fuller4379 wrote:Frank Ntilikina has turned into a nice rotation player for us. I guess having zero expectations means he can play without the pressure he had as a first round pick in New York.
Yes, Ntilikina is more confident in shots with the mechanics issue fixed. Indeed, Ntilikina is the major reason that Dame is in check all night long. The defense on Dame is even better than DFS. Great find.
Maverick41 wrote:Josh Green been playing well. Ever since Bane called him out, he's been getting minutes and doing good things on the court. His passing in particular has been impressive.
Green is very good reading the defense and recognizing opened teammates. I just hope Green can learn something from Wes Matthews and Josh Howard to get regular rotation minutes.
1.Stay in front of the offensive players especially on the perimeter. Do not bite on pump fakes. Green has size advantage over most swingman with 6-8 frame with long arm. Green really does not have to jump a lot to contest shots. A lot of time, this open driving lanes result in a foul on either Mavs big or Green.
2.Guard player in front instead of from left/right. Wes Matthews is much poor athlete but plays better defense for a reason. Wes makes sure that the body is on the offensive player all the time. Instead of looking to block shots from perimeter, Wes makes sure that a hand is on the eye of the shooter. Shooter cannot really see the basket clearly. And there's always a threat pose to the landing spots of shooter. This distract the offensive players a lot.
3.Green can deny the ball from major playmakers with long arm and more athletic like Josh Howard.
4.Communicate better with the big. Force offensive player to go least comfortable side (left / right). This allow time for the big in the paint to take away the grounds for a potential layups or favorable contacts to cheat for foul shots.
Anyway, 9 points and 10 assists is pretty good for Josh Green. Fix the defensive issues, then Green is a rotation player. Josh Green actually play better defense one-on-one against teammates. But this sort of production disappears in 5-on-5 set, mainly because Green bite on pumpfakes a lot. Hopefully, Green could be on quick learning curve like Ntilikina does last couples of game.
I think the Mavs bigs (except Maxi) have similar trouble guarding pick-n-roll and driving guards. Moses, Powell, WCS, Boban, and sometimes having the same issues.
1.Do not need to jump too much guarding jumpshooters with a height advantage.
2.Anticipate the desirable landing spots for layup or getting foul. Move a step quicker to get the position. Take drivers out of comfort zone. Drivers get too many layups or foul shots in paint against the Mavs. Making sure that the lower body of the bigs get the position for defense and rebound is rather important for Mavs interior defense. Most of the bigs do not aware of this issue. The Mavs is among the softest elite teams because of that. That's an issue the Mavs must fix. Luckily, the Mavs has Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea around. JJ Barea is very good in taking the position in paint on pick-n-roll. Tyson Chandler is one of the best vocal defensive leader in paint. Both ex-Mavs could help a lot to fix this issue.
3.Communicate with the backcourt to force the driver into a difficult position with Wall and double team once the ball is putting on the floor. Make things tough for a passing angle for cutters. Take away the wide open layups, putbacks and potential corner 3s will pay dividend for the team against elite teams.
Brunson, again, has exceeds expectation with those Tony Parker moves in paint. KP and Powell both gets a good shows, especially on the offensive end. It's nice to see KP find the gloves from long range. I just think KP can learn something from Chandler Parsons and Bargnani. The former loves to fake a 3 point shots by actually not jumping. The latter does know all the Reggie Miller tricks to buy 3 foul shots. At 90% from FT, KP could get a super-high percentages 3 learning from ball. Parsons do not rely on leg power to shoot the three ball. In case, KP has learnt, the accuracy would be awesome. And at 7-3, once KP blow by defender, that's almost 70-80% of making shots. Able to do the Bargnani, it is even significantly higher % to current 3P%. 3 foul shots is equivalent to 80% from the field. That's virtually unguardable shots like Dirk's one leg fade-away shots. When the confident to shoot comes, KP could get much better percentages from the arc. 50-40-90 for KP is no longer a goal. Not to mention that being able to get the foul line a lot allow the Mavs to control the tempo, get rest, save stamina for the defensive end and set up the defense. That's something worth exploration. KP could even be more durable with longer basketball career indeed.