Struggling to motivate your veteran: Is this the beginning of the end for Sam?
Six games into the season and, predictably enough, the Raps are struggling. We sure showed em' with that stellar preseason...so we have been relegated to being slotted as a 'young team on the rise': shorthand for the fact we are a threat to no one in the present. So what has gone wrong, why has all that optimism that swelled to such a feverish pitch before the season opener, deflated like a VC-led team during the playoffs (Don...settle). Well, here's the short version:
1. Defense: I think everyone knew we were gonna struggle with perimeter defense and some star players have straight had their way with us (Joe Johnson, Ron Ron, Tony Parker, 2nd-half Iverson, comfortable-lead 4th quarter Vince...). And you kinda expect a Tim Duncan, with this not being international rules and all, to be efficient about it too. It's always gonna be a little more disappointing when stars light you up from the outside. However, to have secondary scorers step up and have career nights (Josh Smith, Kevin 'backbone of Tatez's fantasy team' Martin) against us is unacceptable if there are any pretensions of winning. Sadly, we have shown flashes of being able to do the job on defense (Michael Redd), and even at times shown an ability to trap and pressure the ball creating turnovers (granted I'm thinking of the Atlanta and Philly games)...but of course, there's no consistency to this, just like our...
2. Rebounding: Basketball's a simple game, you try and get the rebound when you miss and you damn well make sure you get it when they miss. We're getting outrebounded by an average of six a game, all on the defensive end. Meaning our opponents clean up our misses, we're not doing the same. Sam keeps crying out for a more consistent effort from his guys and the need to juggle line-ups to get that effort...but hey, isn't that the nature of coaching?
3. Where's the number 2 scorer? It's clear that if somebody steps up and drops the17 to 20-odd points, it gives us an offensive presence on the court to balance things out for Bosh. And then we can win. Clearly, the scoring by committee thing would work better if we actually got out in transition regularly, but our not-so-fast breaks often leaves us running that one set 'Mitchell Special' in the half-court. And this is a big problem: because the question becomes one of who can we rely on?
From a team concept, players like Garbajosa have been so ineffective, they have become a negative in the half-court. Freddie Jones is a change-of-pace player who is someone that can be riden (uh...no homo) when he gets hot. But to expect day-in day-out numbers from him is wishful at best. It would be nice to see TJ Ford's point totals bump up, but at the end of the day, he's a pass first PG. And for those expecting a rookie to do anything consistently, well, I have to remind you we didn't draft LeBron. So that leaves Euro-League refugee Anthony Parker and staple MoPete.
Now Anthony Parker has been a pleasant surprise, but if he's gonna put up numbers at all, we're gonna have to get him the ball more. This may be a bit of a lofty expectation for a guy to immediately step up in this way, just a year after he was playing with Israelis. So the logical choice, really, all along is MoPete. Our solid veteran. But guess what...his play has been so blahzay that he's now coming off the bench. This is what you call coaching?
So you want to get MoPete into games and get some consistent production out of him? Instead of sitting him, how about running some damn plays for him! Try a screen or, God forbid, maybe even a double screen. Get him some shots in places he can score. Give him the ball in his comfort zone on the regular. It is clear that players like MoPete (and Parker for that matter) will thrive with more structure in the half-court. Shooters tend to. Yeah, it was all good when we were supposed to be all Run'N'Sunning all over the place, but our transition game has been mediocre at best. And what ever happened to that 'commitment to running', anyways? That was supposed to solve all those shot selection problems....
I know, I know...6 games into the season. Yes, it's early and yes, we got alot of new players. And, imagine this, some players are actually slumping. But Sam is just lucky that the Philly game worked out, because going 1-9 to start the season would have you in a Doc Rivers-type predicament. I guess the race to get fired is on, and with Doc and Dwane Casey out in Minny the front-runners...I would put Sam even ahead of Isiah as far as getting the pink slip first. Because 2-8 could lead to 2-10 very quickly with games against LeBron and at Atlanta after the West Coast twirl. I really hope they can salvage something tonight...or at least make it competitive. Cuz if somebody has a career night other than Baron (Monta Ellis perhaps) , it'll be a wrap. Trust. The Mitchell watch is on...
