RealGM

i don't think last year's 40-26 team was better.
we did lose Chauncey....however.

last year's team just had more fight in it to me.
we whined like hell to the refs but when u had us cornered we gave u our best.
even in the SAS series...we battled...we just weren't good enough.


im not seeing the fight.
and with games at MEM and SAS on the schedule before the season is up.
I'm looking for it.

Last years team was inferior, true. Blake is better this year, DJ is actually better except for shooting FT's, Bledsoe is better. Crawford is a better fit than Mo Williams off the bench because he's actual SG size and a better and more efficient scorer. Green isn't much different from Foye. Odom has his sucky things, but he's still about as productive as a Kenyon Martin was except he rebounds better. I think the guys were more fiesty, and there was just an impression of more fire, whether real or not.

Similarly last season though, the team could have been 4th and had HCA in the first round, or even 3rd (41-25 LAL was 3rd, Clippers were 40-26) but they lost 3 out of the last 4 after a 5 game winning streak, while Memphis won their last 6 games to end the season and were 13-3 in April.

we're definitely better than last year.

no question.
i still like the spirit of last year's team better than this one.

i dunno if Ive seen this team get punched in the mouth and swing back.
but then again....we had a fade at the end of last year where i wasn't so inspired and that game 1 shocked the hell out of me.

I said something like this while venting after a loss not too long ago. Last season we led the league in come from behind victories where we trailed by double digits at some point of the game. It was about 15 or so. I fully believe that is what helped us have the audacity to believe that we had a chance to come back and win against Memphis in game 1. There was fight and and a never quit attitude.

This team is clearly more talented/experienced, but it just feels like they aren't all willing to die out there on the court every single night. They've been talking about "turning it up" and I truly hope that they do in postseason, because it's very concerning right now. A few weeks ago after a loss, Blake said something to the effect that it's the postseason that is important. In other words, they're just going through the motions and biding their time until the end of April. Paul on the other hand had a much clearer sense of urgency and spoke of needing to correct the "intensity", turn things around, etc.

The players can't afford to look at each other in a passive manner, but have to look within themselves. What are you going to do if Paul isn't there to bail you out? Players like Crawford and Barnes are streaky. Butler is good for about 15, and anything above that is gravy. He's a complement. It's on Paul and it's on Blake. Blake has had some great individual games when Paul has been out. We need those even when Paul is playing. I don't care if he's 3 for 10, he can't pack it in and say it's not his night. He has to stay aggressive and fight through those struggles.

We need Blake more than ever to be a consistent factor in the crunch against good teams when Paul is being doubled

Blake still has some things to learn off the catch. One of the things that made Amare so good is that off a pick and roll he could catch then jab dribble and attack. Channing Frye was mentioning that there are few guys that can make the pick and roll catch but without a direct path to the basket and still make an effective move. He mentioned Amare, Lee and David West, but said West is slow, so it isn't as big a deal, lol

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G70ciRnsfO8

The first and last plays here sorta show it, though there are better examples. Blake needs to add that as well as the catch, square up and shoot. That's off-season stuff though, and the later requires his shot to get better and him to be more confident with it.

The other thing I would love to see is of Bledsoe played more with Paul, for him to play the Barbosa role on defense, where he would just fly down the court and Nash would throw a long pass and he would finish. That is something that would have to be part of the team concept and practiced though.