Blue_and_Whte wrote:pepe1991 wrote:I'm sorry you don't like watching Vucevic. He's a very good player, and personally, I enjoy watching him play.
I think it’s a shame that they don’t let him employ his full skill set — he’s obviously an effective and versatile scorer, as well as an elite rebounder, but he’s also an excellent if underutilized playmaker, and his outside shooting is rapidly improving.
It’s also a shame that they’ve surrounded one reliable defender with four guys who can’t stay in position to save their lives, meaning that when one of the other guys blows his assignment (which is to say a lot), Vucevic is usually the one left holding the bag. That clearly isn’t his fault, and it’s silly to blame him for not being able to magically erase his teammates’ fecklessness.
I’m not sure what league you’re watching, but length doesn’t matter much in the modern NBA. Obviously, you need players with decent size for their positions, but when does an inch or two of height make a difference? When a player is taking contested jumpers, and if he was an inch shorter, he would’ve been blocked? When a player hasn’t boxed out correctly, and he’s fighting in order to tip a rebound? Sure, maybe, but these situations presuppose a scenario where this player has made a bad decision in the first place.
Honestly, being "fast" (if you define that word solely in a run/jump sense) is not that useful in the modern NBA. It matters if you’re driving, or trying to keep up with a player who is driving. It matters if you’re engaging in help defense. It matters if you’re trying to start a fast break, or if you’re one of the players getting back to defend against a fast break. But there are plenty of players whose sprinting ability is rarely relevant.
When talking about how the modern NBA is "fast," what is really meant is that it’s increasingly reliant on quick decisions. The slow game of the 1990s and early 2000s emphasized plays with relatively few moving parts: isolations, players backing each other down in the post, etc. The evolution of the last 5-10 years has been to a game which emphasizes spacing, passing, and moving without the ball to get open shots.
What matters most in this game? Not height, not sprinting ability, definitely not leaping ability. Outside shooting is crucial, of course… not only for guards, but for big men. Passing is also important, as is court awareness on both ends — the teams that can succeed on offense are the teams that create openings, recognize them, get the ball where it needs to go, and make the shot.
The correlation between offense and wins has been greater than the correlation between defense and wins for years now. Still, defense matters, obviously… but not in the ways it used to. Fewer players trying to engage in one-on-one heroics means less value for one-on-one defensive stoppers. What matters is adaptability and responsibility: you can’t leave your assignment open. This means you have to stay focused, anticipate plays, and be in position to stop them.
When you look at the big men who have succeeded in this environment, you see guys like Al Horford, Nikola Jokic, Draymond Green, and to some extent Kevin Love. (And yes, also Davis, Embiid, and Towns, who reside somewhere between these two poles, as well as some more inside-focused guys like Gobert and Capela.)
None of that first group of guys are remarkably fast; indeed, some are notably slow. None of them have remarkable length. Green is obviously an elite one-on-one defender, but the rest fall somewhere between average and below-average in that category. But they’re plus shooters, they’re plus passers, and they make good decisions. They’re not franchise guys, but how many franchise guys are there? 5? 10? The point is, they play key roles on some of the NBA’s best teams.
In the last 2-3 years, it’s become increasingly apparent that Vucevic has all the skills a modern NBA center needs — but that kind of player needs to be on a team that can also execute their roles. The Magic have a lot of limited guys and a lot of boneheads, and if one player is executing and the other guys aren’t, plays collapse anyway.
There are six things you can do to win basketball games.
OPPs comment from last game ( that got most thumbs up )
And well stated educated comment on Vuc and the modern,NBA for once.
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When you watch Spurs and their comple lack of athletics, speed or anything yet ,elite defense ( same with Celitics , Nuggets and Memphis) only conclusion anyone can draw is that key for defense and offense is having elite BBIQ players.
Players who are responsible and who don't make many mistakes.
Lot of nba players are capable of having huge nights, but most of players are not capable of being smart, well paced and in position to succeed on night to night bases.
Lenght helps, it's pointless to even debate about it, athletic help , but it does not really matter how long and fast you are if you don't make right decisions and you are constantly out of position or take low efficiency shots. At some point in one or in another games that will come to bite you in a**.
Last night Spurs wanted to be cute and put Bertans in SL ( Gay hurt or something i guess ? ) along with Cunnigham and they sucked. BUt in second they put in game almost 38 years old Pau their team saw major improvments on both ends. Sure Pau is 7'2 with wingspan but he is so slow and so old that even that lenght isn't that big of a factor. What is an factor, whoever, is his decision making on both ends and playing to his strenghts. 23 min 12 points 7 rebounds 5 assists , +/- of +3 ( Bertans -12 , that's 15 point swing ). If game lasted 5 more min Magic would probably lost. Thankfully they did not.
Magic more than anything else need from Clifford or any other coach to teach young players ( and not so young ones ) how to be responsible on the floor. You can't take plays off, you can't take games off and even if you miss out on some play, don't let it be plague that will shed over to next plays.
If you are coach of Magic right now you simply have to sit down with Simmons and talk about his games. Guy is destroying this team .He is beyond usless on offense ( negative win share, 82 off rating, -5 in box score on offense, yet 20% usage rate ) and in same time he plays the worst defense of his career it's time to intervention. Let him off team for day or two, let him spend few days with family,he is no good for team right now.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon
