GT: Cats @ Blazers Thu Jan 2 10PM

[mrknowitall215]

Funny you should say that. I just finished the first half and through out I kept taking snapshots of our atrocious spacing whenever we entered the ball to Big Al. Look: nobody on our team helps our spacing. Guys both are non-threats and take up poor position.

Kemba, at least somewhat of a threat, is confusingly far from the basket. Tolliver gets ignored (I'll get to this in a second).
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Kemba is so **** far he isn't in the picture. Sessions is a non-threat. Batum continues to ignore Tolliver.

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This time Hendo is nowhere to be seen which allows Matthews to be ready to block the middle. McBob and Sesh is just a mess, you just can't find a worse way to space the floor than standing in front of each other.

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Not Kemba's fault really, but Mo doesn't seem to be bothered by the idea of helping out one pass away which generally is a no-no. Finally, for **** sakes, Tolliver is active and is prepared to duck in for a pass. That's my only problem with him. For a great shooter who should help our spacing, he doesn't help ****. He runs three-point line to three-point line which allows his defender to ignore him. Make a freaking cut, will you!? I'm yet to get around to all of my game clip cutting but I will make a 2min video of Josh Smith flat out ignoring CDR and mostly Tolliver this weekend.

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And these three pictures are just a mess. Kemba and mostly Cody just do everything to bother Al.

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That being said, Al himself could do a better job at attacking faster. Whenever he takes his time to get comfy and starts dribbling slowly is when we get in trouble.

I say if Jefferson went to work as soon as he got the ball with a move that involves less than 2-3 dribbles to the rim, then defenses wouldn't be able to orchestrate a organized focus of help defenders around him. My take is that he's out of shape & has to be mindful of how he exert himself on the floor, as you can see a lot of the time he might use a pump fake & get a defender in the air, yet he's stagnant in his stance because he's too tired to make a move towards the basket. It's obvious that he doesn't have the work ethic of a consummate pro

[HornetJail]

Yeesh, those pictures of our spacing are absolutely horrendous. I'm convinced we have better floor spacing in random pickup games here at USC.

[Eoghan]

Kemba, at least somewhat of a threat, is confusingly far from the basket. Tolliver gets ignored (I'll get to this in a second).

Kemba is so **** far he isn't in the picture. Sessions is a non-threat. Batum continues to ignore Tolliver.

Kemba likes to step into his three's, that's part of the reason for this.

This time Hendo is nowhere to be seen which allows Matthews to be ready to block the middle. McBob and Sesh is just a mess, you just can't find a worse way to space the floor than standing in front of each other.

McBob is setting up to screen Ramon's man if Al throws Ramon a skip pass. Problem 1: Sess can't really shoot. Problem 2: Al is a black hole.

And these three pictures are just a mess. Kemba and mostly Cody just do everything to bother Al.

Cody cocks up a lot of spacing, for sure. I don't know why Clifford insists on playing Cody alongside Al, it's easily our worst defensive frontcourt and it's not like Cody makes up for it with scoring. Kemba is attempting to make a shallow cut and use Cody's man to screen off his man to clear up space and make himself available for Al to pass back out but Cody is so worthless on offense that his man can help out instantly in case Kemba becomes a threat.

[mrknowitall215]

Feel bad about this loss, but don't feel alone. The Blazers beat my Sixers by 34 points a couple weeks ago & hit 21 3-pointers in the process as well. A loss like this isn't the end of the season, and shouldn't make the Bobcats the laughingstock of the league. Portland also beat Utah by 32 points, setting a 3-point percentage record, making 17 of 23 shots from 3-point range for 73.9 percent, an NBA record for a team with at least 20 attempts, according to Basketball-Reference.com Charlotte just have to bounce back. As much as I hope their bounce back game is the final game of their 5-game Western Conference road trip against the Sacramento, it might have to wait until they return home on Tuesday against Washington

[GreenRiddler]

I honestly don't see number three happening. Clifford seems to be a coach who strongly sticks to his principals and ideas.

but I assume that you predict number one since you aren't buying the Blazers to the extent everybody else is so I agree with that. They're still the number five team for me in the West.

