How long before McHale starts to realize that he needs to hold players accountable for their shot selection and change the game plan? This jacking up threes early in the shot clock, threes shot by players who are not supposed to be shooting them, this freedom to take em all and hoisting like crazy is NOT CUTTING IT!!! This freedom on offense to do whatever they want will kill us come playoff time. Regardless of wins and losses, the free flow, non-existent strategy remains. Lack of touches for D-Mo, not using D-Mo the right way, Howard not involved in pick and roll, Smith taking threes, D-Mo roaming the perimeter, Ariza taking way too many, Ariza percentage being way down along with others. This all comes down to the same thing! These guys can do whatever they ****ing want and I'm tired of it. What goes on in film sessions I wonder, do they just ignore these things...
This is why most of my criticism when it comes to these things is toward the front office. Morey encourages this type of basketball. Free flowing, jacking 3s, layups, etc. He feels its the most efficient. But the personnel doesn't match his philosophy at this point. You need a real pg in a read and react type offense along with better shooters for it to run at its most efficient. The Rox are not even playing their best shooter right now, Canaan, which I do blame McHale. But McHale is an extension of Morey's flawed philosophy.
Noticing that so much. Guys shooting 3's early that they can jack up at any time rather than looking for a good shot. Guys clearly don't have roles to play. The smart thing to do with 2 post weapons is to establish both of them and play inside and out. Mchale should never have gotten an extension. This team only needs some basic sets as a base then you can give them freedom within those sets. I have heard many times that Hakeem would demand the first 3 possessions be posts ups to size out his opponent, then go into a more diverse offense. We need to consistently establish the post game early. That can open up the 3, open up driving lanes on the pnr so defenders have to avoid giving the hot post guy deep position or an easy lay up. They can play Smith and Dmo at the elbow to open up the baseline and run some horns plays. The team has always needed some structure on that end and a coach to control them and demand they play smart and within the system. If Dmo keeps progressing, Howard and Dmo will become a massive weapon. Force and finesse.
If you followed the team for the last 3-4 years you would notice it isn't knee-jerk at all. It has been an obvious problem along with the defense.
How about we rewind a little bit and make sure you understand the offense before making assumptions about it and trashing it? There's an offense based on principles rather than rules. That's a good thing, that's what been working in the NBA be it the Spurs or Heat. The problem is that the players are not making good decisions. The solution is not to change the offense. The solution is to coach the players and adjust the rotation, and/or make trades. This has certainly not been going on for years. We were one of the best offensive teams in the league last season. That means the offense worked, despite not having an awesomely talented offensive roster.
I've always felt read and react schemes are best for units that have been together a long time or veteran teams. That's why I never really bought into the McHale era philosophy as much as most others. We don't have veterans and we do not have continuity when it comes to the personnel. Sometimes you need to tell the players where to be and when to get there.
I seriously doubt anyone told Josh Smith NOT to take three pointers. First of all, that's our system. You can't pass up open shots. If you're open, you've got to shoot it, or you're not going to be in the game very long. As long as J Smith is shooting shots within the offense, ie threes not long 2s, I don't care if he misses -- okay obviously I care, but it's his job to shoot the shots in the offense, and the 3 ball is a huge part of our offense....the stretch 4 is a huge part of our offense. Dmo isn't a very good 3 pt shooter either, but he has to shoot them when he is open because that's the offense.
Well, we are somewhere between average and veteran. Howard, Smith, Ariza, Terry and Harden have logged a LOT of NBA minutes. Beverley, D-Mo and Brewer are no spring chickens. This is a veteran team. We are just not the oldest. Average age of 26.5, and the youngest players getting the least minutes. We're also trying to win it all this year, so if we're not behaving like a veteran team then what the F are we doing? It's easy to make that last statement. "Sometime you just have to.." but there's literally no reasoning behind it. If you have to tell players what to do, you bench them. That's the mistake here. It would be compounding the problem and setting us back as contenders. Look at teams still running that putrid idea of a structured offense. Honestly it's the saddest thing. Gets even worse when playoffs roll around and teams know each others' structure. No reaction. No reading. Then you have to improvise, and you haven't been improvising all season. What makes way more sense is to throw in some solid plays just before the playoffs to surprise teams a little bit when we get stagnant. To do it now would be really horrible, and I doubt anyone in the organization (even a stubborn old-schooler like McHale) is seriously even considering it. I know it gives a lot of people comfort in familiarity, but those days are just over man. Only works for a couple of weeks till teams scout the plays, and then it's back to stagnation. Doesn't fix the root problem, just covers it up for a bit.
man, to think i thought we were one of the most potent offenses in the league, since back to when we had adelman. thank god some 2013 scrub came in to set me right with his indepth analysis.
Our offense works, it's just we have a combination of really crappy shooters and shooters who are slumping hard.
