manifested wrote:This road trip had shown a vulnerability in this team. Both the Thunder and Spurs have put a lot of pressure on the perimeter whenever Wall doesn't have the ball. We're not getting into our sets fast enough and we don't have the athleticism to make them pay by going back door. I wouldn't be surprised to see more on ball pressure in the future until we adjust to it.
This isnt the first time this has been exposed. It just not every team to do that.
That's what TOR does to them as well as other teams. Some of the younger teams do it as well.
That's where you need a SF with handles to help make the defense pay. If you don't have that, your PG needs to be able to break that like a Lowry, Westbrook or Kyrie would. If not that, a SG like Harden or Sweet Lou who have handles.
For this team as constructed, that mostly up to Wall to beak down. As for help, I like Otto out there in those situations. He is long and quick. At some point I want to see him put the ball on the floor and see what kind of handles he has. And actually Webster used to be pretty good as attacking the basket in those situations when he was last healthy. He is also good at drawing fouls. Last night with it being a back to back, Rasual looking a little off and being older, I would have liked to have seen some Webster. And with then getting bodied in the post by Boris, I would have liked to have seen Blair on him. That seemed like a natural counter move.
Worse thing that should happen is what Wall is reverting back to... picking up his dribble. I thought we were past him doing that. Remember when he used to do that all the time? Good news is, he does it a lot less but recently I have seen it more the last two games. Its how he turned the ball over on that last play against OKC. Rule #1 as a PG. NEVER LOSE YOUR DRIBBLE.
These were to good teams, one the road and SAS on a back to back. And they were in each game. Games like that are lost on the margin. That comes down to individual players doing more and the coaching making all the right moves. Wizards just came up a little short. But I expected both of those games to be loses. They are close to being good enough to win them, but not there just yet. Hopefully later in the year they will be good enough to win games like that.
This board sure is funny, it sways from one extreme to the next based on wins and losses. The NBA season is a marathon not a sprint. It`s all about getting your team to peak at the right time and I think the losses to Dallas, OKC and San Antonio will be more beneficial to the team in the long run. 
