"Linning" at The Great Wall Of China Town 2/8/12 7pm NBATV

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This video from Izzo has the best discussion I've seen of P&R defense:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcFMYPGifk

Thank, so much for posting this.

Now I see why a great player like Shaq had no chance defending pick and roll later in his career. He couldn't move his feet well and he often, due to his size, screened his own man. At other times he stepped out instead of up, and allowed the PG to split and turn toward the basket.

Watching Tom izzo break that down, I see what GSG was saying about coaching emphasis. Defending PnR really seems difficult. Izzo showed four things the Spartans do, and it explains why his teams historically defend so well.

From what I saw I believe the Wizards don't do enough hand fighting, clutching, and grabbing in subtle ways. i don't think the young Wizards like to play guys close. Most of all, once a big shows, if it is McGee he just isn't going to get back to his man at all. Defending that seems like players need to really be physical to jam the big at the top of the key. They have to remain on task and think on their feet.

Wow, NO WONDER the Wizards are struggling to defend that.

[Nivek]

On top of the hand fighting, etc., PNR defense requires coordinated teamwork. That takes smarts, anticipation, alertness, coordination. Wiz aren't strong in any of those areas.

[Nivek]

wall does go into "score" mode quickly and often. however, there are times (especially noticeable to me when playing with booker) that you can see where the pre-draft talk of "pure pg instincts" at play. it goes a lot more than penetrate-then-kick-out too. i've seen wall make great interior hand-offs (again mostly to booker). what i DON'T see is passes in space to cutters and good use of the pick and roll. the former is due to the fact that our team isn't good at cutting. the latter sits squarely on the shoulders of wall. i don't think he's a very good pnr pg, which is a crying shame.

I heard a clip from Mo Evans today where it sounded like he was calling out the coaches. He basically asked why we don't use Wall like the Knicks use Lin. He cited Wall's speed and straight up said that the ball should be running through wall on pick n rolls and they should space em out with shooters on the outside. He said he didn't understand why the Wizards wouldn't do something similar or take a note out of Mike D's playbook. Do you think Mo Evans says that if we're calling pick n rolls and wall's just ineffective at it? Mo's a vet without an agenda and his word carries weight. He probably recognizes that our best chance to win is to copy the Knicks formula and get the ball in Wall's hand 90% of the time. I do think we should run it going to his right though. When he goes left in the halfcourt set he gets stuck bringing the ball back into his body when he does shoot or pass.

Our players realize just how dumb our offensive system is too.

Yep. Need to fire Wittman. Bring in an experienced coach with a good offensive system. Someone like Flip Saunders. I hear he's available these days.

[dobrojim]

have not watched the video yet but one thing I notice
is that our guards rarely appear to see the pick coming
and are unable to get over top of it in time. They end
up trailing the play.

This reminds me of a more general trend which is
that we are less frequently able to take advantage
of switches. They can force a switch but then fail
to capitalize often rotating the ball to the side away
from where the switch happened and allowing the D
to recover.

[dlts20]

can someone please post the mo evans video

[7-Day Dray]

Yep. Need to fire Wittman. Bring in an experienced coach with a good offensive system. Someone like Flip Saunders. I hear he's available these days.

Uhm, Wittman runs the same exact system as Flip. Nothing about the offense has changed (except running at a slightly faster pace). When your own players are criticizing the offense, then you know something is wrong.

If you're wondering what a real offensive coach is, look at somebody like Mike D'Antoni. He's world's ahead of Flip as an offensive coach. Flip's system works for a team that's filled with shooters and experienced, and not built on athleticism, but our roter is the complete opposite of that. The system is a horrible fit for the roster.

[Dat2U]

I wouldn't be necessarily singing D'Antoni's praises. Every coach has their strengths and weaknesses and certainly D'Antoni is well regarded for his offensive schemes. But Phoenix and New York fans will tell he's got plenty of flaws as well.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Eddie Jordan ... (in the words of Lee Corso) ... "Aww, puck it."

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I am currently, as the Wizards are hanging tough against the Heat, watching the national ESPN game. The Knicks are leading the Lakers, early. What I have noticed is how the Lakers are defending Lin.

Hubie Brown has already commented that he likes the way Fisher and Blake are keeping Lin out of the lane. They play PG for LAL. I mentioned the Wizards couldn't keep Lin out of the lane, but was told others have to cover for the PG. Well, Hubie likes what the Laker PGs are doing. Also, I've seen them trap Jeremy Lin and he's turned it over on successive possessions.

