PG Heat: Strong 4th Quarter Leads to 4th Straight

[RiotPunch]

It doesnt matter who starts at SG if other players get most minutes at SG. And they do.

It matters getting behind a dozen to start with and having to spend the rest of the game catching up.

And we have bad starts because TP starts at SG?

Cmon guys

It is pretty obviously a big reason why, yes. Asking a 3/4 tweener to defend guards tends to result in hemorrhaging points to said guards. Green can at least stay in front of guards reliably, while also providing equivalent or superior spacing (even if he is in a bit of a shooting rut.) The case could be made for Trent as well.

Prince is fine, I am not trying to knock the player here, just the fit-- and fit matters. I think TP and the team would benefit far more running him on the 2nd unit with KPJ, who can create for him, while he defends his natural position aka not hemorrhaging points.

[tedbrogen]

AJG can also hit 3s above the break at a high percentage. Prince can really only hit corner threes.

[BigO]

It doesnt matter who starts at SG if other players get most minutes at SG. And they do.

It matters getting behind a dozen to start with and having to spend the rest of the game catching up.

And we have bad starts because TP starts at SG?

Cmon guys

Exhibit one is last night's game. Just watch Prince trying to guard Herro. The Heat don't even try and give Herro a ball screen. He just goes by him to the left.

Now watch Green or others guard Herro. They not only stay in front of him longer, but shade him to go to his right, which Prince couldn't do.

Take away several of Herro's baskets and a few of his assists if someone other than Prince was guarding him.

AJJ can guard better, but he also has the bad habit of guarding from behind, thinking he still plays college ball. Plus, he can't score.

Putting Prince and Dame as your guards and thinking you can stop dribble penetration is bad coaching and I generally like Doc more than most here.

[-Jragon-]

Yup, when KPJ has a bad game, and he will have more than one, the board will turn on him. Temporarily anyway.

The good and bad of KPJ. Which will prevail:

Bad:

1) Very inefficient offensively.
2) Relies on the shot that is the least efficient in today's era
3) Bad 3 point shooter
4) Given away by his last team, not because of personal issues, but because he wasn't productive/efficient.

Good

1) Very athletic
2) Skilled ballhandler, many other bball skills lacking on team
3) Good defender/not clear but early returns are good
4) Still young and maturing. Room for his game to mature

He needs to get more playing time. I trust that Doc and staff will harness his ego.

In 15 mins a game with tbe clips he was averging 9/3/3 over 36 thats 18/6/6 thats good seems pretty productive to me

You're missing one that's most important... he has a skillset that gets him into a spot where he's dangerous inside and the defense has a hard time not fouling him. Shot selection becomes much less important when you can regularly pump fake that shot later and draw fouls and +1s... that's how you close games out, defenses will also collapse over time and shooters will be wide open. Make a couple "bad 2s" early in the 4th, now late in the 4th the defender gets too close and you can blow by him and get layups/+1s... that's Dame Lillard type stuff except he's doing it from a different zipcode. I think KPJ is more suited size-wise to take contact than Lillard who would rather avoid it and just zigzag around 4 guys and take the clean layup.

[BigO]

The good and bad of KPJ. Which will prevail:

Bad:

1) Very inefficient offensively.
2) Relies on the shot that is the least efficient in today's era
3) Bad 3 point shooter
4) Given away by his last team, not because of personal issues, but because he wasn't productive/efficient.

Good

1) Very athletic
2) Skilled ballhandler, many other bball skills lacking on team
3) Good defender/not clear but early returns are good
4) Still young and maturing. Room for his game to mature

He needs to get more playing time. I trust that Doc and staff will harness his ego.

In 15 mins a game with tbe clips he was averging 9/3/3 over 36 thats 18/6/6 thats good seems pretty productive to me

You're missing one that's most important... he has a skillset that gets him into a spot where he's dangerous inside and the defense has a hard time not fouling him. Shot selection becomes much less important when you can regularly pump fake that shot later and draw fouls and +1s... that's how you close games out, defenses will also collapse over time and shooters will be wide open. Make a couple "bad 2s" early in the 4th, now late in the 4th the defender gets too close and you can blow by him and get layups/+1s... that's Dame Lillard type stuff except he's doing it from a different zipcode. I think KPJ is more suited size-wise to take contact than Lillard who would rather avoid it and just zigzag around 4 guys and take the clean layup.

I don't disagree with this. I was just responding to your recitation of his stats, while leavng out important details.

[-Jragon-]

Being clear, I still think KPJ should be staggered so he's on the floor for all of Dame's rest minutes.. he still should lead the 2nd team.. just thinking he should start and close halves (so obviously a minutes increase as long as he can still play D).

[randy84]

Watching Motivated Wiggins physically dominate Kuzma and Dame and then seeing KPJ toy with him was **** wild. 20 years and this team hasn't drafted a guard anywhere near this dude and we got him for Marjon's expiring contract

Bucks literally drafted this dude.

[AussieBuck]

Watching Motivated Wiggins physically dominate Kuzma and Dame and then seeing KPJ toy with him was **** wild. 20 years and this team hasn't drafted a guard anywhere near this dude and we got him for Marjon's expiring contract

Bucks literally drafted this dude.

Haha I vaguely remember this fact

[Matches Malone]

[GoldenAntlers]

Has anyone seen Giannis slashing to the basket and powerfully dunking and then realize it was Kuzma?

Yup, a couple of times actually.

[emunney]

It matters getting behind a dozen to start with and having to spend the rest of the game catching up.

And we have bad starts because TP starts at SG?

