GT: HEAT @ BARCLAYS |10/17| 8:00pm | TNT

[DarkXaero]

When Mirza's shot is not falling, he needs to try to work inside the 3 pt line to get easier shots. You saw it on one play where he got a nice pass cutting in for a dunk. Then there was another possession where he faked on a 3 and drove inside, almost got the lay up to fall. That's what he needs to do more of, he can do more than just shooting 3s. Clearly had a cold shooting night tonight, he didn't force those 3s, most of them were wide open.

Problem is we're just not asking him to do it. We are pigeon-holing him as a spot up shooter, when his game is a lot more versatile than that. He's also a pretty good and unselfish passer. It's hard enough for a shooter to come in to a game cold, its even more difficult if you are just standing around on offense in the wing. Let him run off baseline screens and take a mid-range shot just to get him a closer look. From what I've seen so far, he seems to be a better shooter off-the-dribble anyway than he is a stand-still shooter.

I agree with this too. It was a complaint last season when we only saw Mirza being utilized as a 3 pt shooter, and it should be a complaint this season too. So far this entire preseason, Mirza has been camping on the 3 pt line. It's up to the coaching staff to rectify that.

[DrazenForThree]

Problem is we're just not asking him to do it. We are pigeon-holing him as a spot up shooter, when his game is a lot more versatile than that. He's also a pretty good and unselfish passer.d, It's hard enough for a shooter to come in to a game cold its even more difficult if you are just standing around on offense in the wing. Let him run off baseline screens and take a mid-range shot just to get him a closer look. From what I've seen so far, he seems to be a better shooter off-the-dribble anyway than he is a stand-still shooter.

i dont buy the bolded part. thats what 3 point specialists do. they come in cold at any given moment and knock down wide open 3's. there are plenty of them around the league, and if mirza wants to stick around he is going to need to knock down the wide open ones pretty consistently. he doesnt need to be novack, but he needs to be alot more consistent then what we have seen. we can give him a pass on last year, but now, he really needs to earn his minutes by hitting open shots when he gets in

[DarkXaero]

Btw, can JJ stop shooting 3s from like 5 feet beyond the arc for no reason? I know he can make them but it's still annoying to see.

[DrazenForThree]

People say that Brook is a big advantage against Miami...IDK if I've ever felt that way. I feel like Miami is a bad matchup for Brook.

Miami is super-fast and super aggressive on defense, and to beat them, you have to make quick, intelligent decisions with the basketball, and that's just not what Brook does. He's a very slow, methodical player, which has its advantages, but Miami seems to always make him look bad because they're just too quick for him.

The problem is that we ALWAYS iso Brook on the post against Mia. With their defense and how fast they collapse, that's just not going to work given Lopez' tendency. The way to make them pay is for our perimeter guys to attack their interior, force them to rotate, and THEN dump it to Lopez where all he has to do is finish.

Brook should be our finisher vs. the Heat, not our creator.

I agree with this. Whenever we play Miami, they do an excellent job of denying position to Brook on the low post and also in denying entry passes to Brook. If we somehow do get the ball to Brook, they start to swarm him, and because Brook is so slow to react, it can lead to a turnover easily. That being said, Brook's rim defense last night was great and iirc, there was some good rim protection by Brook in the last regular season game against Miami at Barclays too (even though it was a blowout). Brook also played a good game on offense last night, he was 6-8 from the field and had 14 points. He would have had more if he didn't miss so many free throws.

brook played really well defensively. he used his size well and made miami shoot over him. outside of jumping out of his shoes a couple time on osh pump fakes, he was mistake free and was a factor.

offensively, i think it is alot simpler then "were asking him to create his own offense" or "miami swarms him. those are both true, but too many times he catches the ball in a great spot to do something and simply doesnt go aggresively towards the rim. my youtube clip posted earlier in this thread is a perfect example.... sometimes he will catch it in the paint and throw down a dunk, vs miami, in that exact same spot he will quickly flip up a 1 handed floater. its a shot he can make, but he is clearly timid or intmidated or something. he needs to just try and tear down the rim every time. if he turns it over so be it. playing timid is worse vs a swarming defense

[DrazenForThree]

Btw, can JJ stop shooting 3s from like 5 feet beyond the arc for no reason? I know he can make them but it's still annoying to see.

id rather he take that shot from where he does or pass the ball then take a dribble closer and shoot it. he is awful shooting those off the extra dribble. maybe thats why he shoots it deep instead more often?

but i know what your saying

[SpeedyG]

Problem is we're just not asking him to do it. We are pigeon-holing him as a spot up shooter, when his game is a lot more versatile than that. He's also a pretty good and unselfish passer.d, It's hard enough for a shooter to come in to a game cold its even more difficult if you are just standing around on offense in the wing. Let him run off baseline screens and take a mid-range shot just to get him a closer look. From what I've seen so far, he seems to be a better shooter off-the-dribble anyway than he is a stand-still shooter.

