GT#59: Mavericks @ Nets |3/1| 8:00pm | YES

[PetroNet]

This isn't even all on PJ but nothing bothers me more than the pace we play at. It's not even about fast breaks or jacking up quick shots. Can we at least get into the offense quickly? So many times Deron just walks it up court taking his sweet time and the offense STARTS with 14 seconds on the clock. At that point we give it to JJ or Brook and the only option is an isolation.

couldn't agree with this more... and i think its a much much bigger issue then the spacing everyone loves to harp on. we move the ball pretty well, but when your up againt the clock at 5 seconds when the double team comes its an act of futility.

johnson and lopez dont really get doubled all that often. we just put ourselves in bad spots and it is also going to force us to iso even more when the offense starts at 14 seconds and the ball gets to jj or brook with 7 seconds left.

We need to get into our sets quicker and run a lot more quick pick and rolls if our play gets shut down. That JJ isolation stretch KILLED us in the 3rd. PJ needs to emphasize pace ALL game long. When we play fast, we play much much better.

yeah, we also need to start running more sets and running more secondary action off the pick and roll. especially when mirza is in. im ok with mirza in the pick and pop, but i think he would benefit much more from spotting up and being the recipient of a kick out off a lopez/dwill pick and roll. either way, our offense is stale, predictable and puts WAAAAY to much pressure on consistent flawless execution.

it isnt a suprise we have so many weak third quarters... its only a matter of time before one of our big 3 scorers shots stops falling or we have a few turnovers. then its easy for teams to go on large runs. we just dont get ANY easy buckets, we have to fight to hard for any points we get

We need to avoid stretches where we score 14 a quarter. It puts us in a giant hole and it happens too often. I really, really feel like eliminating Evans from the rotation would do a lot of good but he grabbed 11 rebounds + yelled at Mirza - so I guess he had a good game

i dont think its that simple. i mean, mirza came in and dallas went on a 17-3 run. obviously we are much better with mirza in. but even with him on the floor its easy to go into droughts running late offense, running the same sets, and relying on not turning it over and consistetnly making non-paint shots for 48 minutes.

we dont score enough in the paint(especially since lopez paint production has plummeted the past month), we dont get fast break points and we dont get to the line.

teams that rely so heavily on "hard to earn" points are going to have droughts regardless

[NyCeEvO]

But lets not act like Evans isnt better then Mirza. Evans is the best defender on the team. He has the highest DRtg and DWS on the team.

PetroNet, you see why Drtg and DWS sucks as an evaluating tool? Blatche and Reggie Evans are tied for having the best Drtg on the team.

First of all, DWS is entirely based on DRTG so if you have the best DRTG on your team of course you're going to have the best DWS. There really is no reason to include both because it's essentially one stat calculated in two different ways.

But on top of that, Drtg and DWS aren't good stats to show how well someone plays defense. All they do is show how much the opponent scores per 100 possessions and since we're last in pace (mainly when Evans is playing, he should be a leader in that because our team and the opposition don't score that much when he's there).

You wanna know how well Evans does against opponents? Look at the average PER, points scored, eFG% against him.


Let's see...according to ESPN, Reggie Evans has PER of 10.82. To put that into perspective, the average NBA player has a PER of 15. So in other words, he is scrub of scrubs on offense.

And then let's look at defense....http://www.82games.com/1213/12BKN12.HTM

Reggie Evans opponents have a PER/48min of 15.7 against him when he plays PF.

Their eFG% is 47.9% and they average 18.4 points against him per 48 min or 13.8 per 36min.

Now, compare this to JJ's opposition. He holds them to a PER of 11.5 and an eFG of 48.3%.

You don't honestly believe Evans is the best defender on the team, do you?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BRK/2013.html

Mirza was given every chance to succeed and he blew it. He was the favorite to start at PF coming into the season and got beat out. I dont get how people think he should be "given" a start or 2 when he didnt earn it.

