Who should take the final shot?

[Felton for Pres]

Assuming everyone is healthy, who should take the final shot and how do they get the ball? Please post your top 5.
1. JRich off a pick, a 2 or 3, a jumpshot (although I wouldn't be averse to a drive)
2. Wallace off the inbound on a drive (or the first pass off the inbound)
3. Felton off the inbound on a drive
4. Morrison off a Felton or DJ drive and dish (yup, before Matty)
5. DJ off the inbound on a drive

[BigSlam]

Ammo's been "on" of late hitting buzzer beaters. Might be hard to go past option #4 I think!!

[Walt Cronkite]

If we need a 3 to tie:
JRich
CAmmo
DJ
Felton
Wallace

2 to tie:
JRich
Wallace
CAmmo
Felton or DJ, depending on who's hot/who can get the ball from the inbounder

Herein lies the problem... sure, I combined Carroll and Morrison, but they're rarely both on. Either way, I can't think of more than 5 people I'd trust to win or tie the game for us and there are no bigs on my list. Poor collection of talent.

[W_HAMILTON]

From my memory, I don't believe we've ever had a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot, so whatever we've been doing ain't working.

So, give it to Okafor, give it to Ajinca, give it to Brown, give it to that new guy, let them have their opportunities.

It would probably be best to have Richardson (at the 3pt line) pass it to Wallace (in the post), and let Wallace try to go one on one, and if Richardson's man gambles, pass it back out to Richardson and let him shoot it. Put another 3pt shooter at the top of the arc and they can have the same role if their guy tries to double team Wallace.

Depending on the size of the opposing team's PF, in all end-game situations, I would probably use Okafor/Wallace/Richardson/3pt shooter/PG. Let almost everyone be outside the 3pt line except for Wallace, and let Okafor rush in and try to get an offensive rebound as the shot goes up.

[Walt Cronkite]

I agree to let Okafor rush in and try to Oreb, he's the great outlier though. I have no idea how to incorporate Okafor into an offense, because he seems incapable of incorporating into an offense. Guy seems totally lost with the ball in his hands, but if the ball is in the air he's a champion.

[BigSlam]

Guy seems totally lost with the ball in his hands

Your're assuming he's going to catch it.

[W_HAMILTON]

Your're assuming he's going to catch it.

You're assuming that he's going to get something to catch.

Is an offensive rebound considered a catch?

[fatlever]

if we are at home i'd look to get something going strong to the basket, wallace, felton, dj or jrich. away i'd probably look to find jrich, dj, ammo or may for an open jumper.

sadly, this thread points to one of the main flaws of this roster. we have 3 players making 10+, and 2 more players we drafted in the top 5 and none have shown an ability to be a go to scorer in the last 2 minutes... or even a player who can consistently get others open shots in the last 2 minutes.

maybe dj can develop into that player for us.

[BigSlam]

Your're assuming he's going to catch it.

You're assuming that he's going to get something to catch.

Is an offensive rebound considered a catch?

Fact is he is not reliable enough to catch the ball and even if he does catch it, he's not reliable enough to not turn it over or to finish the shot. And if he gets fouled, he sure isn't reliable enough to make his shots at the line.

[fatlever]

And if he gets fouled, he sure isn't reliable enough to make his shots at the line.

that is reasons number 1 thru 100 why its hard to justify running a post up play for okafor at the end of a game. teams will maul him and send him to the line, especially if we are down by 2. if okafor wasnt such a good offensive rebounder, i wouldnt even want him on the floor at the end of a game (offense of course).

[spectre_]

Pretty much what Fats said; we don't have someone we can just give it to. Felton (and I think DJ...like to see him get a shot anyway) is the only player we have...maybe S. Brown but he's even more inconsistent...who can absolutely beat his man off the dribble and get into the paint. What's sorely lacking is what he does once he gets there.

Given some time I think LB will get it worked out. A simple one would be Felton driving, kicking out to an intermediate player and him quickly dishing it to another (like Ammo) who's spotted up waiting to shoot. We need to work on passing anyway; I've seen more movement but still a lot of dribbling.

Regardless, with this team it has to be a group effort.

