Browsing through this thread, I've seen "age" be brought up quite a bit. I don't buy age to be an appropriate excuse. The Mavericks team that won the championship had an average age of approximately 31 years old. Those 2008 Celtics were a rather old bunch, as well. James Posey, P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell all had significant minutes on that squad; of their big three, Pierce was the youngest at 30. The 2007 Spurs had a majority of their players at 30+ years old. I could be wrong about this, but I think the 1998 Bulls were the oldest champions, ever.
Look at what the Knicks have accomplished so far, this year. The team that wins the champion is the team that maximizes its resources while appropriately marginalizing their weaknesses; the exception to this rule is the 2006 Heat team, who had a lot of help from the Zebra Gang. However, I digress. This team needs to play at a much slower, calculated pace. Two cardinal predicaments with this system, without authoring a weighty tome, are:
1. Far too many threes. Quick three-pointers, early in the shot clock, lead to long rebounds, which lead to fast breaks. Anyone who has played basketball at 'just' the highschool level knows this. If we make an effort to gets things going at the rim, whether through drives, or post ups, we'll give ourselves an opportunity to a) get to the foul line, and b) get back on defense, even if it a 'point-less' offensive trip.
2. Every player has a great deal of offensive freedom. I don't want to see Metta getting more shots than Dwight Howard, or Pau Gasol (despite his poor play). I don't want to see Metta awkwardly dribble into the paint, with his absurdly underdeveloped handle, only to create a turnover or throw up an ill-advised shot. I don't want to see Jodie Meeks try to get into the paint, either. Players need roles, and on the offensive end, all the players on this team are designated "scorers" (aside from Jordan Hill, who puts in work to rebound the ball). I don't want to see anyone defend Metta, either. I think he has great value on the defensive end, but he really needs to shoot the ball at a lower rate; I think his noteworthy shooting, thus far, has been an anomaly, and he'll go back to shooting at the substandard percentage he has throughout his entire career. I mean, he's 2/14 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
richboy wrote:Pau isn't the issue in my books because I fully expect when he is traded that he go to another team and put up 18 and 11 and 4 assist and suddenly be the same player we saw in the past. Kobe said it. After winning the title this team decided Bynum was the go to post guy and it hasn't been the same since for Pau. I don't think there anything physically different from Pau Game 7 in the finals to now. What is difference is instead of getting 25 touches in the post he is getting under 10. Some games under 5. You can call it an excuse but things like shooting were just the icing on Gasol's game. Icing is good with the cake. You can't just serve Icing. Gasol and Dwight can not establish any rhythm. They get a touch here. They get a touch there. Nothing consistent. Nobody that has played the game could expect Gasol to play well in his current circumstances.
I think Pau has been an issue. He hasn't been assertive, and he's playing basketball like he was brought up believing it to be a "no contact" sport. His heart doesn't seem to be in it. Physically, he 'may' be there, but he's wandered into a twisted abyss psychologically. However, I absolutely agree that Pau and Dwight cannot establish any rhythm. If we buy the premise that these two aren't doing anything with the ball once they receive it, we should attach the argument that these two are not being given the opportunity to get themselves in a rhythm, or develop any consistency. In contrast, we've all seen Kobe go through major slumps, only to continue shooting until he finds some rhythm.
DEEP3CL wrote:What is the exact point of this thread ?
There is no need to over analyze things, the team and management should know what they are. And it has nothing to do with coaching. A lot of this is at the players feet. They have to solve it.
I like D'Antoni as a coach, and actually believe him to have a highly respectable basketball IQ. I think he's figuring this thing out on the fly, and he's made some impressive short-term adjustments. There is a problem with our system, though. I think we rank tenth in points in the paint; we should be in the top five, easily. Our team is third in 3PFA, despite the fact that we have horrible three-point shooters. These are just a couple things that stand out. Like I said, I really respect D'Antoni's knowledge of the game, but I doubt he'll make the most cardinal adjustments.
I completely agree that this is, as you so appropriately phrased it, "at the players' feet". I've said this before, and I'll say it again. There is absolutely no focus on the defensive end, and aside from those beautiful moments where Nash is dictating the offense, there's no chemistry on the offensive end. There'll be times where Nash is on the floor, but he'll force-feed Kobe to get his gamely quota of ISO basketball. I think Kobe is a top ten player (all time), and have absolutely enjoyed watching his game. However, the Kobe that we see now mirrors the Kobe we saw when Smush Parker was our starting point guard. There have been countless times where Kobe has looked off the open man to try to get his; this exhibits a lack of trust, which transfers over to the defensive side of the ball. This team is playing with no patience, or unity, on either end of the floor. At the same time, I think the defense will improve itself, but only to a certain extent. Team defense improves with collective experience, right?
I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't. I know this team will make the playoffs without any personnel changes. The playoffs aren't the goal though, are they?
laduane1 wrote:I fell asleep reading the opening post. Get to the point. We do not need to read 1,000 words.
And you woke up to tell us that? Thanks, hombre.