Cmon guys

It is pretty obviously a big reason why, yes. Asking a 3/4 tweener to defend guards tends to result in hemorrhaging points to said guards. Green can at least stay in front of guards reliably, while also providing equivalent or superior spacing (even if he is in a bit of a shooting rut.) The case could be made for Trent as well.

Prince is fine, I am not trying to knock the player here, just the fit-- and fit matters. I think TP and the team would benefit far more running him on the 2nd unit with KPJ, who can create for him, while he defends his natural position aka not hemorrhaging points.

I'll knock the player. It's unfortunate, because he's rock solid in a lot of ways, but the fact is you will get **** up on the glass if you play him at 4, and he can't move his feet well enough to defend the vast majority of his matchups outside of ~10-15 feet if you put him on the wing. He's an emergency depth guy who won't ruin what you're trying to do with incompetence, but who physically can't do critical things.

[MickeyDavis]

Lots of Spo criticism on the Heats board

Spo's received much more than his share of credit for the team's success over the years than he's deserved. He's been making plenty of horrible decisions the entire time, this is nothing new. Nobody's perfect but he shows a complete lack of ability to adjust in game, a stubbornness that leads to him finally making the right move but way too late, the small ball nonsense, the head scratching rotations, and the offensive ineptitude. bout time he finally gets some blame.

[FrieAaron]

Seems like whenever any team loses it's simply due to lack of adjustments. I wonder why Spo stopped doing that.
In seriousness, it's strange they didn't foul though only down 5. That still seemed well within winnable territory.

[blazza18]

Seeing Spo has coached Miami for 17 years now kinda blew me away a little. Wonder if him and the organisation would ever think about a mutual parting of ways as a benefit to both.

[Sigra]

Exhibit one is last night's game. Just watch Prince trying to guard Herro. The Heat don't even try and give Herro a ball screen. He just goes by him to the left.

Now watch Green or others guard Herro. They not only stay in front of him longer, but shade him to go to his right, which Prince couldn't do.

Green replaced Kuzma at 06:44 in 1st quarter. At that moment Miami had 14-13 advantage. Mostly because we missed 5 3s before that while Miami missed only 1 3pt shoot. We depend on our 3s a lot. When they go in we make runs. When they dont we go to hole. Prince is good 3pt shooter so its not that. Doc wants Green, Trent and Porter on bench because he has Giannis and Dame in starters. 80% of time he has SG at SG spot.

[AussieBuck]

And we have bad starts because TP starts at SG?

Cmon guys

It is pretty obviously a big reason why, yes. Asking a 3/4 tweener to defend guards tends to result in hemorrhaging points to said guards. Green can at least stay in front of guards reliably, while also providing equivalent or superior spacing (even if he is in a bit of a shooting rut.) The case could be made for Trent as well.

Prince is fine, I am not trying to knock the player here, just the fit-- and fit matters. I think TP and the team would benefit far more running him on the 2nd unit with KPJ, who can create for him, while he defends his natural position aka not hemorrhaging points.

I'll knock the player. It's unfortunate, because he's rock solid in a lot of ways, but the fact is you will get **** up on the glass if you play him at 4, and he can't move his feet well enough to defend the vast majority of his matchups outside of ~10-15 feet if you put him on the wing. He's an emergency depth guy who won't ruin what you're trying to do with incompetence, but who physically can't do critical things.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/princta02/lineups/2025

Doesn't make errors so coaches overplay him. He's just out there fundamentally getting his butt kicked by people he's in the athletic contest with. I hope we're not going to get an ongoing Kendrick Perkins/Scott Brooks thing with Prince and Doc.

[skbucks1985]

Seems like whenever any team loses it's simply due to lack of adjustments. I wonder why Spo stopped doing that.
In seriousness, it's strange they didn't foul though only down 5. That still seemed well within winnable territory.

They were down 5 with 42 seconds left and chose to play defense. I think most coaches would make that same decision, although like I said in another post Giannis had the ball should've been something they prepared for and maybe they did nd decided it was still better to play defense and try to get the stop. After Dame got the layup Wiggins missed a 3 and they were down 7 with 15 seconds left and that's when they decided not to foul. Maybe they still should've fouled, but I think its a more justifiable decision.

[Bernman]

Exhibit one is last night's game. Just watch Prince trying to guard Herro. The Heat don't even try and give Herro a ball screen. He just goes by him to the left.

Now watch Green or others guard Herro. They not only stay in front of him longer, but shade him to go to his right, which Prince couldn't do.

Green replaced Kuzma at 06:44 in 1st quarter. At that moment Miami had 14-13 advantage. Mostly because we missed 5 3s before that while Miami missed only 1 3pt shoot. We depend on our 3s a lot. When they go in we make runs. When they dont we go to hole. Prince is good 3pt shooter so its not that. Doc wants Green, Trent and Porter on bench because he has Giannis and Dame in starters. 80% of time he has SG at SG spot.

Green's not a microwave scorer. Him being able to just off ball shoot is all the more reason you start him next to high usage, gravity-inducing Giannis & Dame. But 1st it's the guard d, then to avoid the weird fit of Green & Trent in the bench unit.

[LUKE23]

Green is a better defender of SG (easily) than Prince and is just as much of a gravity player in terms of being a 3-point threat. He should be starting yesterday.

[soxperry]

Has anyone seen Giannis slashing to the basket and powerfully dunking and then realize it was Kuzma?

Yup, a couple of times actually.

Lol...

Yes, i was too embarrassed to bring it up but im glad im not alone.