winforlose wrote:Calinks wrote:The Pelicans can also probably exploit a lot of weaknesses.
1. We are not a good scoring team, they are.
2. We foul like crazy, they can get to the line like crazy.
3. They have elite shot making ability, we are limited.
Our only two real shot makers are Towns and Edwards and Towns isn't the shot maker he used to be at the PF positon with the limited space and his inability to get great matchups at the 4. They neutralized him with physicality, a ton of bodies, and taking away his space.
Once that happened, we were dead meat.
Finch has been unable to find any plays or structure that free Towns up when teams gameplan him out of the offense. Towns has been unable to consistently find a way to get himself off on a big level when teams go after him. This has been a problem because if Ant isn't carrying us and Towns gets shut down, we have been stagnant.
There used to be a time where Towns was a walking top ten offense, that isn't the case anymore. We need to figure something else out. He isn't pulling a Joel Embiid and dropping 45 points every night. He's struggling to get 25 that is not enough when other players are bricking left and right. If we had other shooters hitting shots and the floor was open, we would be fine but we don't.
Team is going to have to find a way to get this offense powered up. Even when Edwards gets back, this offense is going to have to get a lot better. In the playoffs we will get picked apart if we are this easy to deflate.
I disagree with a lot of this.
1. We have a lot of guys who can go off. Two of the last 10 it was TBJ. One or two was NAW. Naz has dropped double digits in most games and 20+ this season. Shake had multiple 20+ games with Philly and is getting back into his grove (I hope.) Jaden can and should play a big role in the offense (especially with the second unit,) this season. Rudy has been dominating offensive boards and getting a lot of slams. We are not a bad offensive team. We are inconsistent with our third scorer, but that is often okay as long as you feed the hot hand.
2. We haven’t been fouling like crazy. Our numbers don’t show that this year. This game was actually fine in the first half. They shot 12 free throws we shot 11. The refs were missing things for both teams and I found it to be somewhat refreshing that it was being called somewhat evenly. Then the second half comes around and all hell breaks loose. They didn’t out play us, they just got away with bloody murder.
3. Karl and Naz are 50/40/90. Mike is a good 3 point shooter. TBJ can catch fire and light it up. Jaden is an excellent corner 3 point shooter. They made more shots than we did last night, doesn’t make them that much better at shooting.
4. Karl needs to listen to Finch. Finch wants Karl shooting Malik Beasley levels of 3 point shots. He has flat out said Karl is the best shooter on the team. Karl wants to drive and often drives with poor technique. When the double comes he kicks out, but that takes the shot out of the hands of our best shooter. Karl is the problem, and Karl is the solution.
TBJ, NAW, and Shake are not shooters. They are streaky scorers at best. Yes they can get hot but they are not reliable shooters by any stretch. They are guys who are good if they are supplemental guys complimenting a group of reliable shooters, you don't want to be relying on those guys night in and night out.
Our offense is middle fo the pack at best this season. I do think it can be better but if we want to be serious contenders we need to be hovering around top 5. We aren't close to that. I think we ranked something like 18 when we had Anthony Edwards, that is not great, it's been adequate with some flashes of good. Our defense has been carrying us.
In the past, Karl-Anthony Towns has been such a dynamic offensive force, almost he alone was enough to continually propel us to a top ten offense. With his new role though, he no longer seems like he can do that.
Yes, Finch wants him to shoot more three's, we all want him to and he should and some of that is on him, but a lot of that is also beasue teams are able to scheme him out of the game easier. Its harder for him to get his offensive off now. I don't know all the reasons for that but it seems like a lot of that is because of the spacing and where he has to play now because he is playing with another big.
Before he has way more space to work with. Now he is limited on the perimeter and we are seeing teams out sending a ton of guys out there after him and they are beating on him every night. Teams are able to get extra physical with him and he doesn't get calls like a lot guards would. So he gets beat up, he gets players in his face, he gets contested, and he doesn't get a lot of clean looks. Teams get to play elite defense on him every night and he can't go off like he used to at center. He is not as effective as he once was and unless Finch comes up with some ways to scheme better offense around Towns with our current setup he probably wont be the scorer he used to be for us in on most nights.
Maybe the numbers say differently right now but we have been one of the teams that have fouled the most in recent years. Towns and Jaden are among the top foulers in the league. Last night we were getting whistles blown on us every other play. We also don't draw a ton of fouls ourselves traditionally. It's not a good combination and something we need to work on.
As for KAT passing better out of doubles, yea he does need to do that but he also needs to have teammates who can make themselves presentable to his passes and hit open shots. Last night you had guys like Kyle Anderson avoiding the 3 point line like the plague. Then you had guys bricking wide open threes that Towns was making passes to like Brown and Milton. It was indeed a bad night but we will have a lot of those with the inconsistent shooters we have.
We could really use one or two reliable shooters on this squad, maybe one or two will emerge from the current crop of guys or maybe we can make a trade to bring someone in.
When luck shuts the door skill comes in through the window.