i dont buy the bolded part. thats what 3 point specialists do. they come in cold at any given moment and knock down wide open 3's. there are plenty of them around the league, and if mirza wants to stick around he is going to need to knock down the wide open ones pretty consistently. he doesnt need to be novack, but he needs to be alot more consistent then what we have seen. we can give him a pass on last year, but now, he really needs to earn his minutes by hitting open shots when he gets in

But my point is that Mirza, from what I've seen, is NOT a spot-up shooter. Not sure if there's advanced stats of this anywhere, but I'm curious to see what percentage of his shots he makes in spot-up situations compared to either pull-up or running catch-and-shoot situations.

[DrazenForThree]

But my point is that Mirza, from what I've seen, is NOT a spot-up shooter. Not sure if there's advanced stats of this anywhere, but I'm curious to see what percentage of his shots he makes in spot-up situations compared to either pull-up or running catch-and-shoot situations.

i dont know, i cant awnser that, but the other night when he was red hot they were all spot ups. either way, if he cant consistnetly make spot ups, why is here out there?

maybe he is better off the dribble, but we dont need guys who handle the ball, we have plenty of those. and we he doesnt create offense, we have guys who can do that better anyhow. i dont see the value in taking the ball out of other guys hands so he can attempt 3 off the dribble.

i dont see his role as an instant offense players who plays a high volume with the ball in his hands. i mean we are gonna have livingston, terry, anderson at times, pierce at times, jj at times on that second unit. those guys need to be the ones with the ball in their hands.

he is going to need to consistently hit 3's... especially spot up corner 3's if he is going to play here

[SpeedyG]

But my point is that Mirza, from what I've seen, is NOT a spot-up shooter. Not sure if there's advanced stats of this anywhere, but I'm curious to see what percentage of his shots he makes in spot-up situations compared to either pull-up or running catch-and-shoot situations.

i dont know, i cant awnser that, but the other night when he was red hot they were all spot ups. either way, if he cant consistnetly make spot ups, why is here out there?

You don't always have to be "camped out" to spread the floor. Mirza can still provide outside shooting, it just needs to be done in a manner when he's in motion as opposed to just standing still (if he is, in fact a better shooter in that regard).

maybe he is better off the dribble, but we dont need guys who handle the ball, we have plenty of those. and we he doesnt create offense, we have guys who can do that better anyhow. i dont see the value in taking the ball out of other guys hands so he can attempt 3 off the dribble.

With our 1st unit? Probably not. But with our 2nd unit? Most definitely a 4 man who can move and stretch the floor has a role in that 2nd unit. Keep in mind I'm not saying we need to give him the ball at the top of the key and tell him to go and create a shot for others. Just keep him moving.

[DrazenForThree]

With our 1st unit? Probably not. But with our 2nd unit? Most definitely a 4 man who can move and stretch the floor has a role in that 2nd unit. Keep in mind I'm not saying we need to give him the ball at the top of the key and tell him to go and create a shot for others. Just keep him moving.

he wont be stretching the floor if he isnt constantly hitting that shot. moving or not, the bottom line is he needs to hit 3's at an above average rate or better. if he isnt, we cant have him on the floor, he simply is below average in too many other areas and we have too many other talented players worth playing over him.

if your going to play him at the 3, and give him the ball more, is he worth playing over alan anderson who is a better defender and ball handler and at the very least just as good from 3? im not so sure.

I want the guy to do good... hell the only 2 brooklyn nets jerseys i currently own are a home mirza jersey and a road mirza jersey. would love nothing more then for him to become a sniper off the bench. but he's been pretty inconsistent so far. and im not sure the excuses really stick, since if he is gonna succeed his role is gonna be coming off the bench cold and asked to shoot and with inconsistent minutes

[DrazenForThree]

anyone else notice blatche doing the "clap in your opponents face while defending him on the perimeter" thing that KG does in last nights game?

that wizards game was pathetic classic boehead blatche, but since he has played some really impressive ball and played under control, even at the 4 spot

[NyCeEvO]

Maybe its all just precaution with Dwill... he was fine til he "re-injured" it in a charity event right?

If its worse than what has been stated, then I will definitely knock on Dwill for not fixing it when he had the grace period to do so...

I mean, Brook got his screw fixed or replaced and he's not missing a beat thank god...

We have no excuse IMO not to go far.... we're all in....

I believe he dropped a weight on it while working out.

He was already injured before the Dodgeball tournament.

