Boris Diaw is another player who was Draymond Green before Green was. Diaw doesn't bother to stay in shape and is French, so nobody thinks he can play defense, but he can. He also came into the league as a PG but has played C. Green is a very good player (as I've said, I think he's their MVP) but his stats are a product of his role. He has Kerr to thank for his triple doubles just as Diaw had Mike D'Antoni to thank for rescuing him from obscurity in Atlanta. Draymond Green is a poor man's Lamar Odom, only with ten times the drive.
The only defense against Green is to kidnap him before game two and go all 'Clockwork Orange' on his ass. We'll re-program him to believe he is a Blazer and roll him out as a surprise starter for game two.
They would/will iso Barnes and just back CJ down for a near automatic 8' turnaround. Lillard is an equally poor option on Klay as he just doesn't have the length to affect his shot & I don't want him switched out on front court players either for the same reason. Portland just has to hope a prolific 43% 3 point shooter has an off series. I was assured by many here that it wasn't a problem to have an undersized backcourt. I maintain if they're to compete at the top of the league they'll need another starting level wing sized player who can defend & either playmake or shoot. Sure wish we had Nic. STOMP
Three seasons ago the Spurs hid Tony Parker on Harrison Barnes, who had two decent games scoring against Tony but the Warriors still lost the series. If Harrison Barnes beats you in the post then so be it, but really if I'm Portland I would be happy that the Warriors use possessions slowing down the pace and letting Barnes isolate. It beats the alternative of them running you around draining shots and scoring on cuts.
Exactly! I was shocked that it looked like Stotts kept CJ on him all game. Without steph, the Ws can look great on offense with their passing but they are very inconsistent and can become very reliant on Klay. Stop him, take your chances with barnes, make Draymond try to be the #1 scoring option. If they beat you, at least they earned it. But you can't let a guy whos 6'7" and may be the second best shooter in the league keep getting clean looks at the basket shooting over a guy whos giving up 4 inches. It's crazy that I think I am giving the Blazers more of a shot in this series than many of you are (other that kingspeed, of course). The Warriors have got away with it when steph has been out but they have played poorly just as often as they have played well without him.
The theory was that in the rare occasion we faced a tall back court with guards who can actually post up effectively, then we start Crabbe or Henderson. And as it turns out those type of teams are rare. We just happen to be facing the only one that is starting two 6'7" guards. However until someone actually beats GS in a series because they have a big back court, I am not ready to permanently move CJ out of the starting lineup. But I would for this series. If not, I would force the issue and make anyone other than Klay and Green the focal point of their team. Let Barnes post up and run their offense. He is pretty good at it too, but I would still go that direction if Stotts is insistent on keeping the lineup the same.
As mentioned earlier though, it doesn't matter who we put on Klay if he's going to get open so easily via their screens. Harkless on Klay? No problem--Livingston screens Harkless, and now Klay is shooting over Lillard. If Redick could get open any time he wanted, what chance do we have in preventing Klay from doing the same? My confidence in the Blazers being able to take a couple of these games is waning. I'm beginning to come around to @Taylor Danforth's way of thinking: start Crabbe over Aminu, forget about defense and just try to outscore them.
That was a much worse Warriors team, though. In Mark Jackson's offensive schemes, there was a lot less movement and passing, so the Warriors' couldn't/didn't take advantage when the Spurs brought help against Barnes. It's interesting that this year, a lot of talk has centered around the idea that Tony Parker might be borderline unplayable against Golden State because there's no good match-up for him to guard. If the Blazers really defend Barnes with McCollum and don't help, Barnes isolating will be fine for Golden State, because he'll be backing McCollum in for 6 foot gimmies. If the Blazers bring help, it'll activate the Warriors' swing-the-ball scheme. If this were really such a magic bullet, Stotts would have done this from the start...it's not a new idea. Barnes is nowhere near as good as Curry or Thompson, but you make him a lot better by putting someone much smaller on him. He's not a Tony Allen type you can safely ignore.
Barnes hasn't shown the ability to be a dominant post option, even against smaller guards, and he's not good enough to make good reads on pass outs. Yeah this Warriors team is really good. Really really good. So you pick your poison. I would rather not have to scramble around on defense chasing guys because once you get Klay or Draymond going they will rattle off 12 straight and you're stuck in a hole.
Jackson's offensive scheme was a bunch of one-on-one play and he was obsessed with forcing the ball to a mismatch, so he repeatedly went to barnes in that series. If I'm stotts, I'd love for the Warriors to go to barnes every play. Make him show that he can make the right pass, it's not something that he has to do often and is probably the worst passer on the court. It's true that you can't ignore him but he's the guy I'm least scared of. Even livingston, who has a great post game, is a worse matchup for the Blazers than barnes. And what else would you do? The only other options I see are to bench CJ or just hope Klay goes cold and I wouldn't want to do those either. Pick your poison. It's funny that for decades of losing I'd sit at work and daydream about what would I do if I'm the Warriors GM, now I sit and think about how can another team stop them. There don't seem to be a lot of good options and anything you do could create another problem for you.
