we'd be even better if roy can play within this new style and compliment it, i just hope the breaks dont come on - i love to see em run
Someone will have to point out the competition that we've played these 3 games, 2 of which had as many injured guys as we do.
vs garbage teams who were missing curry and jennings. however.... they are making a strong strong case for roy to come off bench. we need a backup pg/pf and we could be pretty good. houston is right on our ass though for 8th seed as well as phoenix.
Against Minnesota (1-17 on the road) that had its starting center go down on the opening tip. Against Golden State (3-12 on the road), that had its star guard and starting center missing. Against Milwaukee (3-10 on the road), that was missing its star guard, its starting SG, and key bench scorer that always gives us fits. Might want to wait until we beat someone decent before making such grandiose claims.
Regardless of who we've played, it's hard to argue with the numbers. Aldridge is thriving without Roy in an up-tempo offense. I think having Matthews is making the current incarnation of Roy obsolete. Roy two years ago? No. Roy right now? Yes. This team is built to run. Aldridge, Miller, Rudy, Matthews, Batum.... this team should be pushing the tempo. Roy is the only guy who wants to slow it down and play in the half court.
We would blow these teams out too with Roy. Are you implying we would lose with Roy against the previous 3 teams? I understand you like entertaining and exciting basketball, but that doesn't always equate to a championship. Look at the Spurs.
The 3-0 record isn't impressive at all, IMO. Minnesota, GS and Milwaukee all suck, and all have injury issues of their own. They might not be playing all that much better, but what they are doing is playing more entertaining basketball. The ball and player movement has been long overdue. What they have done is get an offense that they can effectively use int he playoffs.
The Spurs are very entertaining, they just haven't run until this year. Entertaining basketball is way more than just running. The Spurs move the ball and players better than most teams.
So? (and if you're pointing at the numbers, Roy played in that game when Aldridge dropped 35/10 on Dallas- a far better team than what we've faced in this homestand, but that's beside the poitn. ) The other players play more freely without Roy and tend to have a sense of accountability for their play, rather than looking for Brandon to bail them out. I think once the players, and most importantly NATE realizes the talents on this team outside of Roy, this team can overcome some of the injury trouble. Roy realizing that a change to his game can enhance this team's success is also key. He's still got some skills that no one else on this team has, and he can be used to our advantage.
Maybe the question should be do they play better with LMA at center? Wasn't he at center at the end against Dallas too. Maybe it's not Roy. Maybe we should go to small ball with Batum at PF.
I'm going to quibble with this just a little bit. LMA has been doing great on the block in half-court sets, he's getting better shots because Wesley, Nic, Rudy and Miller (and Camby) all move through the lane, cut and stay in motion ... hell, they're even setting screens and actually running pick and ROLLS looking for the roll man (LMA). When Roy is in the game, everyone clears to the weakside or to the baseline and they stand perfectly still or feign a high screen so Roy can dribble one-on-two. In that offense LMA gets frozen out or if he does get the ball on the block, there are no cutters or motion so opposing teams can double him much easier without fear of guarding their man. Bottom line: I think Roy almost has to move to the bench where he can hopefully be more effective, because Roy usurping LMA's emerging alpha-dog role when he's playing like he is right now? Shit, that would almost be criminal.
cry me a river... boo hoo vs us... Who has our dynasty center out for the year AGAIN and our 3 time all star guard out with bad knees and our backup center returning from injury out with a sprained ankle and our backup PF/C out with a bum shoulder and our starting SF back from a bad shoulder which was surgically repaired last year and and and.... I am not going to cry over spilled millk about another teams injuries until they exceed our cast of players
Yup, yup, yup. We don't have to have a SSOL offense for it to be entertaining, but there has to be moving parts to force a defense out of position. When you isolate a player over and over and over like we did in the past it makes it easy for defenses to guess what you are trying to run. It's a credit to Brandon just how awesome he was at that kind of offense before he was robbed of health, but it's come at the expense of other players developing fully on this team.
Hardly anyone has answered the question though.... do we play better without Roy? I think we do. Who cares who we've played or even what the record is. I think we clearly are a better team without him on the floor.
