Silver lining - Novak

If he can become an adequate defender, he'd be a real asset off the bench. I'm just not sure he has it in him.

At the very least, I hope his hot shooting last night raised his value in the trade market.

 

I agree!!

and he wasnt just standing around waiting to be left open

he was actually cutting and shooting on the move

great game for novak

 

Anybody is better than Luther Head.

Novak is one of the league's best shooters, but is also maybe one of the worst defenders. If he can learn some defence in the summer, then he will be a major player in our system. However, if he cant, then he will be limited to garbage minutes, or when we are ahead by double digits and Tmac needs some rest and we want to consolidate our lead.

 

I am not too convinced about his offense, his defense is putrid but he seems to me to be just wandering around the 3 point line. If the defense pays any attention to him he is basically neutralised. Even coming off one screen, he doesn't have the speed to really get much of an opening.

I would actually like to see him fake and step in for mid-range shot, i noticed that okur is a lot more effective now that he has added that to his repetoire, scola/BJ was constantly getting faked out and fouling okur when he added that this year. and basically novak is a shorter okur.

 

he gets bullied by players that are skinny. i hope he can add some more weight without screwing up his shots... if that's possible.

 

i wouldn't say he is MORE valuable than luther, yet. however, he is showing more potential.

he no longer looks like dan langhi (great shooter in practice, can't hit anything in game).

this guy will score the ball. it's time for rick to pull out all of those motion plays he used to get peja open. start steve with 6 minutes a game every game, and run at least 3 plays for him so he can get in a good rythm.

if he's scoring, it negates his bad defense.

 

Now Novak has the whole summer to work on his defense. He doesn't have to be a great defender, he just needs to show he can get minutes and he can play D.

And If that happend I'm all for him being a part of next year's rotation

 

Defence is not something that you'll need to constantly working on, it's common to good defenders picking up shooting game after few summers, but how often do we see shooter becoming a solid defender?

 

You're kidding right? If you want to become a better defender, you HAVE to work hard on it. Just like if you want to improve your shooting or ball handling. Novak doesn't have to be a lock down defender, but he has to start playing better D if he wants to get on court and shoot jumpers. I see him nothing more than a specialty player, at best, a role player. He's too slow to guard SFs and too weak to guard PFs.

 

All he needs to work on is dribble fake and shoot. Matt Bullard wasn't anything on defense but we all know how valuable he was to those Rockets teams.

 

If he can make that pick and pop a regular part of his game, and just get in the way on defense, i think he can REPLACE luther.

 

novak is very smart on team-defense. he just doesn't have the physical tools to guard anyone. the difference being that he knows how to play defense, he just needs to get faster.

so rather than working completely on 'defense' why not work on speed?

if novak worked all summer on becoming a faster runner, with quicker lateral movement, he would make faster close-outs, stay in front of more people... and on offense he could really get open running around screens.

speed alone will increase his game on both ends.

 

He has shown some promise.We need to keep him.

 

If he can learn to do any kind of defense we could use Novak.

Imagine if Novak was good enough to hold himself against Korver defensively. He would have ate him up offensively as I think he can be better than Korver. Heck, few people could be worse than Head defensively, getting schooled by Korver like that.

 

He's a good shooter, and he showed it in garbage time in the 4th. That's nothing new. He needs to make huge strides in the offseason on the rest of his game, though.

 

Agree
Those three shots he made me a beleiver
This guy at the very worse . . could be Kyle Korver
If Korver can find time on the court. .. so could Novak

Rocket River

 

Uhm, it's easy to say just work on your defense, work on your speed, but people have been saying this for the last 2 years... and he still can't really get on the court.

Don't you think he has been working on this aspect of his game ever since entering the league? Everyone including him and the coaching staff knows he needs to become a better defender and more athletic or stronger.

Even Kyle Korver seems to be a great deal more athletic than Novak.

I just don't understand how he's supposedly going to take this big jump in athletecism from his 2nd to his 3rd year. It ain't happening. The only way for NOvak to get some playing time is if we have an awesome defensive scheme to cover up his weaknesses.

 

His added length seemed to be deterring Korver last night. I didn't see Steve giving away the farm.

Luther' vertical leap is good, but he never seems to use it. Horrible passing skills.

Novak Adding the step aside and in like Okur is a good idea. There were so many simple moves the Jazz did on offense that we do not have in our repertoire, the team should watch Jazz film all summer - trailers following Tmac in, cutters coming in on either side after Tmac goes to the rim, for a pass or a rebound.

Hopefully RA will be sending out tapes and notebooks on his motion offense next week.

Maybe Novak should spend the summer with John Lucas Sr. and learn to play more like a 6-10 guard.

 

Please keep my boy Novak