PG: Mavs/Nets - We Battled

[MGrand15]

This is a typical thing to say because like the last 2 years, we're struggling to start the year but I don't agree that these are the same problems as before.

The PJC/Avery/Reggie Evans Nets - ranked 8th in Offense, 17th in Defense. That also doesn't take into account how good teams slowed down our offense because we played Wallace/Evans together so often. That was a team that won because of it's offense. We would roast teams that weren't elite defensively. Deron/JJ/Lopez were all playing well.

That isnt really the case... we would roast horrible teams. that team was almost identical to this one:

beat bad teams
lose to good teams

check our split that year against .500+ teams and teams under .500. in the playoffs, we couldnt do jack, against a real defense. it was still a team with too many black holes and 3 guys that needed the ball. it looked a bit better since reggie and wallace legit needed 0 touches, so the toher 3 would just share iso opportunties. but same issues and the offense was never pretty, unless we played a bad team.

issue was still the same, joe brook and deron couldnt play together. beating up on bad teams and an elite 2nd half for lopez masked it a bit.

Last year, the team was an absolute mess for the first 31 games. Ranked 28th in offensive efficiency before Brook's injury, probably in the 20s for defense as well. We were getting demolished game in and game out. After 2014, we completely turned things around. In 2014, we were 10th in defense and 9th in offense. Still a flawed team but we were very good.

Again, same issues.... UNTIL brook went down, after which our offense looked much better... with brook out you no longer had a black hole in the middle... you replace brook with apass first guy like livingston in the lineup, that made an enormous difference.

there was no more brook and joe together, made life easier for everyone

This years team is 12th in defense and 24th in offense! Completely different than the last 2 years. Our defense is actually doing its job. For the first time, it's way better than our offense. That's a huge problem. And these aren't the issues that we've had recently. This is what Hollins has dealt with in the past. The style looks very different from Memphis but the results are the same. Slow pace. Strong defense. Awful offense. The difference is our team can't get much better than 12th on defense unlike Memphis.

its the same issues we ran into last year before brook got hurt. the issue is STILL the same. dwill/brook/joe cant play together... specifically joe and brook.

So I'm not sure what you guys are seeing. I'm not saying Hollins is doing a bad job or that our roster isn't the problem - but something needs to change.

what needs to change is lopez either:

a) needs to go
b) needs to start playing team basketball and ditch the long jumpers and do things other then score

So one year - offense good, defense bad. Next year, everything bad until we shift and everything good. This year, offense bad, defense good. Yet the problem is a. only Lopez and b. the same all 3 years?????

THESE AREN'T THE SAME ISSUES.

Our splits versus +.500 teams doesn't matter because we're not crushing non-playoff teams this year. Not even close. A team can go a long way by beating bad teams by a lot and playing close against good teams. That's not what this current team is doing at all.

[MGrand15]

I don't understand how this went from a Joe Johnson convo to a Hollins convo to a Lopez convo. Great. If you think we should move him, that's awesome. Hollins doesn't have to play him. He has Plumlee. He has Jerome Jordan. He has KG. He could limit his minutes. The issue isn't only Lopez AND if it is, Hollins has enough power to severely limit his minutes. He decides the rotations.

[Prokorov]

In an effort to rid Hollins of all blame, you keep pinning things that are on the coach/game plan on the players.

If you really think Deron is too ball dominant, than let Joe handle the ball more and let Deron spot up more. He's one of our best 3pt shooters this year. And he's still our best playmaker. Makes no sense to bench him because he's too ball dominant as if Hollins has no control over that.

That kind of has been the case when the 2 are on the floor togheter... the problem is williams doesnt play well with jack, so using dwill as a 2 gaurd hasnt been effective.... what HAS been effective is deron as a backup PG. our assists per game have gone up since jack has become starter. williams asst% is up as a reserve. im not sure what the possible complaint there is, as it was clearly the right move.

Same thing with Lopez. Brook doesn't REQUIRE high usage. He's not a robot that's going to explode if he doesn't get touches. Lopez is not selfish. If JJ needs the ball when he's on the floor, Hollins needs to call plays for him or JJ needs to be more aggressive.

Actually, he DOES require high usage. he is a negative on the floor when he isnt scoring, as he doesnt really do much else. and he doesnt score off the ball a ton. you cant play lopez like plumlee, because lopez doesnt run the floor, doesnt play a ton under the rim, doesnt rebound or defend. lopez is a scorer, if you dont ask him to score he isnt worth having on the court...

the best thing to do with lopez is make him an instant offense guy off the bench you just iso while joe and the starters arent on the floor. similar ot like a JR smith. so that his iso offense isnt coming at the expense of your starters.

