Its nice to have the "blue collar" "lunch bucket" mentality all the time. However, the NBA season is overly long, and then the real season starts. I wonder if some of the team's core is quite rationally trying to conserve energy for later in the year. My impression is that some teams on the way to really competing for the championship, have a year where they go all out to win regular season games, and then they go far but not far enough in the playoffs. The next year the team may cut back on regular season wins, but do better in the playoffs. The offense last year during training camp was designed in part with a healthy offensive Greg O in mind. I wonder if the same isn't true this year? If so, we might well see better play from January on. BRoy saw some of the futility last year of trying to do it all yourself, he saw the limitations of an isolation offense. Given his late season injury last year, and the injuries to the big men, it would sure make sense to me, to throttle back a bit until a "full" team starting playing together later in the year. Anyway, it has kinda been a rule of thumb to not pass judgment on teams early in the season. Once teams have all played about 20 games, where they stand relative to each other begins to be seen.
You must have missed his quote a week or so back where he said he wanted the ball in his hands more and wanted to run more ISO's
Although I do agree that it is too early to read a ton into the situation, I really doubt that there is lack of effort in order to conserve for the playoffs. typically, the teams that do that have a couple things going on. 1) They have older stars. 2) They take the breathers in the second half of the season. 3) They don't blame it on the fans. 4) It is not from a player who was just saying he wants do do more. It's early, and there is lots of time for things to turn around. But Occam's razor comes into play. The most simple explanation is most likely the right one. Simplest -> They are in a slump. next simplest -> Roy is hurt/not fully recovered. third simplest -> problems with unity are affecting play. certainly not the simplest -> They are trying to conserve now so that they will be fresh in 4 months.
Saving energy when playing against the Lakers is a bad idea, IMO. I was hoping the opposite . . . the team gets fired up when playing the Lakers.
No it wasn't. It was exactly the opposite. After Greg led the team in scoring in preseason, without any designed plays for him, Nate told Oden to focus on defense and rebounding and leave the scoring to others. It was obvious at the time that Nate was given a special gift - a dominant low post scorer, but had absolutely no idea to incorporate that weapon onto his unimaginative offense. And that was also obvioius by the way Roy and Oden clashed on offense. Shaq and Kobe made each other better in LA. Shaq made Wade better in Miami. Yeah, I know, Oden isn't Shaq, but there is no way a dominant low post scorer should DIMINISH the impact of a great ball dominating guard. They should play off each other's strengths. Unfortunately, in Nate's system Greg just gets in Roy's way. So, perhaps he should just do as Nate says and focus on defense and rebounding. BNM
