REDDzone wrote:I'd love to hear the parts of my post you agree/disagree with as far as Mo's IQ goes.
I know some where debateable, this is the Bucks forum, let's debate.
You ask and shall receive.
I'll debate anything with a reasonable poster. Especially one of my favorite posters.
REDDzone wrote:I think he takes ill-advised shots at times. Particularly in transition, I feel he settles for mid-range jumpers too often when he could probably get his teammates an easier shot.
I don't particularly disagree.
Although I will say I think it has less to do with basketball IQ then confidence in his shot (he is pretty good at making that pull up jumper) and lack of confidence in his teammates. Another thing that I think changed his mentality was when Redd got hurt. Mo went from being facilitator to a scorer. When Mo was in that role he was brilliant. Soon after that the whole go to war with me speech with LK happened and screwed the team up beyond repair.
I think he is a horrible transition defender. Not that he lacks the talent to be good in transition, just the IQ. Oftentimes I see him doing the thing that annoys me so much when he will foul a player, but just not hard enough so that they still got a shot up. I always think its fairly common sense if you are going to foul in transition then wrap 'em up so they can't get an and one.
It is stupid no doubt, but I think that has more to do with Mo being soft.
I think he and Redd jack up way too many ISO three's at the end of the quarter. Could be on coaches, could be them, either way it seems that one coach out of three would have at least one end of quarter play that didn't involve 15 second dribble then jack a three pointer.
I don't have a problem with this as much as most people do for these reasons:
1)High pick n roll with Mo/Redd is a very effective play. Lots of teams run a high pick n roll with their best player at the end of a quarter. Watch for it in the playoffs.
2)We will get the last shot of the quarter. The opponent won't get another shot at getting a basket. (Mo actually referenced this. It was the infamous time Europa took that quote out of context.)
3)We will probably get a FG attempt. That play has a low chance of getting a TO, and it is important to get a shot off.
I also believe there comes a time when you have to adjust to who you are defending and learn to either go over or under the screen, based on their shooting abilities. I don't see Mo doing a great job in that regard.
I don't disagree. I think it has to do with Mo just being a bad defender. He knows that he needs to get over the screen, but he just can't. Also I'd like to point out that it is probably the hardest thing to defend in the NBA. Thats why 100% of the NBA use the pick n roll and sometimes do it several times a possession.
Then there is the obvious cliche answers of going for two when we needed three, and calling a timeout that we didn't have. I feel like both of those mistakes are ones that high-school point guards should know better than to make. And before anyone says "But Ramon did it too!!" I'll say right now, Ramon is also an idiot for doing it.
Can't argue with that. It was indeed stupid. There is something to be said that all of those plays happened under coach K. That never happened under Stotts, Porter, Karl as far as I remember.
But I do want to say that I don't believe Mo to have a low basketball IQ in general. I just think he has a below average IQ for a starting point guard in the NBA. I like him as a player, I just feel that we are too bad defensively in other areas without having to cover for a liability at the point spot. It really isn't anything against Mo.
Fair enough.
I think what bothers me the most is that people say that Mo can't lead a good offense and be the starting PG on a contender. Our offense last year was extremely potent with Ersan/Noel getting 20 mins a night. You need superstars to be a contender, and the biggest problem that Mo and Redd have is that they both need to play with one to be more effective.