[NyCeEvO]

anyone else notice blatche doing the "clap in your opponents face while defending him on the perimeter" thing that KG does in last nights game?

that wizards game was pathetic classic boehead blatche, but since he has played some really impressive ball and played under control, even at the 4 spot

KG probably slapped some sense into him.

[exculpatory]

I really don't understand the Pierce complaints. First of all...he's always been a guy that takes a lot of 3s, and he's pretty good at making them, so over the course of a season in which he should be getting a lot of open looks, IDC if he takes a lot of 3s, because he'll make a lot of them.

Second of all, his defense, his passing, and his rebounding were great. Pierce's role on the team is to be another ball handler, a shooter, a guy who can create his own shot when plays break down, a high IQ offensive player that makes the right passes, and a guy we can use to exploit a mismatch (ie, when Chalmers was switched onto Pierce). But yeah, a big part of his role with the Nets is to be a spot up shooter and space the floor, so it's really not a bad thing if that's what he's doing, because ideally, this team is going to be centered around Deron's ability to break down defenses off the dribble and create opportunities for his teammates, which should result in a lot of open 3s for Pierce and Johnson. They shouldn't be relied upon to create a lot of their own offense anymore.

Also, I think some people don't understand what the concept of spacing is, based on some of these posts. Spacing means to be a threat as a shooter, thus forcing the defense to commit to you, thus allowing more free space inside for your attackers. Just because a guy misses a bunch of his outside shots doesn't mean that he's not worth having out there or that he's hurting the offense, because he can still be spacing the floor just by being a threat. Pierce could be 0-10 from 3pt range in a game, and he's still a threat from outside...no defense in the world is going to intentionally give Pierce an open look from 3 even if he's missed everything up until that point, because he's such a good shooter in general. Now, with someone like Teletovic, who hasn't proven he can make 3s at an elite rate in the NBA, fine, I can see him losing his spacing effect if he misses a ton of shots, because then defenses might think he just doesn't have the ability. Someone like Gerald Wallace, who, even when he hits 2 or 3 three pointers, will still be left wide open, because defenses will take the chance that he can't make them consistently and that the ones he has hit are flukes. They have a career worth of evidence to look at.

But Pierce? He's made a career out of being a long range assassin. You give him open looks, he WILL knock them down eventually, so he will always space the floor, even when he's going through a cold stretch.

I am very well aware of spacing. I was once a wannabe baller & have watched 4 million hours of ball. I am sure Stepback is as well.

What I (we) are concerned about is 1) Paul displaying his still elite inside the arc game AS WELL AS his excellent 3 point shooting; and 2) Paul not becoming TOO unselfish - as he occasionally does.

I fully realize that Paul is here to support DWill & BLo - & not to be the main man (as he was for 15 years in Boston).

[CalamityX12]

Maybe its all just precaution with Dwill... he was fine til he "re-injured" it in a charity event right?

If its worse than what has been stated, then I will definitely knock on Dwill for not fixing it when he had the grace period to do so...

I mean, Brook got his screw fixed or replaced and he's not missing a beat thank god...

We have no excuse IMO not to go far.... we're all in....

I believe he dropped a weight on it while working out.

He was already injured before the Dodgeball tournament.

He dropped a weight on it? omg lol...... ahhhhhhhhhhhh

[SpeedyG]

With our 1st unit? Probably not. But with our 2nd unit? Most definitely a 4 man who can move and stretch the floor has a role in that 2nd unit. Keep in mind I'm not saying we need to give him the ball at the top of the key and tell him to go and create a shot for others. Just keep him moving.

he wont be stretching the floor if he isnt constantly hitting that shot. moving or not, the bottom line is he needs to hit 3's at an above average rate or better. if he isnt, we cant have him on the floor, he simply is below average in too many other areas and we have too many other talented players worth playing over him.

if your going to play him at the 3, and give him the ball more, is he worth playing over alan anderson who is a better defender and ball handler and at the very least just as good from 3? im not so sure.

The point of him moving around was to improve his shooting (assuming, again that he is a better shooter in that capacity than just a stand still guy). Hard to say given how limited we've seen him, but from what I've seen, he just seems to be able to get a little bit more "oomph" on the ball when he's in motion as opposed to being camped out. Maybe one of our Euro experts can chime in and give insight on if Mirza's shooting tendencies.

[Nondescript]

Maybe its all just precaution with Dwill... he was fine til he "re-injured" it in a charity event right?

If its worse than what has been stated, then I will definitely knock on Dwill for not fixing it when he had the grace period to do so...

I mean, Brook got his screw fixed or replaced and he's not missing a beat thank god...

We have no excuse IMO not to go far.... we're all in....

I believe he dropped a weight on it while working out.

He was already injured before the Dodgeball tournament.

I did some light googling and I really couldn't find anything about him dropping a weight on it, so back to square one as to what exactly happened