jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:
I felt like the team made an effort to make Mobley an offensive hub earlier in the season and the results were pretty mixed. He's still really young and it takes big men longer to develop, but until he can counter smaller players being physical with him, it's going to be rough sledding.
Mixed? Yeah, that's how development works but if we invest consistently we'll eventually be rewarded with consistency.
JBB has a hard enough time remembering when players have been on the floor too long, though, it might be too much to expect him to adapt his game plan to get young players opportunities commiserate with their level.
I mean if Evan can't budge Marcus Smart, that'd be perfectly understandable, but it shouldn't be a problem to find him opportunities to post up guys he can deal with. We've seen him do it. Build on the strengths, hide the weaknesses.
Should be simple stuff....
In fairness, if the No. 1 priority this year wasn't learning how to beat good teams, then they should've just traded Mitchell with two full seasons left on his contract. That was the primary problem with the Mitchell trade in that the Cavs needed to become a good playoff team in a short time frame when there was good reason to believe Mobley woul6dnt get there in time. Our strength of schedule and avalanche of injuries to start the season didn't help either.
All of that said, players have a say in how it goes and if Mobley didn't spend the offseason working on a 12-15 foot jumper, that's on him. There's a limit on how many possession in close games good teams are going to waste in the name of development. Finally, it is the hope that consistent investment leads to consistent results, but the league is littered with players who struggle with consistency over their entire careers.
Again, the key is to play to a players strengths and hide their weaknesses, so even if they never become consistent you keep doing that.
Beating the best teams in the playoffs is tricky because you can't be sure until you get there, but what you can do is try to keep your players healthy, implement habits, systems, nake adjustments; and develop your players so you might get more than you expect later if not sooner.
So in my mind there is no excuse.
Even in the case of Mobley, make sure he's shooting some J's, but do the same with Jarrett because if either can knock them down it would help. But that's not the end of the story, we can still develop how we use them even when those jumpers aren't going down. For instance all an unguarded player has to be able to do is set a screen for a shooter to create a great shot.
It might cost us some games, but its worth it in the long run if the head coach thinks he will still have his job to benefit.