It is a guard's oriented league and I know this is going to make some people angry, but this offense is still too Yao oriented and not guard friendly enough. There are simply too many plays run where it's basically Yao in the paint and 4 perimeter guys standing and watching him. I know Van Gundy loves the inside-out offense, but it's just not working for us. Instead of worrying so much about establishing Yao inside and getting Yao off to a good start, he needs to worry more about getting our guards of to a good start each game. We need more plays run that involve Alston and Head creating instead of just watching Yao and Mcgrady create everything. They need more freedom. At this point, establishing our guards is more important to this team's success than getting Yao off to a good start. Yao and Mcgrady are going to get their regardless. It's the role players that need the extra help to get going. This doesn't mean I think these guards are going to take us to the promised land, but they can't possibly as bad as they have looked these first several game.
I don't see this defense that we are playing right now. Maybe on occasions, but we have too many 4th quarters like in San Antonio, where we play great defense when the other team has basically let up. Making the scores look respectable. And boy, i'ts nice to talk about defense, but when you can't score, you don't win. The most important stat to look at now is point differential where we are being outscored by opponents by 2 pts.
Have you seen our guards penetrate? Maybe it's just the plays, but when Rafer/DA/Wesley tries to drive, I cringe. More often than not they just turn it over, charge, or just run into traffic to just have to throw a bail out pass or run back out again.
nods, the only guy the Rox had who penetrated on a regular basis was Mike James and well you know hwere he is.
It's hard to penetrate when you have a big 7'6 guy surrounded by 3 defenders clogging up the lane. Move Yao further out, open up that paint area, and it won't be so difficult for the guards to attack the basket more. You don't see Duncan in the paint every single time down the court. That's why Ginobilli and Parker are able to get to the basket without running into 3 players. The lane is always open.
It was 2 of them back to back, the 2nd was a little different but it worked. Then it never happened again for the night.
Yao is not always in the paint first of all. Often he is setting picks for our guards which means he is on the perimeter when our guards need to penetrate. Secondly if Yao is in the paint and 2-3 guys are around him then it is the job of our guards to earn their money and shoot. But I do agree that we should move out Yao from the paint some time to open up more penetration but I'm not sure doing that will allow our guard to score. Even when Yao is not on the floor which is a good 15 minutes every night usually, our guards can't penetrate and surely there are not 3 players guarding Deke/Stromile.
Hillboy, I agree with your post, but we traded 2 of the 3 positions to get Tracy. Our PG, and SG were sent to Orlando, and the PF has been in trouble since before Barkely retired and we set it back another 10 years when we gave 3 for 1 in the draft. We had a PG, SG, but we gave them up for one the best players in the league and happy about that, but this PF spot has been hurting us for MANY years.
That is my thinking as well. It's a long season. It's a marthathon right? so why does everyone want to sprint. that's what I don't understand. why is everyone sprinting? counting preseason, we're 10-2 with a healthy Mcgrady.
I've watched most of the games this season. Head is the only guard with energy, quickness and the willingness to do whatever to get to loose balls. Thank God we drafted him! I think Rafer and Anderson are a huge disappointment, and Swift just seems "Slow". Let's hope they just need more time to learn JVG's system or it will be a very ugly year.
Our guards really do suck. I hate to say it but on this road trip, I think Alston and Anderson seem to combine for sub 30% shooting. That just ain't going to do it. To not have Mike James at this juncture really hurts. MJ had attitude, a great drive, and a shooting % more respectable than our two guards combined. At this juncture in time, I'd say the best situation is to hope for Sura's early return and/or JVG's realization that a shuffle in the rotation is much needed. Specifically... My vote is to: 1. Move Anderson to the bench. 2. Move McGrady to shooting guard. 3. Start Juwon alongside Stromile as our two forwards. 4. Play Yao early in the third but deep in the fourth. What do you guys think? theSAGE
Howard and Sto as two forwards might not be a good idea. We need long range shooters to create space for Tmac and Yao. Howard and Sto are not.
Swift could not guard Raef shooting the 3 ball. How is he gonna keep up with quicker, faster small forward?
See this is where I think JVG needs to just play the hand dealt to him the Wish: to surround Yao with great perimeter shooteres the Reality: we don't have them on this team Instead, we have (and I hate to say it, a mish-mash of average role players at best excluding T-Mac). Notice how JVG keeps nagging on effort? For average players, you need to effort to compensate for average talent. With the Knicks, JVG did NOT have the most talented players. Yet they all played with great EFFORT. With this squad, there has to be more "dirty work" being done. Low scoring high intensity defensive games - to compensate for their offensive shortcomings. THIS, IMHO, SHOULD BE THEIR IDENTITY!!!! theSAGE
I didn't know much about Alston or Anderson, so my expectations were much higher. I didn't like the James trade, but I really don't like it now. May have been a good "business" deal, but, on the court, it sucks. All the preseason hype about our "greatest offseason of all time" set me up for disappointment. This team appears to be "less" talented than last year. What's worse is our main competitors have taken off "like a rocket." Why is it ONLY the Rocket's that need months to "adjust?" That just doesn't make sense to me. There are teams with as many or more changes that the Rockets that fired out of the gate. What is off season for? What is preseason for?