Can you provide one article that said he was the favorite to start at PF?

Both Avery and PJ have said that he's the hardest worker in practice, but neither start him so there was never a point in time where the coaching staff considered him a favorite to start.

You're just making up stuff to say bad things about Mirza and come up with some very skewed statistical reasons to "prove" that Evans is the best defender on the team, when it's absolutely clear he's not.

[PetroNet]

PetroNet, you see why Drtg and DWS sucks as an evaluating tool? Blatche and Reggie Evans are tied for having the best Drtg on the team.

not to defend the stat, but in general, blatche and evans are probably 2 of our best defenders(not saying much since there are maybe 3 above average defenders on the entire roster).

whose better? lopez? maybe as a rim protector but not overall. watson? he has been good but i wouldnt say clearly better.

not saying evans or blatche are good defenders, but they are among the best of the worst on this team. which is all moot anyway, since team defense wise we are terrible

[therealbig3]

Stop it, Lopez has clearly been the best defensive player on the team this year. Blatche started well, and has regressed badly. Evans has been a bucket of suck ever since he became a starter.

[MGrand15]

We need to avoid stretches where we score 14 a quarter. It puts us in a giant hole and it happens too often. I really, really feel like eliminating Evans from the rotation would do a lot of good but he grabbed 11 rebounds + yelled at Mirza - so I guess he had a good game

i dont think its that simple. i mean, mirza came in and dallas went on a 17-3 run. obviously we are much better with mirza in. but even with him on the floor its easy to go into droughts running late offense, running the same sets, and relying on not turning it over and consistetnly making non-paint shots for 48 minutes.

we dont score enough in the paint(especially since lopez paint production has plummeted the past month), we dont get fast break points and we dont get to the line.

teams that rely so heavily on "hard to earn" points are going to have droughts regardless

I'm not saying Mirza is the savior - we agreed on pace, early offense, less iso - those things are a big contributor to our droughts. Still, it's not rocket science to think that removing someone that is a clear negative on offense, would help us out.

I don't think it's fair to say we're a jump shooting team. When Deron and Brook (especially) are playing well, they get to the rim and free throw line pretty consistently. Lopez in the post is a reliable source of points and free throws. Same thing with Lopez rolling to the rim. These two are easily stopped if there's 3 defenders in the lane or Brook has 4 seconds to score.

It gets much harder to get those paint points or free throws when Reggie and Crash are in there clogging the lane. Hump is also MUCH better at getting to the line, finishing in traffic and even making short jumpers than Reggie is. All these things would help - I just think Evans and to a lesser extent Crash are a giant giant part of the problem.

[therealbig3]

And guess what? At this point, you can't really blame the players, and I mean that in the least apologetic way. Do they suck at times? Yeah. Do they dog it way too much? Yeah.

But overall, hasn't D-Will played quite well since PJ took over? Hasn't JJ been more or less the same player he's always been? Isn't Lopez having a career year? Everyone except Crash and D-Will have pretty much been what we've expected, or even better, in Lopez's case. And like I said, D-Will has been at All-Star form since PJ took over, and has looked like the superstar he used to be since the All-Star break. So underachieving players can't really be the biggest criticism right now.

Slow pace, too many ISOs, bad offensive sets, poor lineups, poor spacing...these are ALL coaching issues, 100%. It's the coaches' jobs to clean that up, not the players. After that, I would say Crash is the biggest issue, because we're getting NOTHING from him, and combining that with PJ's love affair with Evans and playing him 25+ mpg, we have two guys who are net negatives offensively, and not even Miami plays 3 on 5 offensively and gets away with it.

So imo, the two biggest problems at this point are coaching and Wallace. And solving one problem would kind of fix the other. If Wallace played well and became a factor on offense, and improved his defense, our coaching issues and inherent defensive issues would be at least somewhat alleviated...if the coaches somehow got an epiphany and played smarter lineups and encouraged more uptempo basketball, Wallace's regression wouldn't be so apparent.