Hey Nate - where were the adjustments?

Neither does one individual player. Hooray!! Everyone is off the hook! Portland- lets celebrate tonight!!!

 

What should we have done?

We countered Miller getting denied the inbound by having Rudy set a screen off the bat to get him open.
We countered Richardson blowing up Rudy by giving him a quick hook and putting Bayless on him.

The truth of the matter is the Suns packed the key, doubled Miller and LMA, and dared us to shoot jumpers. Pounding it inside was not an option, when we did it was a turnover. If guys like Rudy, Martell, and Batum can't make wide open shots, we're toast. This is a make shift team that is severely out-manned.

I would love to hear the specific adjustments you think should be made.

 

No... EVERYONE cost us the game. Not the coach, not the perceived lack of adjustments.

Maybe we should've put Camby on Nash, and posted up Rudy, so then people would be happy adjustments were made. Or then, they would just criticize the adjustments.

 

My #1 adjustment would be to teach LA how to handle a double team. He is our "best player" out there, and he looks like a deer in the headlights against a double team. Nate needs to teach him to either make his move quickly, or to pass out of the double team. From there, they need to learn how to rotate the ball to the open shooter. If this, alone, was accomplished I would be happy.

As for "giving Rudy the hook early" - he was pulled after getting his 2nd foul. If Nate thought Bayless was a better matchup - he would have just started him. I wish Nate would realize that if they are going to put Nash on our SG, that we need our SG to capitalize! I think Bayless should start and go right around Nash to the basket.

And the defense - OMG the defense!!!! How many times was a big man guarding Nash? There were mismatches all over the floor - and a wide open Richardson every time I looked up. I think Nate should teach his guys to fight through the picks and stick to their man!

 

I agree, everyone is to blame. I just have a hard time with the coach not making any changes to his strategy after he got killed the game before. It's a lot more difficult for me to fault a player for missing a shot than it is for Nate to try doing the exact same thing that got us blown out last time.

 

Teach him how to do this in one practice and a walk through? That's a hefty adjustment to make when LMA clearly doesn't have the court vision. That issue is on LMA.

I'll buy the Bayless starting suggestion. I don't think Bayless is very good, but if Rudy is going to play like he did the first 11 quarters of this series, he shouldn't start. Obviously playing with your starting lineup is a major risk, but I'm with you on this one.

I don't know how many pick and rolls you've ever tried to fight though, but that's easier said than done. Especially when you are defending a two time MVP PG who can take his defender exactly where he wants to. If you go under the screen, he hammers you with a three. If you fight over the top, he takes to the hoop and finds someone for a layup or open three. If you switch it, you have a mismatch. That's the reason why EVERY team in the NBA runs and pick and roll, it's very difficult to defend when you have the right personnel. I've heard Nate say many times that he doesn't want his team to switch unless they absolutely have to, so that's not his strategy. Your suggestion of teaching someone how to fight over a pick against a 7'0" 250lb big man is like suggesting we teach our guys to make every free throw they take. Great in theory, not possible to execute.

 

Running Rudy off screens for three early possessions was an adjustment, the result was 0 points.

Getting Andre free to take the ball up the court, didn't cure our perimeter players ability to make wide open jumpers.

There were adjustments made, not a ton, but it's not like we have a lot of options.

 

If you want to blame LA's failure to handle the double on a lack of "court vision", than go ahead. Shoot, maybe you're right. But LA hasn't had too many constant double teams in his young career. And I believe that handling a double team is a tricky step in a players development, and something tells me Nate isn't doing his part in helping LA adjust. It does take longer than one practice and shootaround to figure out - all the more reason why Nate should have been working on this long, long ago. Still, LA seemed just as lost in game 3 as in game 2.

I understand how pick and rolls work. I can't remember another team that switches as much as the current Blazers. I don't care how difficult it is - they should be fighting through the screens more often. I know that it won't work every single time, but the % of mismatches right now is a poor reflection on the coaching staff, IMO.

 

I agree that handling a double team is hard, and that's why I question how Nate is supposed to handle this as an adjustment between games 2 and 3. We can speculate that Nate isn't doing his part to help him handle a double team, but it would be pure speculation unless you're privy of seeing practice. Obviously the entire coaching staff needs to address rotations out of double teams, and the players need to be able to retain this information. I've noticed guys like Andre Miller and even Greg Oden are much more patient in double teams and don't make the simple first kick out pass (that the opponents want you to make), but they make the defense commit elsewhere and get the ball to a player in position to score. So if a young guy like Oden is able to make proper reads out of a double team, then maybe he's got a much high IQ or make he's able to retain what the coaches throw at him.

As you may or may not know, I get to log a lot of games in the NBA, and a ton teams switch pick and rolls as much or more than Portland.

Golden State, Denver, New York, Toronto, Orlando, Boston, Lakers, and the Thunder (of the top of my head) switch a ton. Fighting through a screen is always the #1 option, but it's an unrealistic expectation.

 

Handling a double team and fighting through picks are tricky. We both agree on that. I guess I just wish the coach could get through to the players more quickly than is being done. Maybe that's the coaches fault. Maybe it's the players. All I know for sure is, if we enter game 4 with the same strategy, I am going to go crazy. That, and I'm going to bed.

 

Healthy debate, it was fun, thanks for keeping it civil! There are a few bashers around here who can't have basketball IQ conversations, but you certainly are not one of them, you understand the game well.

No matter how we get beat, if we get blown out in 3 straight games, I'm going to go crazy too!

 

This series is showing that the coaching in the Houston series wasn't an anomaly.

Nates adjustments (or lack thereof), sub patterns and defensive assignments have been woeful.

These players, under a coach who knew how to utilize them properly, would be giving the Suns a run for their money.

 

Adleman is a better coach than Nate, I won't argue that.

Gentry might have 2-3 HOF players on his roster, we have 0. I'd love to see Gentry make some adjustments if we had a healthy roster and they were playing without Nash, Richardson, Barbosa, and Frye.

What adjustments, sub patterns, and defensive assignments would you make?