So where ya been? Traveling the world? Romancing foreign princesses? Building a time machine? In prison? On a meth binge? Held captive as a sex slave? barfo
Lurking stalking waiting for my opportunity to make a romanticized extravagant entrance... I realized it wasn't gonna happen so the Patty Mills signing at least allowed me to be fashionably late.
I have never seen Schilly and Bill Walton together. I think we have our answer. By the way, nice to see you again Schilly. It's been forever.
That unit looked bad because: Blake is pissed and pressing; Outlaw is stinking up the joint so far no matter who he is playing with; Rudy is hurt. IF you were to run a bench UNIT of Blake, Rudy, SF, Outlaw and Pryz there should be no reason why that unit could not do well, and in-fact be one of the best bench units in the NBA. Rudy gets to explore creating. Blake is the floor spacer. Outlaw is the gunner/bail out shot maker. Joel is defense and rebounding. However, I don't advocate running a bench UNIT. I think the team should sub differently. Rules: One of Brandon or Aldridge always on floor. One of Brandon or Miller always on floor. Always pair Oden with Miller or (less often) Rudy. Blake and Roy do a poor job finding Oden in the paint. So, start Miller and Oden, run a post offense with Oden (and Aldridge), sit Miller and Oden down first. Leave Roy and Aldridge in to run last season's offense for a while. When it is Roy's turn to sit, bring Miller back in and now have the team try to force the action and run. And so forth.
I hate the pace of the offense. I really think it's holding back the players. We rarely fastbreak and with his roster that makes no sense.
Side note: Good to see Schilly here (I'm DaBullz) Shaq was their #1 goto guy. Oden is at best #3, much like Odom in LA. I agree that the best 5 players should be out there as much as possible, even if it's 5 PGs. I voted that there's not been enough time to make a judgment. If Oden wins 6th man of the year playing 38 minutes/game, I don't think anyone's going to be upset (but him) about the starter label.
Can we nominate you to be the new head coach? Or at least the Vice-President of "Fucking DUH NATE!" Operations? This has been what's killing me this whole time. Nate's theory of substitution - assuming he has one and not just an inhalant addiction - is downright idiotic. "Let's see Rudy is En Fuego and Outlaw is Ice-cold...but it is the 5 minute mark. Hey ref substitution!" What you wrote seems painfully obvious to even a modest basketball fan let alone to someone coaching at the NBA level. Easily Nate's worst coaching trait is his asinine substitution patters based on time rather then chemistry, flow and who has the hot hand. He seems to be great out of the time out and good and getting guys ready for the NBA season, but he is just plain horrible at X's and O's and substitution patterns.
Last year I personally thought one of our biggest if not our biggest weakness was starting games slow. We lead the league in double digit come from behind victories and it was by a wide margin. I don't think that really is a category a team aiming for the title wants to win. It uses more energy to come from behind than it does to get up early and coast. By taking more energy it also leaves players more open to injury or simply beat up. So this year we add a PG with a reputation of attacking early. We have a Center that rebounds as good as our older center, but scores 3 time more and goes to the lines 4 times more often... And those guys are sitting. Let's talk about foul shooting for a moment. Greg and Andre are #1 and #3 in FTA attempts in preseason. Greg and Andre have combined an attempted 48 free throws so far in preseason. Steve and Joel together have attempted 11. For his career Andre has averaged 4.6 FTA per game. Steve has averaged 0.95 FTA per game. Greg averaged 3.7 FTA last year compared to Joels career 1.6 FTA per game. Why does this matter? Simple, would you rather have opponents starting or reserve PG and C picking up fouls and getting in foul trouble? It also tells me that Blake puts little to no pressure on the defense.
Best. Point. Ever. I was never in BBF, so I have no idea who you are, but I'm glad you've made it to S2, if for no other reason than that post right there.
interesting, albeit depressing, note re: FTA's. Blake in 2188 minutes shot 75 free throws (yes, you read that right). Bayless in 655 minutes shot 103. In his career, Blake has 402 free throw. That's in 419 games. In 53 games, Bayless has 25% of the free throws (in 1/8th the games). Andre Miller had 409 FT's last year. He had more FT's in 1 SEASON as Blake has had in his whole career. 409 tree throws would put Miller 2nd on the team in FT attempts, behind Roy.
I think there's a method to Nate's madness. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a few games. He's earned at least that much.
