Jamaaliver wrote:Any thoughts on what style of play we will (should) embrace moving forward?
Fielding a head coach with a background primarily in defense -- while building around 4 players who's calling cards are all on offense -- could be problematic.
*Philly largely avoided using Pick-and-Rolls last season under Brett Brown. But Lin and Trae both seem like they'd thrive utilizing it.
*Trae should play off-ball at least a few minutes per night to create open shots for him and backdoor lanes for the other players.
*Pierce states he wants Collins shooting more threes. (Ugggh) And will likely embrace 5 out bball. We saw glimpses of this in Utah summer league. With little success, I might add.
Thoughts?
Concerns?
Predictions?
I think you identified all the issues pretty well.
Jeremy Lin and Trae Young are similiar in many ways. I believe they both do best helping a team's offense hum when they have a springy (or at least mobile & physical) 4 or 5 man who dives to the basket instead of stepping out.
Lin likes the confusion a diving big creates and seems to have strong results when his teams employ this strategy. Lin is not a high leaper so the diving big creates just enough problems where teams can't collapse on him in the paint and he's really good at deciding whether to finish or pass with the roll man on the other side.
When he does not have the roll man, Lin has to use speed to beat his defender and hope he can beat the defensive big down low on speed alone to get off his layups or he has to sacrifice his body to get the layup off because he can't leap above and throw it down. It's why Lin gets hammered even when he scores and why his body broke down from years of putting his body on the line to score on layups using speed and giving up his body. This is the same problem Young will face - he's not as fast or big as Lin and he's not a high leaper either. If he's unwilling to sacrifice his body the way Lin did all those years, he'll be missing a lot of layups this season. He will have issues finishing over the bigs this season if they play 5 out.
The only time Lin played with a guy who could catch over the top was in LA with Ed Davis. It looked great. I'm hoping Collins and Lin can do some of that or Len or whatever big man steps up to roll to the basket.
In Brooklyn, Lin did not have any diving bigs. His diving big was Hollis Jefferson if you even want to call it that. Imagine Prince being the diving big on this team - that's what Jeremy Lin was stuck with on the Nets and that's foolish basketball for most teams and part of the reason the Nets were so bad. They did not play to their personnel.
I suspect Trae Young will largely benefit from the diving big as well the same way Lin and Steve Nash utilized a diving athletic big to their advantage and to keep defenses compressed.
So I Hope the Hawks use a diving big strategy with Collins or Len or BOTH staggered and not go 5 out.
Look at the Rockets. Clint Capella is great for them with their roster because he puts pressure because he is exactly that diving big while you are stuck guarding CP3 Harden and sometime Eric Gordon too.
I feel the Hawk's roster is beautifully crafted to have at least 2-3 guys pick and roll and dive to the basket in Len and Collins and Dedmon. If your roster has rolling springy big men, they should use it instead of falling victim to 5 out basketball.
You could have Lin and Young play together and stagger screen and rolls on either side and with the constant pressure of a rolling big or a weak side big who can dive from the opposite end, it could be brutal for opponents if the Hawks can get it to come together. And when teams collapse, you still have 1 or 2 guys on the perimeter for that open 3.
Collins could be the Ed Davis/Amare this season and he should flourish if Young and LIn are allowed to play PnR basketball.
What I would like to see if Lin run the offense and try to work with the bigs like Collins to create that rolling big man game. Eventually you suck teams in. That's when you have Trae Young come off screens and have Lin hit him for tons of open 3s. And Trae can run secondary action if he catches the ball and the defense recovers.
I believe doing this, you'll have Collins and Young lead the team in scoring with Lin as the 3rd or 4th leading scorer at about 14-16PPG. And the team will play around .500 basketball.
No teams will do this though with Lin having the ball in hand to run the offense and I don't suspect Atlanta will either.
What I just described will more likely be Young working the ball with Lin running to the corners hoping for kick outs or sitting on th bench waiting to come in as a strict sub for Young. Hopefully that works too.
(Linsanity says hi as well, if healthy)
