First off, I'm not a big McHale guy. He's done a good job developing some guys (harden, parsons, smith, asik) and working on the fly with a decent amount of roster changes. But he has more than his fair share of head scratching moves. Namely, why is Delfino closing games? Yeah, he can space the floor because defenses have to respect his 3 point shot. This obviously helps out Harden who (due to McHale's iso loving ways at the end of close games) gets another option to drive and kick to. Delfino is also a good FT shooter. However, he offers nothing on the defensive end, or the offensive rebounding end. He's undersized to play post D, and is a marginal rebounder and obviously is not a shot alterer. I understand that the other traditional options at the 4 at this point are DMo (probably not experienced enough to close games and questionable D) and TRob (again, not experienced enough to close games). Also neither DMo nor Trob can "stretch" the 4 spot offensively (at least not yet for DMo). I feel having a bigger big like greg smith paired with Asik would be better. Asik because of his rebounding prowess and Smith, who provides a 4 who can finish PnR's and lob's better than Asik. Both offer size to clog lanes and provide help D as well as O and D rebounding. Or move Delfino to the 3 and parson's to the 4 and instruct parsons to crash the boards hard. Or Defino at the 3, harden at the point and parsons and an aforementioned big at the 4. But to have any other combination of lineup that includes Carlos at PF seems to hinder our rebounding and interior D. Two games that come to mind are the Spurs game last night, and the Bucks game a couple months back in Milwaukee. In the Spurs game, Tony Parker burned both Lin and Beverly. Had Greg Smith played the 4 instead of Delfino, perhaps that would've made TP second guess his penetration straight to the rim. In the Bucks game, I remember the Rockets had a chance to bring the game into OT, but couldn't secure a last second rebound. Any thoughts? PS. I know there has been some decent amount of discussion about this topic, esp in the Fire McHale thread, but I thinks it's important enough to warrant it's own thread.
D-Mo couldn't defend without fouling, and TRob hurts you on offense. Playing Delfino last night against the Spurs small ball lineup was a no-brainier.
Because the coach wants to win games. Small ball was our most effective lineup when Patterson and Morris were still on the team. It is our second most effective lineup right now after the starters. When Dmo is in foul trouble/inconsistent/miss shots/being a rookie, small ball is an option to, you know, win the game.
I already pointed out the potential ineffectiveness of TRob and DMo, but why not Smith at the 4? Sure the Spurs went "small" ball, but I can live with Stephen Jackson's 27% 3-point shooting versus Duncan/Parker getting some pretty good looks while Harden is having to play on the block.
small ball is effective on offense for reasons I mentioned, but we already score 106 a game, maybe need to work on the other side of court.
say what you will about Delfino's defense, but at least he hits his rotations and can box out sometimes unless he get's horribly outmuscled. Sometimes he's just not tall enough, but that's better than being completely out of position on a regular basis.
T.Ro and Montie are not ready for prime time. They make too many mistakes. They are young, it comes with growing.
Maybe because Smith is already a mistake-prone defensive player, and expecting him to defend pick-and-rolls and rotate to 3-point shooters is asking for trouble. And, additionally, maybe because having 2 front-court players on the floor who can't score outside of 5 feet from the basket or handle the ball is a REALLY bad idea.
actually, he almost never boxes out and loses his man wayyyyyyyy too often. he is often bailed out by teammates/opponents. for once, concentrate on delfino movement on defence and you'll see how bad is he
Easy......because he's reliable. At the end of a game, you want to cut out as many variables as you can. The only current players I trust to consistently make the right decisions at the end of a game are: 1) Harden 2) Asik 3) Delfino 4) Beverly 5) Parsons It's no coincidence that these are the guys that generally get the most minutes in the 4th quarter. While Lin, TRob, DMo, and Smith may offer more upside....I don't trust them to not foul the shooter or not take the contested mid-range jumper.
Agreed. Seems like Smith is a decent post defender, but has trouble sliding, switching, defending P&R. He is also tends to foul a lot
I still get nervous whenever I see Delfino try to dribble to much. I like that he is comfortable in the offense, but he should tone it down a bit imo
Delfino is underrated defensively. He's not great, but he's a smart player who knows basketball and players' tendencies. He's had good defensive moments in crucial one on one situations this season. In other words, he knows what he is doing. Go figure, a savvy vet knows what to do and rookies don't.
