<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">About an hour before game time, a Warriors official said that small forward Mike Dunleavy had tweaked his ankle during the team's morning shoot-around. The official said Dunleavy was available but that the coaching staff "would rather not use him." A cynic might suggest that's been the case all season for Dunleavy, who frequently has found himself on the bench during crunch time. Dunleavy wound up playing 15 minutes in a 107-96 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday -- but none of those minutes came in the fourth period. Dunleavy, who had missed seven of the previous nine games because of a sprained left ankle, played the final three minutes of the third quarter, but coach Eric Musselman clearly was perturbed after the period's final play.</div> http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ors/8037462.htm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Until the guy learns how to play defense, he is a liability in the 4th quarter.
You know, it sounds stupid but sometimes I would rather see the guys just play hard man-to-man and not help. Most clear looks come from people "helping" on D who don't quite get to the penetrator and who don't defend their man, therefore defending nobody. Just stick to your man. Otherwise, you end up with 4 people playing lazy D watching the ball. If someone else gets beat, they get beat.
The only problem with that is that the other team will get too many uncontested lay-ups. Claxton and Robinson are probably our two best defenders on the perimeter. Its the others I worry about. This is the reason why we give up so many 3's. Guys get beat and others have to help and the Warriors are slow on the rotation. This team needs to work on its team defense, thats the main reason why they didn't get into the playoffs last season.
I think once Dunleavy gets to Matt Harping upper-body strength, he'll be decent to have in the 4th since he won't get tossed around like a ragdoll. Avoiding reaching-in fouls would be helpful too. The only upside I see in Dunleavy is that although he might be slow, he can handle the ball which allows him to create if he can get his defender in the air and dribble to the side of him and launch. Or he can drive and use his long first step to go around defenders or through the lane and use his length to his advantage. I hope he does the latter more because he's got a height advantage against most teams and a nice touch around the rim. His free throw shooting sucks for a guy that is supposed to be a "shooter".
