I might be a little biased, because I've developed a sort of near hatred for Patterson, but I think he's almost a useless player when he's on the court, and add to the fact that McHale plays him out of position in a role which he can't handle, makes him almost intolerable for me. I mean, seriously, why do we consistently try to post him up, when the result is going to be a back down, a series of moves, and then a forced up hook shot that's too hard off the rim?
I almost think this is similar w/ Scola as well (to a MUCH lesser extent). Unless it's deep positioning (meaning closer to the restricted area), Scola's backdowns have become far less efficient and effective. I think Scola is most effective, when he picks, and sets to pop from the top of the key from around 18 ~ that's nearly money. To be fair however; I thought Scola did a much better job of passing out of the mid high post area w/ his back to the basket, in particular w/ Parsons on that little lob play.
But one thing I noticed (correct me if I'm wrong), but when we tend to play teams w/ more size, the more Scola posts up. The game that stuck out to me was that Indiana game before the road trip. Hibbert was put on Scola, and we consistently tried to feed Scola in the post when it's apparent the size really bothers him (especially someone of Hibbert's stature). I dunno, it's a little minor gripe, but I think it's a small reason towards why he wasn't AS good as he was last season. Not a reason we lost or anything, just something came to mind when talking about Patterson's ineptness.
I just can't buy the "we weren't better" than the teams ahead of us argument, because we were in a position after the road trip that had us looking at the sixth seed rather than missing the playoffs. Even split that six game stretch where we had similar caliber teams w/ majority of the games at home, and we're discussing whether we're going to face OKC, or SA in the first round.
A combination of choking, w/ poor rotations, and unforced errors are at fault for why we didn't make the post-season. It was a combination of things essentially -- I didn't even mention Dragic's little cold streak, Lowry being rushed back, and Lee being so god damn streaky on OPEN shots. Nonetheless, the rotations were the most perplexing IMO, b/c that was something we had control of (sometimes shots aren't gonna go, and sometimes they will).
/end rant
Oh well, there's always next season, amirite?
