This is it in a nutshell... This is what I was looking for. But I now want to take it a step further. Aminu is a solid defender overall, but I dont think would be the answer on Dirk long term. It worked in short duration, but by overtime seemed to fade ( Dirk couldnt miss either). I think this will be exposed as well in a full game setting, so what next? You guys already mentioned that Aminu brainfarted in the OT... was it a brainfart or more of him being normal again?
I will add that I bitched aboutDame in the game thread this morning. But I offered up a solution. Couldnt stand watching him chuck, but the obvious solution is to drive to the hoop and get a higher percentage 2pt shot or draw the foul. I think every coach in the nba and blazers fan saw that as the obvious, "Should have done this" option. I didnt care for the answers Stotts had when he was asked about the chuck at the end.
And if Aminu had run back, do we think Dirk would not have been able to pass over him? I dont disagree, trying to get to the bottom of it for a solid solution so I dont have to watch this again on Wednesday!
I want to make one other thing clear too. I am not really trying to call anyone out in particular, just noting and making a point to show that we are often run by the negativity train around here, but history proves that when your positive, more positive things happen. Whether it be in positive conversations, results, whatever. The more negative you are, the more negativity will surround you. sometimes its tough to stay positive in the face of failure, but those who succeed learn how because EVERYONE fails at some point.
Dirk is not a dribble drive threat anymore. He's purely a shooter, albeit a very good one. That's why it's so frustrating conceding the switch because you're just asking Dirk to shoot over chairs.
Right. Kinda my point to the question. SO if AMinu gets back, What next? Dirk is still a good passer and towers over Aminu. I think he could make the pass pretty easily to the open man. Even though there isnt a double, when crossing defenders, there is a moment where its as if your getting double teamed. The other guy can spot up, dash to the hoop, etc. I think Dirk is smart enough to make that next play if we had been more consistent and had shut him down. Sometimes its like Chess. You need to look 4-5 moves down the field in order to determine which one is the right next move, and if you are foggy down the road, then the right move now is unclear. I think Stotts is in this position right now, ever more so with Leonard going down. I dont think he is able to visualize alot of things playing out because of Leonard messing things up with the rotation, but more importantly, limited go to guys to rely on to make those changes sustainable. To me this isnt a knock on Stott's, its lack of veteranship stable play. until we show more signs of leveling off as a core, I think he will continue to have unclear vision about what the end result will be if/when he changes things. This uncertainty tells him to continue doing what he is doing to see if they can improve first, before making too many changes.
There's many ways to guard the pick n roll other than switching. He should've tried one of the many different ways instead of being lazy and letting his team switch and get murdered over and over again. I would've put Amimu on him and hedged, Aminu is easily quick enough to recover to Dirk or steal the pass. If not, Dirk has 6'9 running at him to contest rather then him being able to take his time before shooting over guys that are 6'3/6'4... It's a simple concept but Stotts hates hedging screens.
And hell, we should double and rotate in the low post. One guy doubles, and the other 3 rotate to ball side, leaving the corner skip open. Since the low post player is doubled, that's a hard pass to complete and will need some lost to get over the trap, allowing the defense to recover to their assignment (possibly even picking off a bad pass and turning it into an easy 2 at the other end). If somehow one of our guys gets lost in the scramble, we can switch or redouble..
I hear ya, and I think we started doing that for the most part. What im really really trying to get at is this though... so Aminu does this, but then Dirk figures it out and starts to make the pass in the middle of the play. IF the other offensive player cuts to the rim. before the hedging starts, Im in full confidence Dirk will make the successful pass and then what do we do? I think Stotts is still limited in his options and is finding out through trial and error what is and isnt working with this team. Why does it take so long for him to see that the switch isnt working? Maybe it isnt, but the solutiuon isnt coming when he thinks about it 4-5 plays down the road. So since he knows the end result is still going to be negative. He continues with what we are doing to try to figure that out, or until a viable, sustainable solution is found. Now I will admit, there is one major flaw with my thought. Nothing remains the same, so I dont think you can always wait until the game is clear 4-5 plays down the line. Sometimes you have to take chances and change things even if they turn out for the worse... you can always go back. I do beleive this is part of the issue though, is limited options to finalize the plays in Stott's head.
I don't get what your saying... How would Dirk get the ball before the hedging starts? The only reason we would hedge would be because Dirk would be setting a screen. He wouldn't be an option to pass to and even if they gave him the ball, he would have two defenders around him, and no open teammate. (The guard would stick to the guard). Maybe your thinking of Dirk as the ball handler? If Dirk wants to try to run the pick n roll as a ball handler then I say let him. That's steal after steal for us. In any case where an offensive player is open on a cut to the rim, the defense has to rotate (something we have a problem doing and isn't a point of emphasis in Stotts' philosophy). We rotate fast enough, we can take a charge, or maybe steal the pass. We have long, athletic wings that could steal these passes, but since we don't pressure and let the other team essentially pick the mismatch they want by only running a screen or two, these passes are non existent. The problem is we've gotten burned with this strategy before, and he continues to try it deep into a game before trying ANYTHING else. He is so slow to make adjustments and that's a major gripe with people on this board. You could ask for them to come up with a better option, but it's really as simple as he needs to make adjustments and try different things faster. He needs to do it after we get burnt by the lazy switching a couple times in the first quarter, not after Dirk has reached the 40 point mark in the fourth. He had the same problems failing or making too slow of adjustments against the Rockets when they put big wings on Dame and CJ. That's why a lot of us don't have confidence in him to help us go far into playoffs, where adjustments are key from game to game, and where he fails to realize the ones he needs to make. We'll see Wednesday what adjustments he makes at the start of the game. Hopefully he'll learn that switching guards onto Dirk is the worst case scenario, especially with the other guys out there who aren't hard to guard (Barea/Felton, a hobbled Wes Matthews, Justin Anderson, Zaza, some foreign dude I've never heard of named Merji or something) But I'm not confident that we'll see anything different. If we don't it should be the final piece of validation in regards to posts like this.
The notion that Tom Thibodeau would take an assistant head coaching job when he will probably be one of the highest paid coaches in the league when he finds a job, is just silly...
I don't understand how 100% of this forum is not freakin outraged at Stotts after this game, i think Stotts is in the same coaching tier as Sam Mitchell and Scott Skiles right now. Stotts: "Just pass it to Damien and let him shoot the 30ft three, guys" CJ: "but coach, don't you think it will be wiser to execute a team play for a high percentage shot? i mean, we don't really need a three now." Stotts: "SHUT YOUR FUCKIN MOUTH URKEL! I'LL SHOW RICK ONCE AND FOR ALL WHO IS THE REAL GENIUS AROUND HERE!" The problem is Stotts is such a great "corporate guy", he'll never get tossed after this season.
Agreed. He's just another part of the MASSIVE middle tier of mediocre coaches. He's not horrible at anything, but not great at anything either. All he does is let the players do what they (mostly) do best. But there's zero accountability with him in charge. It's almost a shame that's we've been so successful this season, because it basically assures that we'll extend him.
Pops has won 50+ games every season. The NBA season is a marathon not a sprint. When you go all out and play starters huge minutes; over the season it costs your team wins.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duncati01.html Please look at Duncan's first 6 or 7 seasons. pop wasn't saving their best players back then when he prolly didn't have the job security he has now.... Being that he didn't really start limiting minutes until 09-10 season for the best player on the team Duncan.