OTOH, Lin aread has 14 points, 4 assists (3 TOs) and it is only in the 2nd quarter. The Lakers are grabbing Lin, beating on Lin, and basically doing everything illegal they can until the refs call it. Lin is still scoring and balling, but he's being bullied.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Magic Johnson compared Jeremy Lin to Steve Nash and John Stockton. Said Lin is for real. Called him smart and clever. Says Lin surveys PnR for when to pass and shoot. Magic said the Lakers should send a double at him whenever a PnR is run to get the ball out of Lin's hands and make somebody else beat you

Lin didn't just do the Wizards in. He has 18 at half against the Lakers and the Knicks lead by 8. Toward the end of the half, Kobe went to guard Lin.

Lin is definitely legit.

[nate33]

Lin has 27 points and 5 assists at the end of the 3rd quarter. He's 9-16 from the floor and 8-11 from the line. He has 6 turnovers as well, but that's forgivable given his usage rate alongside such lousy offensive players.

[closg00]

Magic Johnson compared Jeremy Lin to Steve Nash and John Stockton. Said Lin is for real. Called my smart and clever. Says Lin surveys PnR for when to pass and shoot. Magic said the Lakers should send a double at him whenever a PnR is run to get the ball out of Lin's hands and make somebody else beat you

Lin didn't just do the Wizards in. He has 18 at half against the Lakers and the Knicks lead by 8. Toward the end of the half, Kobe went to guard Lin.

Lin is definitely legit.

Need to start a betting-pool for guess's as to how-much JL is going to get paid. Lin is going to go from getting cut 2-3 times, the D-League, and now a pro pay-day awaits.

[nate33]

This is unbelievable! Lin has 34 points and 7 assists! And the Knicks are up 9 points late in the game. I've never seen anything like this!

[no D in Hibachi]

Maybe Blatche? When AJ was traded Blatche erupted. By the time the following season rolled around teams figured him out and he wasn't as effective. Then the wheels fell off. I'm not sure this will happen with Lin because it's impossible for someone else to have as poor a work ethic as Blatche, but in my estimation Blatche did come out of no where to produce all-star numbers.

[doclinkin]

09-10 WizFans Official Draft Thread

Postby doclinkin on Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:47 pm

pancakes3 wrote:Jeremy Lin 2nd rounder.

I like the kid, whether or not he makes a roster. He's got a smooth game. An extra gear even if he generally looks unhurried the couple times I've seen him play. Dropping 30 on UConn is big time.

He'll benefit from a big league strength and conditioning program, you catch him huffing and puffing at times since he's got to carry the load for Harvard. But he's got slippery speed, nice length, and needless-to-say good smarts.

I suspected he'd be overlooked, but liked JLin when I saw him take apart Calhoun's defense in calm fashion. His current lack of a jumper is just him picking and choosing his shots intelligently, he doesn't trust his NBA range yet. Hit 40% from three in college before he became the sole focus point of the Crimson attack, he'll adjust in time.

Generally, looking at 2nd rounders I pick a great bench and solid role players, miss on the early lotto picks. But that's prob'ly because, as a Wiz fan I know we'll get screwed by the ping pong balls and my top pick will get stolen one pick early, so look for bargains later on. C'est la guerre.

[nate33]

I remember you mentioning him before the draft. Nice call, Doc.

I also remember him lighting it up in the preseason (for Portland, I think). I'm surprised it took him so long to break into a roster.

[pancakes3]

The thing is, even the people who wanted Lin didn't think he'd be this good. He never showed this much playmaking ability in college and never bumped into double-digit assists in any single game of his 4 years at Harvard. I think that had a lot to do with people passing on him - they didn't think he could play point based on the tape. Then he was given d-league time last season and word has it that he and the coach there really worked on changing and improving his game there and something clicked. he changed from being a combo guard to focusing strictly on being a pg and it's paying huge dividends right now. also i'm sure he's been working his tail off training to be faster/quicker/stronger all the while so the jeremy lin we're watching on ESPN on prime time is not exactly the same guy that was being drafted 2 seasons ago. (at the same time, it's expected that a 4 year harvard grad is going to be extremely coachable and have a rock-solid work ethic so you can mold him to be a darn good pg, no? he's not exactly going to be sebastian telfair.)

[doclinkin]

he was given d-league time last season and word has it that he and the coach there really worked on changing and improving his game there and something clicked

.


Eric Musselman. Who would be another solid choice of coach for this developing roster. He's got an excellent track record for developing players. I really enjoyed his coaching blog some years back: http://emuss.blogspot.com/

[closg00]

Stern must be in-heaven, Lin blowing-up in NY is the best thing going for the NBA right now. Now Stern has to find a way to make sure that Lin stays with a major market team.

[llcc25]

Roger Mason on Twitter "Jeremy Lin is an inspiration. A week ago, nobody thought he could play, but he knew different. A lot of us are waiting for that opportunity." Sounds like Roger is speaking about himself as one of the ones waiting for that opportunity.