[W_HAMILTON]

Fact is he is not reliable enough to catch the ball and even if he does catch it, he's not reliable enough to not turn it over or to finish the shot. And if he gets fouled, he sure isn't reliable enough to make his shots at the line.

As I've said before, you play Okafor, I'll play PG, I'll shoot 100 layups. I'll miss all of them, so you have to be sure to get the offensive rebound before it hits the ground. But 1 time of 100, I'm going to pass it to you. Let's see how well you do.

Okafor didn't have a problem catching passes his rookie year, when there were actually passed to be caught. This problem only started sprouting up when his PGs stopped passing it to him, and Okafor instead looked to get an offensive rebound after their most-likely miss rather than expect a pass.

In his rookie year, he averaged a career-high in minutes per game, shots per game, and had one of his lowest turnover per game totals. In each of the subsequent years, his minutes per game went down, his shots per game went down, and his turnovers per game went UP (except for 06-07).

Isn't there a little something fishy about that? The less I touch the ball, the more turnovers I get? Hmm....

It's not a coincidence.

[BigSlam]

Goes the other way too. I'll play Okafor again and you the PG. You pass the ball to me 3 of 5 times in our offensive sets only to see the ball fall out of my hands, bounce off my chest or end up out of bounds. Do you trust me enough to pass the ball to me again on the 6th, 7th, 8th or any other time?

Compounding that is when I do catch the ball and make a move, it's so weak that I get blocked or so forced that I clank the ball off the back of the rim as I am jumping away from my defender.

Or,I get doubled and pass out of the double but rather than hitting a team mate with the pass I hit a fan who is sitting 18 rows back who was just about to take a sip of his beer.

You see that happen again and again and are you looking for 2 or 3 other options before you start passing to me again?

Don't get me wrong, I think that he gets ignored a little too much, but there is no way he's a 1st, 2nd or even 3rd offensive option on any team, let alone ours.

[W_HAMILTON]

If I know the ball is going to get passed to me, I wouldn't fumble it.

That's the point.

Just like last night, when Felton tried like three (four?) layups at the end of the game.

He didn't have that problem his rookie year, when he knew the PGs were going to pass it rather than try to keep trying to make layups. And contrary to what some would like to believe, yes, Knight was able to get into the lane, but he would go in as a passer, knowing that he most likely couldn't finish. That's the difference. Felton goes into the lane as a scorer, and rarely a passer.

The one time we went to Okafor late in the game, he converted. And it was his own doing, that little hook shot. It doesn't matter if you have confidence in him. He might not be "pretty" on offense, but the few shots he gets, he somehow makes them, or else he wouldn't shoot such a high percentage. Period.

What about a player that drives so recklessly that he risks getting injured for 1/4 of the season? Or a player that drives and when he shoots, he has just as good a chance of the ball hitting the rim as he does having it swatted out to the 3pt line? Should they be docked shots, too? You can play that same sort of game with all of our players, so why is Okafor the only one to get punished by apparently being an outcast on offense?

[BigSlam]

You can play that same sort of game with all of our players, so why is Okafor the only one to get punished by apparently being an outcast on offense?

Because he, by far, is the most limited offensively.

[Rich4114]

While Okafor should get more FG attempts, it should be to spread the defense a little and get other guys open shots. Okafor can't reliably score because he has no jumper, and is too small to post up against many other C's out there. Plus if he gets fouled, he shoots a poor %. He does well what we expect him to do, block shots and rebound. That's the big thing you can always expect out of him. He is our Ben Wallace type of player except he's got a nice little hook he can use once in a while. We have to accept that. I'd love it if he avgeraged 25ppg and his normal rebounding/blocks, but unfortunately no matter how many times we passed it to him that wouldn't happen at a very efficient rate.

