - take lots of 3s or shots in the paint(and nothing else), get shots up quickly to maximize the number of 3s you take in a game, and run your opponent off the 3 pt line and over the course of the game, it will net you a win. This works in general and seems to be the trend of most teams but I don't think this is a winning strategy necessarily all of the time because situational style of play needs to be factored in and that's why we lost.

You have to play differently in the final 3 minutes up by 5 points and this is where Dmo & Smith's shots KILLED us and I think that was by design for Chicago - they WANTED Dmo and Smith to take those shots - that's why they found themselves in those positions. McHale should have prepared his bigs better to have counters to that which puts them in positions where they could only get the ball closer to the hoop(or at very least nearer to the hoop like a corner 3 rather than at the top of the key). This just seemed like a situation where the players had the game philosophy in their head when they should have been coached to look for better shots in the final few minutes when trying to protect a lead. It doesn't seem like there was any valuable late game guidance McHale gave his team at the end of the game because they fell apart on both ends.

 

I have no problem with Motiejunas shooting from the corners and shooting from the wing every-now-and-then... especially because he doesn't shoot mid-range shots. He's gotta spread the floor some.

But I don't even like Josh Smith taking long 2's much less 3's.