StitchJones wrote:I think Clifford's philosophy on offense and player development is dated. The NBA is a ball movement and spacing league now, yet Clifford is training our young guys in the art of slow down basketball where that is not even where their strengths lie. Only one player has his strengths there and that's Al who is not even part of this teams long term future. The play style of this team should be based off it's young long term talent: MKG,Kemba, Zeller, Vonleh, Lance, PJ. This team should play like the Milwaukee Bucks, not the Knicks or the Grizzlies.
The slower pace of play isn't "dated" because it's ineffective, it's "dated" cause teams have employed the new style of play thinking the game needed to be rejuvened by a style of play deemed to be more entertaining. Memphis, Chicago, San Antonio and even the Clippers are really good teams that don't press this spacing nonsense. Spacing was NEVER a issue in the NBA until teams started pushing this new style of play that results in basically a ton of 3 point shots off of fast breaks or penetration kick out passes. Our style of play should be one based off of using Al as our offensive anchor, but we should run like hell off of every rebound since we have a athletic team (minus Al). Kemba can run, Hendo can run and Jump, MKG can run, Zeller can run, Biz and Lance can all run, so I agree with you on that point.
In the offensive set though, if you look at our players, we're actually suited for half court play. MKG and Zeller can alternate between the high and low post but instead we want MKG to be a perimeter oriented jump shooter! Hendo should be running off curls and picks for his mid range shot. Al is our main post presence. Kemba can pretty much score from anywhere with his screens. All of these guys can score when put in the position to do what they do best, problem is we never put most of these guys in position to succeed, we have made most of these guys do something they aren't comfortable with. Our starting 5 collectively didnt make alot of t.o's from what I remember, the stat guys could verify this, so if we didnt make alot of turnovers and we played good defense, what was our problem? I think we did't get enough quality shots thanks to our system and lack of true playmaking/PG floor generalship.