bbms wrote:there must be something going on that i don't know with kenrich because his low utilization is bizarre imo. he could solve many problems vs aaron gordon, he did great vs minnesota, was great g2 and practically a dnp vs indiana
he guards the perimeter, he guards big guys, he shoots a three, his impact on team rebounding is third best on the roster i don't understand really
Same thing as last year's playoffs. He rarely got to play and never had more than 8 minutes in a game. He isn't viewed as a player that they want to play. Mark is afraid to rely on his bench. OKC's depth is why they had such a dominant regular season, but Mark has been afraid to trust them in the playoffs. Game 3 Joe should have gotten more run after knocking down a pair of 3s to see if had a hot hand. Mark is running his starters into the ground. His lack of trust in Jaylin, Kenrich and others to be on the court is causing Chet and others to be gassed in the 4th. Indiana is letting their bench have their minutes so their starters still have gas in the tank in the 4th and that is how they have pulled off so many late comebacks. It is one thing to tighten up your rotation in the playoffs, but Mark has made it clear he has no faith in his bench.
Indiana has 9 players that average 14+ minutes per game and only Tyreese is over 35 MPG. OKC has 7 players over 14 MPG a game and all of them are 23+ MPG. Running a 7 man rotation puts too much strain on those players when you play at the pace OKC and Indy do. Even in the Memphis series he was only letting the bench players, outside of Caruso and Cason, get run after the game had been put away. Someone in the organization has to explain to Mark that he has got to trust his bench to give his starters some rest and he needs to stick with what worked in the regular season.
Mark has the best roster in the NBA. The problem is he is coaching like he only has three NBA players forcing SGA, JDub and Chet to do all the work and they are wearing down in the 4th. He needs to go back to his staring line up of SGA-Dort-JDub-Chet-IH. Pull IH or Chet 3 minutes into the game for Caruso along with JDub for Cason and then 3 minutes later put IH or Chet back in with JDub and give SGA and Dort rest and either go bigger with Jaylin or trust Joe or Wiggins. I prefer Joe and get him a few early 3 point looks and if he's on give him some run. Play some Jaylin at center minutes with Chet and IH both resting for a few minutes then put them in together to finish the game. This no trust in Jalyin, Joe and Wiggins isn't working. He HAS to get Joe and Wiggins 12 MPG to give guys rest. He needs to give Jaylin 10-12 MPG to match the size of Indy and keep Chet and IH fresh. It's almost like Mark is afraid that if there is 4 minute stretch where OKC loses those minutes they can't make it up over the rest of the game. OKC playing fast is advantage against MOST teams, but Indiana plays just as fast and they are able to do it the entire game because they give their guys the needed rest for the pace of this series. You don't try to reinvent how your team plays in the Finals. You do what you have done all year until it doesn't work. Game 1 set the tone for Mark being way out of his depth. Going small to try to out run and out pace Indiana lost that game. You are not going to beat Indiana that way consistently, if at all. When you are smaller and they can play just as fast you lose. When you are bigger and both teams are playing fast you win. Jaylin has played 2 minutes in the entire series. You can't match up 6'5 players against 6'9 players an entire game and think you are going to come out on top unless you have a significant athletic/skill advantage.
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