I think we get maybe tonight with the Twin Towers, but wouldn't be shocked at all if this is the last game tonight with this starting lineup if they get off to yet another bad start. Any smart basketball person would be able to tell you that it wasn't likely to work well at all, but you had to at least try it because of the potential you have in stretches. I give it one more game MAX if not tonight.
It has been tried with other teams. The Knicks were a .500 team with Carmelo Anthony/Amare Stoudamire/Tyson Chandler. Then they were the #2 team in the East last year with Carmelo at power forward. This year, they put Bargnani at power forward and they look like a scrubby team again.
Putting Bargnani at PF is hardly going twin towers, but i catch your drift. Its much more difficult than just saying X Center can guard Y PF one-on-one. In the team defensive schemes the way you have to have one of your bigs move around and rotate, its extremely ineffective to have two centers clogging up the paint. On offense, its a whole other set of spacing issues.
You could be right. Another game that might be the one is the Clippers game at home on Saturday. In theory Griffin/DJ should be a good matchup for the TT and if it cannot do better after being able to make adjustments I'm sure the experiment has to be ended early. But yes, it has to be tried since if it works even adequately, we are instant contenders. If we have to trade Asik for a PF because we can't find enough playing time for him, there are just too many question marks: -Who's going to play backup 5? Currently we have none. -What if Dwight gets injured for, say 10-20 games? We would be totally screwed if we had to play Smith/D-Mo at center. -Does Dwight get worn down if he has to play 36 minutes as the only inside defender on this team? -Is there going to be enough shots for a "star 4" to justify paying big bucks for him or would you just rather have Casspi for the vet minimum? etc. And then there's the possibility that we were wrong and the TT could have worked just fine if Parsons could hit the broadside of the barn, if Harden would come to play from the start, if Beverley wasn't hurt, if we didn't try to pound it down to Dwight at the start, if our perimeter defenders would try to defend the pick and roll better etc. Damnit, just start working. now. Please. Pretty please.
Wouldn't count out Smith either. He's not a floor spacer on offense with his shooting, but he moves well without the ball, and has the footspeed on defense to rotate and come out of the paint to play D. Also, I would assume Casspi would probably be the first PF up to start unless McHale wants to keep him coming off the bench for offensive firepower.
Twin Towers is a perfectly capable frontcourt against Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Those guys can't operate too far out of the paint. They did an ok job I thought. We got burned because of Parsons, Harden and Lin playing poor D and trying to "out-swag" the Clippers on offense. They were not buying into what the team needs to do to win, they were clearly more interested in showing off their new contender status.
Why should the Spurs, Thunder, Grizzles (elite teams in the West) be fine offensively with their TT but not ours? It's up to the coaching staff to devise a plan that works. It seems to me pick setting would be the obvious advantage of having two big guys in there.
Assuming the players still believe in it, I'd say give it another 10-15 games. I thought at the beginning of the year that we stick with it, regardless of success, for 20 games. Just so you can get players more acclimated and get a feel for opponents. I still stick by that.
It's true, Asik should really be working on his jumpers and I think he's capable. The Thunder is not a bad offensive team, what's wrong? BTW, does TD bank shots count as midrange jumpers?
Updated TT numbers from the play by play... maybe off by a point or two CHA till 6:01 +1 till 5:09 -5 total -4 DAL till 11:09 +0 (foul trouble Asik) till 9:01 +0 total +0 @UTA till 4:05 -7 till 2:32 +12 total +5 @LAC till 6:24 -13 till 5:02 -3 total -16 POR till 4:09 -4 till 6:28 +12 total +8 Best result in 5 games, but it should be noted that the Portland defense in the paint is really bad. They were ranked 29th in opp FG% last year and are ranked 26th this season. Their opp 3P% was/is top 6 so their opp 2P% is especially bad.
Thanks for showing statistically that its working and working well. 3rd quarter create that separation that directly lead to 50% of our total victories so far.
