KF10 wrote:SacKingZZZ wrote:He needs to use the hook shot more, but any offensive set should have more than one option available and most importantly an out available. They literally ran the same iso set that Smart did last year. Literally no passing options. Any post player has to have options to pass back out. And it can be very hard when you have a guard popping in at you looking to swipe the ball every time you make a move.
It's exactly my point that there shouldn't be "congestion". Most of the congestion is his own teammates doing! hahaha. Last year at the start you could say this team didn't have enough spacing because of a lack of shooters and that it was part of the problem, but that shouldn't be a problem at all anymore depending on what lineups you use.
Looks like a Malone is ditching the run and garbage, but if he does, spacing is the most key element for a half court team. Even more important than passing.
The team's offense is still a work in progress because Malone employed "defense-first and offense-second" tactics throughout training camp. So, in that regard, I can forgive some of Cousins' mistakes and chalk it up as not his fault.
The thing is though, once Cousins' mind is set to score, he will not pass the ball. Passing options to hell said Cousins! He attempted multiple turnaround jumpers against Bogut (good luck with that) once he couldn't budge him any further. He should have pass the ball back once he was in no man's land. A product of poor shot selection. He settled for "Brad Miller" range Js instead of moving the ball or getting into post position. Hmm..
Cousins' post game isn't refined but he has showed in the past that he can do damage down low. Cousins' versatility on offense e.g. face up, dribbling -- may draw the "oohs & ahhs" but what's the use of all of that if he only shoots 45%-47% from the floor?? With his size and talent, he should be scoring at a 50% clip at a
minimum.
If that's the case then Demarcus deserves the ire, but that wasn't the case in this game, just like most of last season. There were literally no passing options in most of his attempts in the post. That just asking for failure or a tough shot. It's some of the same things they did to Tyreke when he was here, no room to work.
There are going to be some good and bad things coming from Cousins being so trim. The bad is now he doesn't have that 300 pounds to lean on people, the good is that his already advantageous level of mobility will be even greater. That's why spacing is going to be even more critical than ever, he's going to have to rely on that horizontal movement to get to the rim. When he was baseline the Warriors just left a guard right on top of him in the space he was trying to move to, there will be very little room to work in that instance.
Give Cousins the space I'm talking about and that along with him getting more calls his way and all of his efficiency stats will go up dramatically. Last year is a perfect example, it took them all year to finally get some spacing for him, helped out a great deal by that trade BTW, and he was up around 50% post all star. This isn't butt talk, we saw the same thing last year. That's why I'm a little annoyed with some of what's going on, first game though, I know, I know. Although I'm not a big fan of a different starting lineup every game this preseason but I guess the staff gets somewhat of a pass. The only problem I have is if they have questions about this squad, watch the ample amount of tape you have at your disposal. I question if they have because they ran the exact iso set Smart did.