And if Hollins stands there and lets Lopez chuck or take long jump shots - that's also on him. Lopez from the last 2 years was far more aggressive in the post. He took jump shots but never like this. That change is on Brook but again, the coach is part of that process.

stop it. hollins has time and time again said brook needs to play tougher, closer to the rim, and rebound. he has called him out, he has benched him, he has sat him out entire 4th quarters. this is brooks 7th year, he isnt going to magically start being aggressive now. thats on brook. what else is hollins supposed to do? he has already benched him, already called him out, already constantly gotten on him. the next step is trading him or DNPs

If our calling card needs to be defense on a team with Deron, Jarrett Jack, Karasev, Joe Johnson, Bogdanovic, Mirza and Lopez playing heavy minutes - we need to make major changes. Out of that list, Deron and JJ are the best defenders and they top out as average.

deron is one of our worst defenders, not one of our best. our best defender is KG. from there its joe, anderson, plumlee, and bogdanovic. our defense has been playing really well. clearly we have that going. what we need is to cut down on the long jumpshots and early shots. main culprits are brook, miza, and bogs. we need to find replacements for 1 or all of them....

with brook benching him works, limit his minutes with the starters

mirza we really have no alternative, we need another PF option ot go to. Jefferosn didnt look ready.

you are looking at it backwards. it isnt we play defense with an offensive team and we cant do that.... its that we have a bad offense and the only way to stay in games is to battle on defense. we dont have shooters, we dont have guys who can get in the paint, and we have too many black holes

[Prokorov]

I don't understand how this went from a Joe Johnson convo to a Hollins convo to a Lopez convo. Great. If you think we should move him, that's awesome. Hollins doesn't have to play him. He has Plumlee. He has Jerome Jordan. He has KG. He could limit his minutes. The issue isn't only Lopez AND if it is, Hollins has enough power to severely limit his minutes. He decides the rotations.

correct and he has limited his minutes and lopez has missed games. and since we have climbed back towards .500

[Prokorov]

So one year - offense good, defense bad. Next year, everything bad until we shift and everything good. This year, offense bad, defense good. Yet the problem is a. only Lopez and b. the same all 3 years?????

yes, if you were paying attention it was clear...

year 3 we didnt 'shift". lopez went down. without lopez our offense got much better. that was the "shift"

year 1 werent really a good offensive team, it was fools gold, we beat up on really bad teams, of which there were a ton. the east sucks now but it was even worse then. Also, deron williams was a legit top 5 PG then, now he might be bottom 5. thats an enormous difference. 20/8 dwill would have this team as a top 15 offense. that guy doesnt exsist anymore. but that offense was ugly and suffered from the same issues... difference was deron could go out and get us 20+, now he cant

THESE AREN'T THE SAME ISSUES.

Our splits versus +.500 teams doesn't matter because we're not crushing non-playoff teams this year. Not even close. A team can go a long way by beating bad teams by a lot and playing close against good teams. That's not what this current team is doing at all.

point differential doesnt matter. wins and losses do. thats what decides who makes the playoffs and who doesnt. our issues are exactly the same now as they were then. ball stopping from lopez, joe disappearing cause he cant play with dwill/brook, and willaims being ball dominant. only difference is that dwill could still score, this one is completely toasted.

Dwill/Lopez is a horrible offensive duo and one you are never going to do more then beat bad teams/lose to good teams with.

Lopez needs to go. we have show we are as good or better without him. and if we can turn him into a decent SG or PF, we are muc much better off.

[MGrand15]

I'm not defending Lopez. If he's the problem, I want Hollins to bench him. Plumlee has proven he can handle major minutes. If Mason plays 34-38 minutes a game. Brook can be instant offense in 10-14 minutes. I have no issues with that, I've been asking for that to happen for more than a month now. Hollins seems to be doing it.

I just want our coach to emphasize points in the paint, open 3s, and ball movement. I want our players to be in positions to succeed and I don't want any one player doing too much. Maybe our offensive woes will be solved when Mirza/Karasev/Bogs shoot like they should and Deron is healthy. I don't really care who plays - I'm just tired of these droughts. Scoring 50 points in 3 quarters. Scoring 80 points in a game. You know we haven't scored over 91 in a loss since that Golden State game early in the season?

I like that we're battling defensively but we need to give ourselves a chance on offense.

[Prokorov]

I'm not defending Lopez. If he's the problem, I want Hollins to bench him. Plumlee has proven he can handle major minutes. If Mason plays 34-38 minutes a game. Brook can be instant offense in 10-14 minutes. I have no issues with that, I've been asking for that to happen for more than a month now. Hollins seems to be doing it.

He has benched him. he no longer starts unless KG has the night off and he has been benched several times in the 4th quarter. what you are suggesting is already happening. hollins has dwill/lopez coming off the bench, how long they play is dictated by their play each individual game, as it should be.

I just want our coach to emphasize points in the paint, open 3s, and ball movement. I want our players to be in positions to succeed and I don't want any one player doing too much. Maybe our offensive woes will be solved when Mirza/Karasev/Bogs shoot like they should and Deron is healthy. I don't really care who plays - I'm just tired of these droughts. Scoring 50 points in 3 quarters. Scoring 80 points in a game. You know we haven't scored over 91 in a loss since that Golden State game early in the season?

I like that we're battling defensively but we need to give ourselves a chance on offense.

that is what hollins is preaching, the players have to execute it. issue is they are either too young or not good enough. there really isnt alot of offensive talent, and the offensive talent we do have isnt conducive to team play. this is the healthiest dwill is gonna get in my opinion. we have to live with that reality.

we need to move lopez and or mirza and or dwill for a SG/PF. we currently have no legit starter at those spots

do you listend to the pre and post game? i only ask because hollins preaches and stresses all of these things you say he should be doing