more...... http://www.clubblazers.com/109-thursday-courtside-notes/ Thanks to Discovery69 for the recap.
I don't think we saw much of Brandon and Rudy together in Tuesday's game, but if the plan is to play those two together a lot, I'm very interested to see how that would work. I'd love to see how Brandon, Rudy, LaMarcus and Greg play together. Those four are our untouchables right now, and if they can form a chemistry with another, that would just be so scary. It wouldn't even matter who our fifth guy on the floor would be. Just take your pick.
Martell! With his 3-point shooting, its perfect for a team of slashers and post players anchored by Oden. We're a better version of the Shaq-filled Magic!
If only he were healthy... I'd love to see Martell with that group. He and Rudy played really well together on Tuesday.
Nate gets so gunshy when the team has a couple turnovers. Maybe they aren't very good at it because he doesn't let them get out and run enough? I understand that he wants us to be a lock-down defensive team (and we've got the pieces for it) and be able to execute in the half-court (playoff ball) but sometimes you need to let the kids run. If we could get more easy buckets we'll be much harder to defend.
A couple? 26 turnovers is not "a couple" I think Nate understands how to get maximum production out of his players, and if that means kicking it down into a lower gear for a little while and then slowly ramping up the speed then I'm all for it. The whole "get easier buckets" thing will come from playing solid defense and forcing turnovers or forcing a bad shot with Greg collecting boards and hitting a long outlet pass to streaking wings. Look at the contrast between the Sacramento game and the Golden State game; when the team played good defense, with a lot of pressure, Sacto gave up the ball or forced a bad shot and we saw a lot of Rudy to LMA or Rudy to Martell, and Sergio hitting cutters on the break. When the defense broke down against Golden State they gave up easy buckets and on the other end they could never get the mismatches they wanted, they played fast, but they were out of control.
I just read the whole recap and this jumped out at me as a very intriguing possibility: I know Channing got a lot leaner over the summer and seems to have added the trey to his arsenal, but do people around here think he could really play the 3 consistently?
I think he might be alright. With Greg back there to help on the defensive end, I think it would work.
