Well, last yaer many people complained about selfish play of SF and Cat. Peopl kept saying that Rox needed more assists and less turnovers. Now Cat and Sf have gone. With Ward, Sura, and T-mac on backcourt, is this team going to be a team that many people have wanted?
Lets looks at our passing ability, but position. Center - Yao is a creative and willing passer, but too often he gets careless and tries to force a pass into a crowd. He should get better with time. Power Forward - Howard is a very underrated passer. Very savvy interior passer, Chris Webber lite, IMO. Maurice is a black hole when he's in the low post area, but has shown a willingness to get Yao the ball when he's in the high post. Small Forward - JJ's unselfish and always looks to get Yao the ball in the post. He's not a great passer, but he's adequate. Boki has good length and vision, and does a nice job of delivering the ball to the low post. Shooting Guard - With T-Mac's passing and ball-handling ability, there will be times when he plays the point and Ward and Lue are playing the role of the 2 on offense. He could average the same number of assists as Francis, with a minimum of turnovers. Pike, if he stays, can be very crafty with the ball, but at times gets out of control and is maddeningly careless. Point Guard - I'll say it right now; we have the worst passing PGs in the league. That said, it shouldn't be too much of a concern. Whoever mans the point isn't being asked to do what Stevie did. Really, he'll play more like Mobley; get the ball to the post, help out with ballhandling responsibility, and spot up for jumpers out of double teams. As long as the PGs take care of the ball, we'll be fine. We won't be a flashy passing team like Sacramento, but we'll be solid and with fewer turnovers there will be more possessions. So, while we won't be a remarkably better passing team than before, the offense should be improved simply because of fewer turnovers.
I don't think we'll improve so much on assists, but the turnovers will go down. Yao averaged 1.5 assists last year, but that should improve with the way our team is shaped now. More scorers, especially for the 15-ft jumper and we'll have some good 3-pt shooting from our P as well now. I say Yao gets 2 T-Mac gets 5.5 PG's will combine for 8.5 JJ will get 3 Mo and Juwan will combine for 3 That's 22 assists right there excluding Boki, Spoom and our backup C. Also excluding minutes that Sura would get backing up other positions. Last year we were at 19.3. Assuming our whole team averages around 23 assists, that's good enough for sixth best in the league last year. In fact, the WOlves averaged 23.1 assists last year.
I think one aspect that will improve will be out fast break. Hell all we needed to do is add McGrady and get rid of SF for a better fast break (he can pretty much do it all by himself). Considering we almost never passed on the fast break, and when we did they were careless... I think with better fast breaks it will raise our assists numbers; which will decrease the need for forced passes/shots that could result in turnovers.
Tracy McGrady is not Magic Johnson the creator, he's Dominique Wilkins the finisher, now all he needs is someone to pass him the ball on a fast break. Is Sura the best guy for the job? Lue? Ward? None are known for it so we won't have a fast break to brag about.
Yes, I'm definitely excited about this team...especially the fact that we'll be playing smarter. Our defense was fairly strong in the playoffs, but we can't win many games with 30 turnovers!
T-Mac is a great passer. He had 5.5 assists in Orlando. Freaking Orlando. There is no one worth while to pass to on the entire team, except T-Mac and maybe Howard. Kobe had 5.1 assists and he had the most dominant player in the NBA to pass to and Karla, and Gary, although i would pass to them. His assists are excelent for a SG. P.S. Jumpman is right T-mac is no Magic, and thats because he got traded form the Magic to Rockets.
We should be a good fast breaking team. Lue likes the push the ball every chance he gets. Sura and Mcgrady are both great at starting and finishing breaks. A lineup with Howard, Mcgrady, Sura, and Lue on the floor will run a lot. Offensively, I think this team was set as soon as the Orlando trade happened. We add the 3 players primarily responsible for a very good offensive team in Orlando and to a team that already has Yao, JJ, and Taylor. I was more worried about the defensive end, since that is where Orlando stunk. Now with the addition of Sura, Ward, and hopefully Mutombo, we'll be set on the defensive end as well.
Sura ran it quite well in Atlanta last season. I saw a number of games. He pushed the ball up court on the break. I cant say much for Ward in this area but Sura pushes the ball.
I agree, he's our best chance at a decent fast break, I mean Lue can push the ball but he's not a good passer, and Ward, meh.
