payitforward wrote:hands11 wrote:Randy is making this much harder then it needs to be. Why he insists on playing Price 31 minutes is baffling.
And with Martin sinking the place up tonight, why didn't he try Webster at SG. Martin was shooting the ball short all night. After he was 0-5 from 3 land, sit his ass down. Its not his night.
Randy coached like an idiot. These guy have been in most the games. At what point is it not simply the players but the combination he has our there and how he is running the offense.
At no point, Hands. We don't have enough players, nor productive enough players, to win NBA games. The idea that we lost last night because we didn't play Webster is kind of silly. We also lost when we did play Webster.
Price was one of our best performers last night -- I'm no fan of his, but you picked an odd night to be questioning his minutes. OTOH, Crawford, tho he had 8 assists and didn't turn it over much and went 5-5 from the line, didn't really contribute overall. He went 7-18 and in 31 minutes he had only 1 rebound.
Games are won by TS% and ball control. The less you get to the line, the lower your TS%, and we don't get to the line. As to ball control, we are getting out-rebounded pretty regularly.
Last night, Okafor and Ariza did what was expected of them by Ernie. If Nene had been playing, I imagine we'd have won the game. It would have been an example of achieving the kind of barely mediocre level Ernie was aiming for.
However painful, it'd be better to lose until Ernie is finally fired than to have his crappy idea prove out. In any case, that's what's happening and will continue to happen.
While adding Wall and Nene would dramatically change this picture, we don't have them right now and line ups do matter. Will they matter enough to win any one of these games. I can't prove that since it didn't happen but I can see what works and doesn't and I can see the other options available. They have been in most of these games and they had the players available to win at least 40% of them. Their defense is good. That is the one bright spot. That is also the least surprising since the team was mostly build to be good defensively to surround the scoring of Wall and Nene. What they need is offense until they return, getting to the line and someone with the personality and skills to lead them when the offense grinds to a halt. And they need a SG that can hit an open shot and who can drive and get fouled.
I and other could see they needed to add Livingston because Price and Pargo were not enough to lead the team at PG. I could see they needed to play Crawford there more which they have finally started to do and when they do, the team is more productive. Why, because he has all those qualities. He can drive, create, score, get to the line ( more so if the refs would actually call half of fouls that happen to him ) and the personality to lead them. They should have made him the starting PG from game 1 with Wall out. Price should have been backing him up and now that they have Livingston, Price shouldn't even be an option at PG anymore.
I have no problem at all stepping out and saying what I did about Price even though his numbers looked 'ok".
His numbers don't tell the whole story. 2 of his shots and 5 of his 8 pts were scored while playing off the ball with Crawford running the PG. He was playing the SG on offense and defending PG on defense. So is that the player I want at SG ? Personally, I don't have a problem with him playing there some but do it with clarity. He is just one of a group that includes Beal, Martin and Webster. And as I said before, I want that player to be able to hit an open shot, drive and get to the line. He fits one of those. He can hit an open shot. And like I said, 5 of his pts came that way. They should have road that while he was feeling it. But Utah called a time out and I'm not even sure he was in the line up when they came back. If he was, I don't remember seeing them go back to that.
But in order of who I want at SG, I would say Beal and Webster fit the bill the most. Beal is a rookie so I have no problem bringing him off the bench. I also have no problem starting him. But if you aren't starting him, then Webster should be the SG. Price should be back there with Martin. He is a SG who has some handles, not a PG. And while his assists are up this year, he doesn't lead a team. He just doesn't have that nor the personality that the team follows. At best he is Crawford two years ago with less offense. Well we have Crawford two years later who seems to have learned better shot selection. There is no need to play Price at PG. Specially now that they have Livingston. So just looking at what Randy did at SG, how does Webster get zero minutes on a night that Martin is 0-7 from 3 land except of one junk time made 3 with 30 second left in the game.
Beal was off again. Martin was clanking. That leaves two options at SG. Price or Webster and Webster got zero minutes there. That in my view was stupid. The one part of Websters game that is most reliable is his ability to hit and open shot with his feet set. And he has the body and will to drive. And he is 6-7, not 6-1.
Trevor A had a very productive game and played 34 minutes. He could have played more. There was no reason to bring in C Singleton for the 4th quarter after not playing him all game. He came and and got two quick fouls and clobbered on the boards.
Ves also was very active and played well but he was sitting on the bench to close the game. That made no sense. Ves played only 22 minutes. He had 5 rebounds and tipped out a number of other rebounds and had two blocked shots. He was actually scrapping pretty good under the basket. The kid is long and he was playing with good energy. He was +11 which was best on the team.
Oakfor had 14 rebounds. Clearly he needed to be in the game. Specially since Kevin played like ass again. Zero rebounds for Kevin. Kid of starting to make me think he is a soft ass punk. Come on Kevin. You are 275 and young. Play like it.
So yeah, having Wall and Nene would have a big different but so does lining up what you have better in the mean time. The closing line ups made no sense. Randy coached like ass. Price is their third best PG and should be used behind Beal and Webster at the same level as Martin as a SG. Not a starter. Thats line ups and last I checked, who is on the floor and how they are used is a big part of basketball. Specially in close games.
This lose and a few other I can count are Randy failures and that disappoints me since I was a big Randy fan and called for his getting this extension. So far Randy seems to be a good practice development coach, but not a great game time coach. I guess that makes some sense since he has mostly been an assistant. I hope he develops his game time coaching skills better.