1. Defense: I think everyone knew we were gonna struggle with perimeter defense and some star players have straight had their way with us (Joe Johnson, Ron Ron, Tony Parker, 2nd-half Iverson, comfortable-lead 4th quarter Vince...). And you kinda expect a Tim Duncan, with this not being international rules and all, to be efficient about it too. It's always gonna be a little more disappointing when stars light you up from the outside. However, to have secondary scorers step up and have career nights (Josh Smith, Kevin 'backbone of Tatez's fantasy team' Martin) against us is unacceptable if there are any pretensions of winning. Sadly, we have shown flashes of being able to do the job on defense (Michael Redd), and even at times shown an ability to trap and pressure the ball creating turnovers (granted I'm thinking of the Atlanta and Philly games)...but of course, there's no consistency to this, just like our...
2. Rebounding: Basketball's a simple game, you try and get the rebound when you miss and you damn well make sure you get it when they miss. We're getting outrebounded by an average of six a game, all on the defensive end. Meaning our opponents clean up our misses, we're not doing the same. Sam keeps crying out for a more consistent effort from his guys and the need to juggle line-ups to get that effort...but hey, isn't that the nature of coaching?
3. Where's the number 2 scorer? It's clear that if somebody steps up and drops the17 to 20-odd points, it gives us an offensive presence on the court to balance things out for Bosh. And then we can win. Clearly, the scoring by committee thing would work better if we actually got out in transition regularly, but our not-so-fast breaks often leaves us running that one set 'Mitchell Special' in the half-court. And this is a big problem: because the question becomes one of who can we rely on?
From a team concept, players like Garbajosa have been so ineffective, they have become a negative in the half-court. Freddie Jones is a change-of-pace player who is someone that can be riden (uh...no homo) when he gets hot. But to expect day-in day-out numbers from him is wishful at best. It would be nice to see TJ Ford's point totals bump up, but at the end of the day, he's a pass first PG. And for those expecting a rookie to do anything consistently, well, I have to remind you we didn't draft LeBron. So that leaves Euro-League refugee Anthony Parker and staple MoPete.
Now Anthony Parker has been a pleasant surprise, but if he's gonna put up numbers at all, we're gonna have to get him the ball more. This may be a bit of a lofty expectation for a guy to immediately step up in this way, just a year after he was playing with Israelis. So the logical choice, really, all along is MoPete. Our solid veteran. But guess what...his play has been so blahzay that he's now coming off the bench. This is what you call coaching?
So you want to get MoPete into games and get some consistent production out of him? Instead of sitting him, how about running some damn plays for him! Try a screen or, God forbid, maybe even a double screen. Get him some shots in places he can score. Give him the ball in his comfort zone on the regular. It is clear that players like MoPete (and Parker for that matter) will thrive with more structure in the half-court. Shooters tend to. Yeah, it was all good when we were supposed to be all Run'N'Sunning all over the place, but our transition game has been mediocre at best. And what ever happened to that 'commitment to running', anyways? That was supposed to solve all those shot selection problems....
I know, I know...6 games into the season. Yes, it's early and yes, we got alot of new players. And, imagine this, some players are actually slumping. But Sam is just lucky that the Philly game worked out, because going 1-9 to start the season would have you in a Doc Rivers-type predicament. I guess the race to get fired is on, and with Doc and Dwane Casey out in Minny the front-runners...I would put Sam even ahead of Isiah as far as getting the pink slip first. Because 2-8 could lead to 2-10 very quickly with games against LeBron and at Atlanta after the West Coast twirl. I really hope they can salvage something tonight...or at least make it competitive. Cuz if somebody has a career night other than Baron (Monta Ellis perhaps) , it'll be a wrap. Trust. The Mitchell watch is on...
posted by Roger Sign at 3:31 PM
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