Preseason Game 3 observations

1) The trade was definitely a risk worth taking. Yi looks like he can be the real deal. Plays good defense using his length well and understands where to be. Has amazing athleticism and body control for a 7 footer. And a sweet jumper. Needs to avoid foul trouble.

2) CDR hates to lose. Even when the PRE-SEASON game was over you could see him walking off the court pissed and disgusted.

3) Dooling was rusty and hard to tell if his pg abilities will be adequate in the new offense.

4) They are showcasing Hassell and Swift in the hopes of trading them.

5) Devin still struggling to learn the offense.

6) TOs have been high and assists have been abismally low. I expected more assists out of this offense.

7) I think the best lineup will include Harris, Carter, Yi and Lopez. Maybe Simmons or Najera at SF. Yi and Lopez both bring distinctively different skill sets at the 4 and 5 and will fit together nicely.

8) Players that can put the ball on the floor without dribbling off their foot or getting stripped will have success in this offense. Simmons may struggle. Boone, Williams and Swift are best suited at center.

9) Sean looks lost. Amazing timing to block shots and horrible timing to grab rebounds. Waits for the ball to come to him instead of going after it.

10) I like CDR off the bench. No need to start him. We need a good SG off the bench.

Other views?

 

As for your points:

I know it is preseason, but I dont like Franks concepts of rotations and lineups for the preseason so far. Play the guys as if you were playing regular season games. I dont understand why Yi was still in the game after 2 fouls in the 1st quarter let only 3 or 4 fouls. This completely through Yi off his game later on. He didnt want to defend because he knew he had 4 fouls. This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen by Frank.

 

Frank wanted to let him get a rhythm. Didn't care if he fouled out because he has an abundance of bigs he needs to look at as well as small line-ups. I understand that. He won't be doing that during the last 2 or 3 preseason games.

In this offense you don't need a true point. As great a playmaker as Kidd was I would rather have Harris attacking the hoop than Kidd camping out behind the 3 point line. They scored 108 points against a very good defensive team in Boston (even with their big 3 sitting). Last night the big problem was TOs. 16 point differential in points off TOs. Kidd got more of his assists in transition than the half court and Devin is still pretty good at that. Defense was the big issue last night.

My concern with assists stems from the non-pgs. Need to see more swinging the ball. Harris was the only one with an assist in the starting unit. In 3 preseason games the Nets bigs have had a grand total of 4 assists (2 by Anderson in game 1 and 2 by Yi in game 2. None last night). Where are the infamous kick-outs for open jumpers?

 

I think he is more of an undersized PF too, but I think he can guard certain SFs. I don't think his lateral speed is that bad, although I haven't watched him a ton. The bigger 3s like Artest and Granger won't be too bad, but some SGs masquerading as SFs will give him trouble.

I like CDR and Dooling off the bench (for now).

 

yup

 

I think we will need Najera at PF.
he might be capable of playing SF, but he will have to play a lot at PF.

Yes we have a bunch of bigs, but this offense requires the PF to shoot the midrange or even longrange shot, and also be able to drive with the ball.
That is why we can not put Sean, Boone, Stro, and of course Brook at PF. These 4 guys will play only at C imo.

So basically at PF we have Yi, Najera and Anderson.

Simmons, Hayes, Hassell are real SFs... but actually i'm not sure if any of them is starting material.
I think it will turn out to be Hayes and Simmons playing about 20 minutes each, each of them starting some games, with CDR or Anderson moving to SF to fill out the 48 minutes. Hassell should not be in the regular rotation, and preferably on the inactive list.

At PF, I think only Yi and Najera should get regular minutes, with Anderson coming in case of foultrouble, and garbage time.

At C, Brook and Boone should fight for the starting spot, and the two together should get 40 minutes per game. Stro and Sean should play in case of foul trouble, and garbage minutes. (and one of them should be inactive)

At PG, Dooling as not a real playmaker. But unfortunately Devin isn't one either. They are pretty similar players actually, only Harris is lightning fast. These two guys can cover the PG position, but a third one is needed, if one of these 2 get injured.

At SG, VC all the way. 40mins per game preferably. CDR can get all the rest. I'm not really that high on Ager.

 

I do recall a quote from Frank saying that the Dribble Drive System is only going to be PART of the offense. Clearly to get the maximum from the personnel, the Dribble Drive CANT be the only system. There needs to be some more post plays featuring Lopez and maybe Yi. As much as I would like to avoid it, VC ISOs. Pick and Rolls/Pops.

There is too much versatile talent on the Nets to just say - X cant do this or needs to play Y because of this NEW system. IMO. Yeah the dribble Dirve system is cool, but A coach needs to work with his talent to maximize the production.

 

just wait until you see Najera play and hustle for us, you will also want to see him on the floor.

That's what i say too.
But no matter what kind of offense we play, if we want to go 10 deep the regular rotation should be our 10 best players, who are:
Devin/Dooling
VC/CDR
Simmons/Hayes
Yi/Najera
Brook/Boone

That is maximizing our production with our talent imo...

 

I agree.
I just think, that no matter the direction, Najera has to play, to show the young guys the right mentality.

If it looks like we can go to the playoffs, Anderson should not get more that 8 mins per game..
if we give up on the playoffs he can get upto 18 per game.
But in each case Najera should be ahead of him imo.

 

I wont even put a S. Will plug here, but I think you underestimate Anderson. I think he is going to be better then Simmons, Hayes, and Najera.

I agree with you Najera is an energy guy that will hustle but IMO if we depend on him, we will lose in the long term.

 

I think there are situations you can post up Yi.

Lets say you put a lineup of Yi, S.Will, and Lopez. If Yi on offense is playing the 3, the majority of times the SF guarding him would be smaller. I say post Yi up in that situation. Yi needs to develop some strength but I think by posting him up it is a different look for the defense to adjust to.

 

Well, I think you underestimate Najera, Simmons and Hayes

but opinions can differ

 

Then why sign Najera at all? He's here to lead these young guys by example and keeping him glued to the bench defeats that purpose. There will still be room for some of the young guys, but you can't play them at 100% Najera's expense.

 

He's hasn't shown any skills with his back to the basket, though. I agree with Petey, I don't think Frank will post him up much

 

Ryan is awesome. As a rookie, he will be at least as good as Boki was last season. His upside is KVH. Of course he'll have bad shooting days and maybe his defense will be mediocre, but how is that different from Boki, who was the first guy off the bench last year?