[Walt Cronkite]

So we believe Okafor has regressed from just a year ago? Last year, he scored 20 or more against:
Chris Kaman--25 points 9-18
Ben Wallace--21 points on 10-13
Tim Duncan- 21 points on 10-14
Ben Wallace again-21 points on 10-13
Beans and the GSW-20 points on 9-14
Kenyon Martin (but no Camby)- 20 points on 8-16
Horford-20 points on 6-11
Dikembe-23 points on 10-13
Przybilla tha Killa-21 points on 9-11
Ilgauskas-25 points on 9-14
Jefferson-20 points on 8-11

This does not include a 25 point performance against Jeff Foster and the Pacers (10-14), a Brendan HAywood-less Wizards team where he got 20 (9-13), 24 points against the Knicks (11-19) and 24 (11-14) against a 76er team resting for the playoffs.

Okafor has some stinker games, but there were a lot last year when he got 15+ points. 22 of them actually and in only 3 of those did he need 15 or more shots (15 twice, 16 once). 37 games where he scored 15+ points and with good percentages too! Okafor can produce points when given shots.

THIS SEASON: Okafor has gotten 10 or more shots in 3 of 16 games. In those games he's produced 16 points (against the Knicks 7-11), 16 points (against the Bucks and Bogut, a good defender. He went 7-13), and 16 points against the Raptors (7-10).

In 5 wins he's shooting 59.45% on 22-37 shooting with 56 points. This is an average of 4.4m/g-7.4a/g and 11.2ppg

In 11 losses he's shooting 53.16% on 42 for 79 shooting for 105 points. This is an average of 3.818m/g-7.18a/g and 9.54ppg

I thought it was really funny when Rich said Felton was the team whipping boy. While he might be, Okafor is never far behind and is always under appreciated in general. Okafor produces when he gets 10 or more shots a game.

[Walt Cronkite]

Also, I think Hamilton raises a really good point. I'm totally prepared to get laughed at, but it makes sense from a playing basketball standpoint. I've been playing hoops again with a team the past 2-2.5 months or so and the time you fumble passes is when you're not expecting the ball. It's easy to watch and do the "UGH! Catch the ball!" but I for one am going to watch the next game that I have clear vision on and see more specifically the circumstance leading up to the to if I can. If Okafor is used to being in position to get orebs because he's had players on his team that are not perimeter threats since day one minus Kapono, Carroll and Jrich it's going to come as a surprise when the ball comes your way and you're not in an established position. I don't remember any successful p&r plays this season, but Felton and Okafor had good chemistry last season running the pick from around the elbow. This season we're setting picks like 25 feet from the basket.

IDK what to do. Okafor could clearly have better hands, but I don't think they're physically small. I think his drops come from not expecting to get a pass, so if we're going to cut slack to some of out players for not being familiar with LBs offense, doesn't Emeka deserve the same?

[W_HAMILTON]

Because he, by far, is the most limited offensively.

If he's offensively limited, what the hell do you call someone that shoots 2-15? That's bs. I don't care how Okafor scores -- he scores. Who cares if you have three point range if you shoot a crap percentage? Who cares how fast you are if you can't finish once you get by a guy?

Is anyone stupid enough to believe that if you gave Okafor 14 or 15 shots, he would only make 2 or 3 of them? Yet that is what Felton has done THREE TIMES in just the past two weeks. It's ridiculous.

Apparently you only care about how the shot gets to the basket, whereas I care whether or not it goes in the basket. If you have shooting nights like 2-15, somewhat regularly, you should not be able to say you can "get your shot off." You are also offensively limited.

You can put Bruce Bowen on me, and I might be able to get some shots off. I'll back up to the half court (or further) until he stops guarding me, then I'll shoot. I'll take hook shots at the 3pt line. I'll sit there and pump fake till he buys it or gets tired of me pump faking for 27 minutes, then I'll shoot. I'll do a reverse rainbow granny shot and hope he can't block it.

Of course, none of those shots may go in, but hey, I'm not offensively limited because I can get my shot off against Bruce Bowen! Who cares if it goes in or not!

[W_HAMILTON]

I'd love it if he avgeraged 25ppg and his normal rebounding/blocks, but unfortunately no matter how many times we passed it to him that wouldn't happen at a very efficient rate.

It's not about averaging 25ppg. If he got more shots, he could average more points, and he could do so by maintaining a decent shooting percentage.

And besides, when has the number of shots someone got been relative to how efficiently they can score? Again, that apparently only applies to Okafor.