MrDollarBills wrote:
1) Lopez is being told to play back to the basket in post area by the coaching staff, which is leading to him having to back down his man instead of facing up where he is a lot more comfortable and can make long strides to the rim. When he has to post up his effectiveness is killed, where as facing up his man or cutting to the rim he destroys people. I am baffled as to why the team is going away from all of the good things that led Brook towards having monster nights at the end of last season for this silliness. Brook posts up and gets double teamed hard and commits TOs. When he posts up he thinks too much. When he has to react in movement he is at his best.
we arent, in fact, we are running more pick and rolls this year then we did last season. the difference is we arent getting as many FGA from the roll man as we did. probably because we have absolutely 0 threats outside lopez, and teams have adjusted to not let him catch and do the push shot. we saw some adjustment late last year, so this isnt a huge suprise as we have even less to make teams pay for doing this.
2)Lack of spacing. No one can shoot and the only person that gets played honestly on the perimeter is Joe Johnson (which is still pretty crazy considering the fact that he's been firing up bricks). Brook has been getting into a lot of trouble lately when he gets swarmed...which again points to the stupidity of having him attempt post ups. Cuts to the rim, pick and rolls, pick and pops, receive the ball near the paint/foul line to face up and attack...that's how you get Brook to operate at an efficient level
he still needs to get the ball in the post, it allows him to turn and face up, which is the most effective part of his game.
3) He has been playing like a bitch as of late. Guy kills me because I know he can go out there and dominate but when things aren't going his way he gets flustered. DeAndre Jordan kicked his ass all over the goddamn court Saturday and most of that was intimidation and frustration. Clippers were playing physical all game and the only one to lay the hammer down on anyone was Thad who tossed Reddick down like a ragdoll and almost got into it with Jordan. Brook needs to get surly when opponents play like that. If I'm as big as Brook is I don't hesitate to ram my shoulder into Jordan's chest one good time or clean his clock on one of those alley oop attempts. He was playing soft as hell
this is nothing new. its been there his entire career. inconsistencies and sometimes disappearing when guys go at him.
but you still missed the biggest one. its his lack of aggressiveness. despite 1, 2 and 3 above there is 0 excuse for him not be averaging 18-20 shots per game. regardless of the offense or misuse, or players around him, he should be taking tons and tons of shots. he isnt. because he is willing to live with taking the occasional long jumper. and only shooting inside when it happens to be there. he isnt aggresive. and thats not because of the design or the guys around him, its because thats who he is, and thats who he always has been
