Novak is a slow 3 in this league. I said it all season, he should be McGrady's designated backup/minute speller. You give McGrady a blow, you bring in Novak and get him the rock and he shoots it. You run him off multiple screens, make him the focal point of the offense when McGrady is out and get him lots and lots of shot attempts. That's what he is. Think about it. Mcgrady only plays defense really for about 5-9 minutes per game, that is, in crunch time. The rest of the time, he's resting on defense. You take him out, what are you losing? You are losing his offensive punch. You can't bring in Luther Head at 6 foot nothing and expect not to lose offensive momentum. You gotta bring in Novak, run him off screens and let him jack. Novak MAY be the best shooter in the NBA. If not the best, he's definitely in the top 5 shooters in the NBA. If he can't come in the game and get off a shot a minute, or at least run the plays for him, so that the defense has to collapse out and create cutting lanes for us, then he is of no use. NOVAK IS OUR MIKE MILLER! If you give him Mike Miller's looks, run him off multiple screens the way Memphis does Milller, and you actually look for him coming off those screens the way Memphis looks for Miller, you will get Miller's results. It would be so simple to get 10 points in 10 minutes from Novak if we just ran the offense this way when he was in the game and we used him as McGrady's backup. Run the screens, a couple of drained 3 pointers and then when the defense overcommits, he can cut in for the layup or dribble under for the easy 2 point shot. Novak can easily get off 5-6 shots in 10 minutes if we just set them up for him. But you've got to make him the focal point for those 10 minutes, not stand him around on the perimeter as a decoy. And I agree, he is not a 4. But in certain situations, we should be able to play him there against the right matchup. For instance.........Utah. We matched up Scola out there on Okur the whole series. I'm fine with that. But think about this situation if Yao is healthy. You bring in Novak to spell Scola and let him take Okur out there on the perimeter. I'm not saying he's an Okur stopper. He's not. But neither is Scola. But Novak could be adequate out there against a bigger player that faces up at the 3 point line. It's a matchup that defensively may make sense. Then on the other end, you've got Okur defending Yao and Boozer having park his rear outside on Novak. Totally spread the floor, then get some good cutters out there. Not to mention you've got Boozer isolated defensively on Yao if Utah decided to flipflop defensive assignments. Just throw the ball to Yao posting up at the lip and let him collect dunks and fouls on Booz/Okur until they have to take a seat. Sure that isolates Yao on Boozer on the defensive end. But we've got that anyways. That's what we watched all last year and this year when we played them with Yao. The difference is we have a chance to put them in the hole defensively. Novak's potential has to be exploited.
Rick A. was able to make good use of Stoyakovich (sp) and he is no better on defense than Novak. In fact Stoy is still doing it, but now for New Orleans and not Sacramento. He passed around from team to team until he found someone who knew how to use him and Rick already has another Stoyakovich.
Teams do the same thing when Head enters into the game. Anytime he's in as a two, teams post him up. Heck, they make it a point to call out every time Head is in so they can iso him on the low block. Anyone that can shoot like Novak should be able to find 8-10 minutes on the floor. And yes, running a zone or something to protect him is an idea that should be explored. Maybe you can have Rafer and Shane play a man and run a weak zone behind them?!?
I really see steve developing into an all around player like Mike Dunleavy has done, just give Steve like 3-4 years and I really expect him to help his team out in big ways.
LOL. That's taking it a bit too far. Steve will never have the quickness and speed to be able to do what Dunleavy does. He's a shooter and all his offense comes off his shots. He MAY become a VERY LIMITED version of Dunleavy. BTW, just for the record, I would love to acquire Dunleavy. I think he's the ideal fit with 111, great shooter, great finisher, good length that along with McGrady would give teams a lot of hassle on the wing. I'd trade Battier and Novak for him then use my draft pick to take the best available swingman (hopefully Rush).
he does do this. he can really shoottt! i can see him as a backup small forward or maybe power forward playing for like the last 3 minutes of the early quarters. i watched a rockets video from a while ago when we still had scott padgett. padgett's size helped... novak rebounds like a shooting guard..he can't guard shooting guards.. maybe if we don't need him, we can let him play in the nbdl for a bit. but i think having him off the bench as an energy player for a few minutes per quarter is good. if he can improve, especially on defense, then maybe he'll be able to get more minutes. novak can definitely shoot though!
I agree, and I'd like to have plays to set him up for shots...it's likely that opposing teams will figure this out and prevent him from getting shots..but that's only after he's shown that he can really do this. i just like the overall idea of putting in an energetic 2nd team that can produce..landry, novak, head, bobby jackson, brooks etc. Let them hustle and make big plays and add a lot of points while preventing the other team from scoring. we could probably upgrade this 2nd team.
Interesting take on things jopa, and I agree with your proposed useage of Novak. As bad a defender as he is, he can't be worse than guys who never try to play a lick of defense such as Mike Miller or Ricky Davis et al. At least he tries. And if he tries, then something good is bound to happen, however small it is. Here's hoping Adelman tries something new with him.
jopatmc, I agree that if Novak is on the floor, the offense has to be geared for him. I just don't understand why they don't run plays for him. He should be out there shooting. I don't think he is Mike Miller, at least not yet. Miller knows how to get his shot off. Novak is still learning. I hope he can learn. And I disagree that he is no worse than TMac at defense. Yes, TMac doesn't play very hard on defense. But even when he coasts, his speed and athletic ability still makes him light years ahead of Novak. But if Novak matches up with some slower 3s, I'd say put him on the floor and let him shoot. At the end of the day, Novak is just too limited physically (if he doesn't improve on either his strength or his speed) to be a full-time rotation player. At this stage, he is a situational guy at best.
and they would both immediately go post up the moment they saw luther head was guarding them. novak sucks at defense but he sucks less than luther and he's a much better shooter. only coaching mistake of the series (and of the season) for rick adelman.
At this point, hoping Novak develops defensive skills feels like what we went through the last two years hoping Luther Head develops ballhandling skills to compensate for his lack of size at SG. It's a good idea that's worth a try but at some point, you've got to accept that it may not happen and think about a change. I'm sorry but to me, Novak isn't just a below-average defender, he is a defensive weak link. He's gotten slightly better with a bit of playing time, but still in most instances, his poor defense has basically nullified the good he does offensively. I have no problem with him being an end-of-the-bench project for one more season, getting sporadic minutes to sharpshoot with hopes that he develops enough of a defense to become a rotation player. But IMO if we forgo an offensive upgrade with the expectation that he'll play significant minutes for us next season, we're asking for trouble.
Novak is the recreation of Peja, he just needs to train extremely hard on his mobility and strength so that he can play defense better.
That's what Novak needs to do. We already know he can shoot. In order to improve on the other aspects of his game, the dude needs to work on his body.
He's a project... Sure he can shoot but Chuck Hayes can rebound...I'm just not sure that's enough. MULTI-TALENTED players are what we need. Novak will be great if he could learn how to get a rebound or post up or get his own shot or do anything. But wouldn't Chuck Hayes be great if he could shoot, wouldn't Head be great if he could pass, Landry post up? I just don't see it. He is not good. He can get there but he has alot of work to do. Towards the end of the year i noticed he had learned that he could move on the court because before it looked like he was a statue until he caught the ball. If he could learn the triple threat moves that tracy does he would be good. Peja and alot of other tall perimeter players do similar moves. He has to learn that so he can punish teams for putting smaller guys on him.
