Kings @ Blazers

[pillwenney]

Yes, and teams don't know what the hell they're doing when inexperienced players don't know what they're doing. It has very little to do with knowing the offense.

But yes, the offense does involve pick and rolls--just not very good ones. These guys don't get pulled because they're seen as the big pieces here. Tyreke being pulled would have helped the team on dozens of occasions last year, but he wasn't because he's Tyreke. But then again, if he was pulled, you'd criticize him for "yanking" guys too early and hurting the consistency of the rotation.

I can't remember ever seeing Westphal yell at any of his players, which may be the problem. These guys absolutely need some discipline. Because there's absolutely no way in hell any coach with any sanity whatsoever would encourage Tyreke to pull up for jumpers 8 times a game.

I'm not saying they don't know what the hell they are doing, I'm complaining about the reasons why they don't know what they're doing and it begins with the man in charge, plain and simple.

They DO get pulled and clearly it's an issue with individual personnel because the chaos is team wide.

If it's a problem with the players and EVERY player isn't following the instructions it's a major tip off that something specific is going on. It's like have a class where the entire class fails, who do you thinks to blame at that point? Seriously?

And I just want to add, we agree with what's going on because it's clear for everyone to see, but the question is why and at what point does a team wide inability to remotely play in your supposed system come to the who to blame stage. So far I haven't even seen them legitimately set up the desired offense. That's inexcusable.

Well, that seems like it would be tough to some extent, with our starting wings dominating the ball too much, and our backup wings playing with our backup bigs (who both aren't good enough passers for this offense).

[SacKingZZZ]

And then it goes back to the coach, why isn't any remote sign of this system he's talked about been implemented to the most minute degree? If you're relying on Hayes and Cousins to make plays, which they have more than proven they can, why are they rarely in a position to do so? Why was Cousins pulled last game right when he started to get comfortable in the post? These are some of the questions I had at the start of last year and I hoped to not have to answer again. Foul trouble is one thing, but this was not the case in the last game until after he prematurely tinkered with the starting unit.

Depth can be good as the season progresses, right now the starters need as much time together as possible to get some chemistry going.

I'm very interested to see what a full day of instruction brings this team.

[pillwenney]

I would again point out that we did try to run it a few times and our guys were moving, but couldn't get open--in part, I'd say, because a lot of them have very little experience moving off of the ball.

[SacKingZZZ]

You don't run your "offense" a few times though. I know they don't get it yet and that's understandable, but the quicker you bite the bullet now the better it will be later on. Being successful even one time in any offense isn't rocket science, nor is it impossible. It can be made really hard though by subtle things like using his name out of the hat method of substitution. Most coaches usually time pretty much every substitution they make when not dealing with outside issues. Adelman was good about that early in games. Pretty much at the 2 minute mark of the first quarter someone was coming in, then that the player taken out was brought back at around the 8 minute mark of the second. Basketball is all about timing and using timing with your substitution patterns goes a long way to helping that. It's the same principal when a person wakes up right before their alarm, your body is adjusted to that time frame and your internal clock is set to that.

[gold_leader64]

This is exactly the concerns I had and brought up when we signed Hayes. I said it before and I'll say it again he is such a liability on offense. People say well we don't need him to score. It doesn't matter if we do or not. Fact is oppossing teams do not have to worry about him allowing them to double team our other players with ease. I saw it time and time again last night. Everytime Cousins, Reke, Thornton, or Salmons got the ball they were double teamed and it usually resulted in a turnover, forced shot, or just disrupting our offense so that we had no flow. And when Hayes is guarding someone that can just shoot right over him it doesn't matter how great of a post defender he is, he might as well not be on the court. This will be a problem in many games this year.

This issue can be solved with ball/player movement, however that's not a bright spot with the roster they've assembled.

Are you saying that's a flaw with personnel? If so, not true. Ball and player movement is something that has to be coached and player movement has to be guided by your system. Especially when you factor in the talents many of these guys have as passers. Just unreal, Petrie has done his job, now it's time for you know who to start doing his. It sucks, it's like watching a drunk fall off the wagon after sobering up and getting it together, I know what Westphal can be, just up to him to realize what worked last year. 11 man rotations, merry go round substitution patterns, and consistent one on one play from the post and via guard probing cost this team the majority of last season in the learning department.

When you have players who are looking for their own shots first, it's more difficult to get the ball moving and therefore players moving to create when they know the guy with the ball is looking to score and not pass.

[SacKingZZZ]

They're not really looking for their own shots first though. It's why there is almost always no clock left when they end up taking the shot. Last year was a complete 180, jack it up, jack it up. The problem is, when you give it Cousins and then clear out, stand there, and watch, what's he supposed to do? There were flashes of getting it with the offense so in time hopefully they learn to work off of him and the best 3 players on the team won't be left on an island every time they have the ball with 8 seconds left on the clock.