Spartan13 wrote:Its not like Wright is going all MJ on us, he is mostly shooting when hes wide open.
I'm sorry, but this argument makes me want to set myself on fire every time I hear it.
This is not directed at you, but rather the argument.
Wright is open for a reason.
Wright is open so that the talented players, the ones who fuel the offense we bet on to win every night, are not open.
Wright is open because his defender is helping on pick and rolls, our bread and butter- the play which makes Jose, Hedo and Bosh all look like all-stars. Or, he's two steps from Bosh on either the strong OR weak side, where Antoine would be "spreading the floor"- only his man has a foot in the paint, and continues to when the ball is inevitably forced around the perimeter to our Antoine.
We need to score to survive. When Wright gets the ball, and good coaches make sure he does, we usually don't score. Sure he'll hit a long, open jumper or two off the catch like any pro can. But he'll never hit 5 threes or anything, and he'll never force coaches to abandon their defensive strategy. Teams know he will miss far more than he makes over any significant stretch, and he will cough the ball up cleanly or off the rim when he tries to take the ball into the waiting defense. Even if he thinks twice and kicks the ball out after a look and a reset up top, how much clock is left?
This is really reminiscent of the Jamario hate on O, ignoring what he brings to the other end.
Jamario is a great guy to bring up. My rant above applied to him last year, only he'd jack it every time. You don't think teams are doing the same things with Wright in the lineup as with Moon? Don't Antoine's catches look familiar? Teams knew how to beat Jose and Bosh last year, and the same things are working this year when we don't use Hedo. At least Jamario occasionally rebounded and played help defense, the kind we didn't have- and it STILL wasn't worth having him out there most nights.
And I really am not ignoring what Antoine "brings" one the other end. He's a good choice to guard 5-10 SFs in the league for short runs, he'll make them work a bit and use his fouls when beaten. He'll guide them to their off hand or to the baseline, or maybe contest a shot well. But he's not stopping anybody(Thabo? Are you guys posting in the right thread?). If his man can't beat him, he passes to one of the other 3 or 4 favourable matchups against our other guys. Or, they just pick him off and create any matchup they want.
So, what happens when your meal-ticket offense hands the ball over early in the clock, your defense still sucks in the halfcourt and is un-athletic? You get crushed in transition, you get crushed in halfcourt, you tire, you foul, you lose focus and you end up on the wrong end of game-changing runs which our coach doesn't like to slow with timeouts.
And you F'ing lose!