I am curious which 4 teams you have ahead of them. Cause they have beat OKC (Twice), San antonio, Houston and the Warriors in Oakland.

I know. But I just can't trust a top10 worst defense to, let's say, make the conference finals. The history of the playoffs simply proves it that it's highly unlikely to happen.

I love watching your team and have a soft spot for them but if I had to lay a bet on a series, I wouldn't pick you guys against OKC (with Westbrook), the Spurs, the Clippers and the Rockets (they have scary potential despite their ups-and-downs).

Yeah, hopefully they can improve it, It was 17th in the league a couple of weeks ago.

[LamarMatic7]

McBob is setting up to screen Ramon's man if Al throws Ramon a skip pass. Problem 1: Sess can't really shoot. Problem 2: Al is a black hole.

Ramon is such a bad shooter that I didn't even think of this happening. Moreover, can you imagine Al actually flinging that pass over McBob to Ramon? I can't imagine him not turning it over.

Kemba is attempting to make a shallow cut.

Not really. Kemba entered the ball to Al from the wing and simply cleared that side of the court.

[LamarMatic7]

I am curious which 4 teams you have ahead of them. Cause they have beat OKC (Twice), San antonio, Houston and the Warriors in Oakland.

I know. But I just can't trust a top10 worst defense to, let's say, make the conference finals. The history of the playoffs simply proves it that it's highly unlikely to happen.

I love watching your team and have a soft spot for them but if I had to lay a bet on a series, I wouldn't pick you guys against OKC (with Westbrook), the Spurs, the Clippers and the Rockets (they have scary potential despite their ups-and-downs).

Yeah, hopefully they can improve it, It was 17th in the league a couple of weeks ago.

23rd as of now.

[Eoghan]

McBob is setting up to screen Ramon's man if Al throws Ramon a skip pass. Problem 1: Sess can't really shoot. Problem 2: Al is a black hole.

Ramon is such a bad shooter that I didn't even think of this happening. Moreover, can you imagine Al actually flinging that pass over McBob to Ramon? I can't imagine him not turning it over.

Kemba is attempting to make a shallow cut.

Not really. Kemba entered the ball to Al from the wing and simply cleared that side of the court.

Yes really. They have to go somewhere. What else are they supposed to do? Stand around and watch Al take a middling efficiency shot? None of them can shoot so they won't be defended on the perimeter regardless and there's no place to make cuts or move without the ball b/c Al takes forever to post up and rarely passes when he finally allows the ball to move again. Al doesn't even force double teams b/c half of the league's C's can guard him straight up and most coaches are content to allow Al try to beat them single handedly.

Al Jefferson hurts our spacing as much as having no shooters does.

[catch20two]

Eating up 8 seconds of the shot clock before making a move to the rim certainly don't help nothing but Bonnell's itch to tweet about shot clock violations.

[Eoghan]

Eating up 8 seconds of the shot clock before making a move to the rim certainly don't help nothing but Bonnell's itch to tweet about shot clock violations.

He also sets up shop too far away from the block, so that anybody on that side of the court is crowding him. If got his lardass to the low block somebody like Gerald or Kemba could move to the corner 3 w/o crowding him and potentially have open looks from the shortest 3 pt spot on the floor (Kemba has actually been knocking those down well lately).

So in reality, he is a chitty post player.

[LamarMatic7]

Yes really. They have to go somewhere. What else are they supposed to do? Stand around and watch Al take a middling efficiency shot? None of them can shoot so they won't be defended on the perimeter regardless and there's no place to make cuts or move without the ball b/c Al takes forever to post up and rarely passes when he finally allows the ball to move again. Al doesn't even force double teams b/c half of the league's C's can guard him straight up and most coaches are content to allow Al try to beat them single handedly.

Al Jefferson hurts our spacing as much as having no shooters does.

All I was saying is that Kemba wasn't attempting to make any cut like you claimed he was.