Post#1471 » by IceColdCubano » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:31 am
Listen our young guys have definitely improved, Caleb, Vincent, Hero, Bam, & Yurt.
Bam has become slightly more aggressive but almost forced in some ways. The coaching staff is definitely in his ears pushing and unfortunately in some games his confidence some times seems shook and he resorts to just being a hand off screen setter who rolls on occasion. Hopefully he gets better in that regard, probably just being pushed as the go to guy by his team mates will create more habitual in his head to make it more instinctual.
Hero has modified his scoring style, by limiting his mid range game which was 80% of his scoring previously. Now closer to 10%, he has split the remaining 90% into either 3pt shooting or taking to the rack. Which is showing in his increase in free throw shooting, since he began to stop finessing the finishing and just following through with more aggression. He is also dramatically using more screen actions to get himself in his shooting pockets off the dribble and using his rolling screener to keep the defender honest. He is becoming the 3 level scorer we all wished he would become. Really looking forward to the Hero and Bam pick and roll being the primary bread and butter in our offense it could prove to be lethal next year with a full offseason as a point of emphasis.
Yurt, Caleb, & Vince have all improved their all around game. Caleb being the most talented of the three overall currently, with the biggest upside. Caleb can be the 3&D wing player, glue guy any championship contender needs, he is also excelling at driving and finishing over strong defenders which is something we sorely lack, rim pressure. Vince, while regressed in the last couple of games, looks to be in some sort of slump. However his limitations are purely physical, he isn't very athletic, speedy, or long so he will always be a limiting factor as a defender, he also lacks the first step to break the defense down as a guard. He is a capable back up PG when going against second stringers, against starters he falters specially being covered by starting caliber wings. He can however learn to raise his defensive IQ and build good solid habits getting steals he could be more reliable in the crunch. Yurt has the biggest physical advantage of the three due to his height, he also has a very good smooth jumper albeit not reliable as of yet needs more work to build consistency. He has a knack for being at the right spot and does well boxing out to get rebounding advantage. He needs to work on his lateral quickness and build some more bulk/strength in his lower body to create more explosiveness.
Our veterans are what they are, Jimmy is an all around player who needs get plays ran for him, clear outs to go to work using bully ball. Once the ball starts going in he starts to see red, and becomes deadly. On the other side if he goes long stretches without scoring or seeing the ball go his way he forces it when he finally gets the ball into some funky off balance fadeaways that he has no business taking. He needs to stick to his forte late in games, and go get whistles and slow the game down, not take Dwade esq, Lebron esq, Kobe esq shoots thats not his game. Father time is also catching up, because he has never been uber athletic he is running into the body vs the mind of what I think I can do vs what I can actually do problems. Dwade fall into this trap, and learned to recover using old man savy tactics to make up for it. Hopefully he can to or we will be in trouble in the next couple years.
Lowry has regressed in physical prowess and relies entirely on savvy veteran IQ. He showed that in the last 2 years in Toronto although showing even greater now. He cannot break down the defense any more but still has a very powerful 3pt off the dribble. Unfortunately I think he feels the team is surrounded by young able bodies that can score and he wants to be the assist guy, we see him hunt and dribble around looking for them without looking for his shot. Something that was sold to him by our GM as he didn't have to be that guy and could take a step back and just control the game in other ways. His defensive IQ is very good on that end, and has been where we needed him during crunch time moments to make the right play.
Oladipo, I don't know what we have until I see this year end and a playoff under his belt to see more into what he can provide if anything.
PJ has been an amazing glue guy, but his limitations will always be there, were giving it 150% sometimes is not enough because he lacks size. We have paid dearly at end of games from taller players getting put backs or offensive rebounds leading to open threes because he just doesn't have the length. He has been a great corner three shooter, and missing as of late mostly due to being over worked. We haven't had a backup player and have had to rely on him with too many minutes. Now that Morris is back, we should be able to lessen his minutes, and give him a few games off to recover. Due to his size he has to work a lot harder and take more of a beating on his body to get the same output as somebody with 4-5 more inches under the basket. He probably has another season left in him and then its downhill form there, circa Shane battier almost identical.
We have one of the best if not the best bench in the league its been the reason why we have been able to win so many games out producing other benches. if you remove our bench, and compare starters vs other teams starters we are mediocre. That's just because our starting unit does not work well. You can see the analytics where our starters are mixed with some of our bench mob how well those numbers look in comparison to just the starting unit. This is something we need to fix going into the playoff or we won't get far. Mostly the issues are, Bam not being aggressive/without a reliable jump shot, Jimmy getting others involved and not being aggressive early/without a reliable jump shot. Lowry getting others involved and not being aggressive early/refusing to shoot open jump shots, Duncan being an absolute negative when his shot is off and it seems to be 3-1 lately, 3 bad games, 1 good game. He is also a beacon to the other team to go pick out for an easy score, he is probably the most sought out player on the switch. PJ is the only one who connects the dots in the starting unit who works well in all combinations. Our first and 3rd quarters are usually abysmal those first couple minutes the starters are out there.
The biggest problem we have outside of our starting unit mentioned above is crunch time scoring. When the other team gives it the full 100% lock down defense we struggle to score. we rely entirely on ISO scoring, from either Hero or Jimmy. Jimmy has no reliable jump shot and Hero gets locked down when they tag him with the other teams best wing defender. We then go into 3pt shooting galore hoping for a miracle and the more the misses stack, the more inpatient we get, the more mistakes we make and the game gets away from us.
