Around the NBA - October 2017

Ball's numbers look good because of one good game. It's a small sample size. He's going to come down.

 

Mehmet Okur was just let go by Phoenix. He's close with Nurk and had a game that Meyers/Collins could a learn a thing or two from. How about bringing him in as a big man coach?

 

Can't we find a big man coach who played in the post?

 

You mean shoot the 3? That is what Okur was know for as a big man. I certainly don't remember him banging in the paint as a norm.

I don't think our guys need much help from deep. I would love a new big man coach but I could think of 10 or more other guys I would rather have.

 

Race card? Please do tell. This is typically something white people say to avoid caring. Please tell me that's not what you're doing.

 

No but there are posts when he goes scoreless in the first 5 minutes of a game.

 

Or, maybe he is a good basketball player in spite of his dad being a jerk.

 

He's not a good shooter. He's a good passer and rebounder. Maybe his shot will come in time?

 

Not with that form, his contested shooting % is gonna be so horrible.

 

Kidd couldn't shoot for shit for the first few years. Not comparing him yet to him, put his game reminds me of him. Interesting that you mention that he can't shoot. But he can dribble, pass and rebound very well. Curious if people would rather have a player like him or somebody like AC who all he can do is shoot and nothing else really.

 

One was drafted #2 overall.... and one was not.

 

Watched OKC v MIN and despite the crazy finish, both teams looked pretty bad for 80% of the game. Depth pieces look even shakier than I thought. I still like OKC's depth a little better, but that largely relies on Patrick Patterson getting healthy.

Towns still looking awful defensively and OKC is currently running about 5 different actions/sets right now.

• Wide pins for PG on the right side of the floor,
• Horns to flare action involving Melo, Russ and Adams.
• Cross screening for Melo/PG iso/post-ups. Did see one of these ran that also has weakside stagger action if post pass was denied.
• Russ/Melo pnr's looking get post mismatches or Melo isolated in the middle of the floor/ft line area
• Early offense includes mostly post clear outs for who over of PG/Russ/Melo grabs the d-board but they will run some double drags with Russ as the handler and Adams and Melo as screeners.

Not enough spread pnr w/ Russ when PG and Melo are at the 3 and 4. Too much my turn, your turn going on right now which is to be expected.

 

I said “like” AC.

 

If you look at Kidd's rookie numbers, it's kinda amazing he got ROY. Pretty shitty numbers overall. But I guess we'll see how Ball works out.

 

A.C. is the same exact player he was here. Smart, incredibly efficient, but no volume. He attempted 12 shots and had 20 pts last night, but he shot only 5 times in each of the first 2 games and had 12 and 9 pts respectively. Waiting for him to shoot more

 

Ball is a good player, his playmaking skills are already almost there, he has good feel for the game. I don't think his shooting will be that much of an issue either, he is probably currently a more reliable shooter than Fultz whose new shooting form is batshit mental.

Pelicans game is so straightforward. Either throw it to Davis or Cousins and hope for the best, or attempt random three point shots from Clark, Moore and Holiday. Clark is perfect for the way they play, literally all he does is shoot long threes most of the time. He had a good game last night. I wonder how that works out for them over the course of full season, I mean they do have by far the best collection of big men in the league, possibly the best power forward and the best center around currently but the quality beyond them is piss poor. You cannot start Dante Cunningham. Moore and Holiday is frankly horrible backcourt too.

 

Agreed - they're almost as good as Utah and Denver.

 

We've got a bunch of teams whose benches are thin because they've stocked up on stars, and then we've got teams like us, San Antonio and Memphis which seem to have a good team philosophy and are greater than the sum of their parts. Now, the Bulls never had that much depth (although of course their scrubs killed us in the final quarter of the last game of the '91 finals) and just won because they had iron men who never got injured, so maybe one of the "star" teams will work it out.

(Unfortunately Golden State is both stacked and has an amazing team chemistry. Or at least, until this week or so.)