In a close halfcourt playoff game on the road next weekend, who do we give the ball to? Who takes the shot with the game tied and 10 secs left on the clock? Obviously, the ball must start in either Andre Miller or Jerryd Bayless' hands. With his suspect jumpshot, do we trust Miller to take the last shot? Or how about Bayless? Do we get the ball inside to Aldridge and let him go to work? If a double team came, of course he could kick it to Webster. Or do we run a play for Rudy? Anyone else?
You either let Miller create off the dribble or you get the ball to Aldridge in the post. It makes no sense to do anything different at this point. Rudy shouldn't even be mentioned as an option unless he is spotting up for a 3 off of the penetration of another player. The next time Rudy creates a shot for himself off the dribble that has more than a 30% chance of going in will be a first.
What if no one has a hot hand? Sometimes these games are gring it out games where nothing is going particularly right for either team on the offensive end and you need a Melo or a Roy to step up and create/hit a big shot.
For $60 million, you better be paying a guy to come through in the clutch. We're going to have to go through LaMarcus a lot in the playoffs.
We don't have a go to guy other than Brandon. Our offense will struggle mightily without him, especially in the playoffs when so many possessions are grind-it-out in the half court. It's not going to be pretty w/o him. I can't see us stretching a series to 6 games if he doesn't play. Our guys will fight, scrap, and never quit, but in the end we will see a low shooting % and TONS of shot clock violations (as nobody is able to get a shot off) Lamarcus is truly a 2nd or 3rd option. If he gets double teamed - forget about it. He's not polished enough to push through that. Andre can get to the basket, and he may have a good game or two in a series, he's not going to get the basket for a whole series. Teams will adjust just like they did after his 52 pt game when Brandon was out earlier. Sorry, but that's what we are going to see with no Brandon.
LMA was fantastic last night. I know he did not put a lot of points - but when he was in the game - they double-teamed him all the time and he did a fantastic job of passing out of the double team.
If it hadn't been for foul trouble early on in that game last night I think LMA could have easily gotten up to 24 points; he was largely having his way with Collison and Ibaka when he went into the post and he was making really nice reads when they hard doubled him. For whatever reason, I think Camby's presence on the team has really started to nudge LaMarcus out of his 'wingman' mindset; he's looked much more aggressive and willing to carry this team in the last 30 games. I'm actually (almost) hopeful that LMA is going to have something of a coming out party as the number 1 option in the first round (maybe?)
I'll tell you the reason - once Camby came in and started grabbing 11, 15, 12, 17 boards a night and blocking shots it allowed Lamarcus to take a deep breath. Because of our thin front line, he was being asked to do things he's not naturally inclined to do, and that was taking away from the rest of his game w/o a doubt.
Maybe that's it, but there's just a different 'edge' to LMA lately ... I wouldn't quite say that he's 'tough' or hard, but he's playing offense differently and much more inside oriented, and maybe it's because Camby is such a good passer and can work the high-low with him.
Is Roy officially out for the first round? I looked, but didn't see anything about it in the various Roy injury threads.
I would just be happy if because of this we didn't run a 1-4 flat set for the last 5 minutes of the game. That in itself will probably net us a few wins.
This could be good for Aldridge, who IMO always has to play 2nd fiddle to Roy...his chance to break out and be that go to guy, and I think he will do well.... As good as Roy is, this team seems to just stand a round and watch him when he gets the ball...horrible offense....now they are forced to pass the ball more, cut, screen etc.... and it is nice to see LA knowing that he needs to score...getting down in the post on offense where he is very effective...
And in the fourth quarter. I swear, he's probably scored more 4th-quarter points in April than the whole rest of the season.
aldridge's post game has been very good lately...he's our number one option with miller the second option
