WESCO wrote:I just don't feel like their iso heavy style is going to get them past Clevland.
There’s this misconception that our offensive system is deliberately geared towards ISO play. It really isn’t, it’s just that the way this team is constructed it’s evolved that way. And many will think the culprit will be DeRozan. He could do better, but I won’t consider him the main culprit. It’s our big men. We run a pick and roll heavy system. The majority of ball movement is generated in the middle by whatever means, either by kick and drive, drawing defenders in the post, etc. When you run a pick and roll heavy system the onus is then on the pick and roll recipient to make plays and reads. The Clippers run a pick and roll heavy offense too, but their ball movement is beautiful. That’s because they have one of the best passing PFs in the game.
Right now if it’s not a DeRozan or Lowry post up, our big men, namely Valanciunas, are the ones occupying the middle. Valanciunas is not a good passer. Patterson used to be better, but like his jumpshot, his passing has been declining. Siakam and Poeltl, they’re rookies, can’t expect anything out of them. We’re getting absolutely nothing out of that middle area that would lead to great ball movement.
Not to say DeRozan can’t be better. He struggles a lot with passing out of high pressure situations and prefers throwing up bad shots (that he’s been making) instead of passing it out. Though I believe that even if DeMar improved his passing, we’d still struggle with ball movement if Jonas keeps pumpfaking the ball to death.
And I’m not one of those Raptors fans that will quickly discard a player because a player isn’t doing something right. I know Jonas can pass out of these situations. I don’t expect Bogut level court vision, but he’s capable of even being a Vucevic level respectable passer. He just…doesn’t. When/if he ever finds his passing groove he’s going to make our offense a lot more bearable to watch.