what would u do? 1) replace caledron in the lineup with jack- this move is designed to protect caledron who simply cannot guard first string point guards in this league. for instance in today's game- jack would have guarded jameer nelson and caledron would have guarded j.will and anthony johnson; clearly j.will is a better matchup for caledron than nelson 2) give hedo more ballhandling responsibilities in the first unit which allows jack to focus on locking down the opposing pg defensively and eases jack's offensive workload 3) scrap the two pg look temporarily because it isnt working. play around with the notion in practice and if its working- use it in games 4) play amir more because he can close out faster than rasho on shooters and thats an imperative in a defensive philosophy predicted on protecting the paint and closing out on shooters thereafter. also, he blocks shots and rebounds, thats a good thing. 5) insert a legitimate reward/punishment system of minute allocation for bargnani, i.e. if he limit's his defensive miscues and boxes out- play him often, if he fails to do so, play him less. 6)close out games with antoine wright- he can hit the three, doesnt force shots and is the best perimeter defender by a mile on the roster 7) ban management (including colangelo) from the locker room. i noticed colangelo heading into the locker room after the cavs game and i wondered if that was a healthy situation. i believe minutes should be allocated on merit not what management deems is the best for the long term outlook for the team, i.e playing the rookie more than the vet.
1) As frustrating Jose's defense is, I'm not comfortable with Jack running our first-team offense for large stretches of time. He can't keep defenses honest, he's not familiar enough with many of our players, and too often I see him holding the ball too long. I believe his command over the offense will improve over time, but currently, I think any defensive benefits he'll provide will be offset by the hit our offense will take. 2) Absolutely. If we continue to use Hedo as a traditional swingman, he'll never come close to resembling the player in Orlando. To maximize his offensive explosiveness, we need him taking control of the ball more often. I believe that'll happen on its own, as Hedo becomes more comfortable with his teammates. 3) Yes. The added playmaking is of little benefit, and it creates defensive mismatches for our opposition. 4) We need to play Amir in the proper situations. I think Triano's got this idea in his head that Johnson's a defensive stopper, when he simply isn't. He's an athletic player that we should insert when we want to push the tempo or when other teams are beating us with more "guardish" forwards (i.e: Ryan Anderson yesterday). 5) That was Mitchell's strategy and it nearly killed his confidence. Part of the reason Bargnani's blossomed under Triano is that he's been allowed to play through his mistakes. Andrea's too important a piece on this team to do that with anyways. I think you have to keep encouraging him to up the intensity level during games, and continue working with him during practices. 6) I don't want to make this a definite rule, but yes, Triano needs to realize the importance of a defensive stopper in tight situations. Wright should be getting more burn during crucial possessions. 7) I think this is way too presumptuous. Colangelo isn't the only front-office executive I've seen enter the locker room and I don't think we have any real way to know who's actually shaping in-game policies. All coaches know that their teams are balancing short-term aspirations with long-term goals, and its their job to make sure neither is sacrificed too much.
can jose defend starting pg's in this league? no. do his defensive deficiencies create foul problems for raptor starting bigs? unfortunately yes as well. jose is a great guy but there is no other alternative because he's a liability on the floor right now, particularly considering his recent shooting woes. and jack has started in this league before so by no stretch of the imagination his he will solomon. plus, with hedo assuming more playmaking responsibilities it eases jack's offensive burdens.
I think Jose should still start, but we don't necessarily have to guarantee him 35+ minutes a game. If Jack is defending well and playing well then he should close out games. Hedo should definitely start playing a bigger role in the playmaking, thats why we paid him so much money. I think that will come with time though, Jose needs to get used to playing off the ball. After watching 3 games, I am a firm believer that Wright should always be in at the end of close games. Sometimes I think he forces on the offensive end but him being our best perimeter defender so we have to live with it. I haven't seen a lot of Amir Johnson but his athleticism is valuable so I think he should play more when, like Chutney said, the opposing team has more perimeter oriented bigs.
2 points to be made -jack would only be starting in my scenario for defensive purposes and his lack of creativity would be supplemented by hedo's increased offensive duties. -plus, jose is an overly cautious playmaker in my opinion- his offensive attack consists of running pick and roll with bosh and thats it -the other guys on the team rarely get are involved with caledron on the floor -as for amir- i agree u shouldnt play him against dwight howard but how many dwight howard's are there in the league? probably only a handful, so he should be able to matchup favourably with most bigs in the league
I'd definitely like to start Wright at the every least. Would love experimenting with Jack and Wright to ensure Hedo has more ball handling duties and to improve our horrible defense, but Jack hasn't played the best yet. Also, we always complain about how inconsistent Bargs is, so I would like to see more of an effort to get him going. He doesn't necessarily need more shots, but to be put in better positions to score. Right now Triano seems happy with him and Hedo as jump shooters, which is so much less than they should and could be.
Also, while I would like to experiment with Jose off the bench (where he has arguably played his best ball anyways), I would still be giving him more minutes than Jack. We just need to get off to better defensive starts, and we already have a capable facilitator in Hedo.
