Towards the end of the game last night, they put Hedo on Kobe and he really bothered Kobe. Kobe, for some reason, was also guarding Hedo for a while and got burned pretty bad. Will Orlando resort back to this? Of course, this opens things up for Ariza.
I dont think Stan Van Jeremy would try this over the duration of an entire game. This would only get Hedo in foul trouble and most likely take him out of the game. I expect to see more of the same with Lee and Pietrus.
Hedo requested to defend Kobe more and SVG was forced to use him after Pietrus fouled out. Courtney Lee & JJ Redick are too small to bother Kobe in the post, but Kobe had a tough time getting clean looks with Hedo on him. We might see more of this by SVG, but not until the 4th quarter of games. Orlando can't afford Kobe to get Hedo in foul trouble by guarding Kobe for an extended period of time. Kobe will eventually figure out ways to draw Hedo into fouling him and chasing Kobe around will fatigue Hedo. What I'm curious about is why Shannon Brown hasn't played more.
I think Phil uses Shannon to ignite the offense when we seem like we're on sleep mode. I think he is kind of like a player put in to bring energy and jolt us. So far, we haven't been in a position where we've needed that.
