Much has been said about the make up of our team defensively - that we lack a shotblocker etc. But how about on the offensive end? Based on the few games I've seen this season, I think the FO made the wrong decision choosing to pursue "guys that can handle and create their own shots".
Firstly, the idea of players that can create their own shots should already give you a hint of a 1 on 1 style of play. You don't expect Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade to be spot shooters on your team.
Secondly, I feel that our team doesn't have enough guys who can finish strong around the rim. Our 3 main slashers - Tyreke, Marcus and Salmons all aren't the real athletic sort, in the Gerald Wallace/ Derrick Rose sense. I don't think we'll ever see an alleyoop to Salmons for a dunk. The same can be said for a number of our bigs. Chuck Hayes has not been able to finish around the rim, and when he rolls to the basket he usually sort of flips it up. Here's where having Dalembert instead would easily give us 8-10 points more every game. Remember the lobs from Reke to Dalembert? Heck, Carl Landry would also dunk the ball off a feed from Reke. Instead, we've seen our starting bigs struggle at finishing (Chuck and DMC). JJ Hickson has more athleticism but he doesn't have the length that say Stoudemire has.
Thirdly, I personally feel that a lot of our so-called "3 point shooters" aren't real shooters - they are scorers. I may be wrong here, but it's sort of like Kevin Durant VS Ray Allen/ Kyle Korver. Sure, all can score from outside, but they are just different players and somehow have different shooting calibers. One of our best "3 point shooters" in Marcus Thornton has shot rather horribly from 3 the last few games, and against NO had some really bad misses. He played well in other areas, but my point is that if you're going to build a team around driving in and kicking out for 3 point shots, your main shooters had better not be airballing the shots or hitting the frikin side of the backboard from the corner. Frankly I feel that having a real designated 3 point shooter on the team would be a real benefit, kind of what Bonner/ Roger Mason Jr did for the Spurs, or Brian Cook, Horry in his later days etc. I am very strongly hoping that Jimmer can provide us with some steady 3 point shooting - but so far he hasn't done that.
There's no need to have 3 - 4 guys who can create their own shot on the floor at the same time (Evans, Thornton, Salmons, Cousins). You just need 1 perimeter guy and one post player who can do that, and then surround them with guys that can finish or hit open shots at a high clip. I'm sure that's why many feel that ideally we'd start Evans and Jimmer and then bring Thornton off the bench.
This doesn't only apply to when we have Evans running the offense/ distributing. We could have Ricky Rubio (who after watching some videos of I must say I'm very impressed with), but it wouldn't do that much good if guys still miss open 3s and can't finish around the rim.
Firstly, the idea of players that can create their own shots should already give you a hint of a 1 on 1 style of play. You don't expect Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade to be spot shooters on your team.
Secondly, I feel that our team doesn't have enough guys who can finish strong around the rim. Our 3 main slashers - Tyreke, Marcus and Salmons all aren't the real athletic sort, in the Gerald Wallace/ Derrick Rose sense. I don't think we'll ever see an alleyoop to Salmons for a dunk. The same can be said for a number of our bigs. Chuck Hayes has not been able to finish around the rim, and when he rolls to the basket he usually sort of flips it up. Here's where having Dalembert instead would easily give us 8-10 points more every game. Remember the lobs from Reke to Dalembert? Heck, Carl Landry would also dunk the ball off a feed from Reke. Instead, we've seen our starting bigs struggle at finishing (Chuck and DMC). JJ Hickson has more athleticism but he doesn't have the length that say Stoudemire has.
Thirdly, I personally feel that a lot of our so-called "3 point shooters" aren't real shooters - they are scorers. I may be wrong here, but it's sort of like Kevin Durant VS Ray Allen/ Kyle Korver. Sure, all can score from outside, but they are just different players and somehow have different shooting calibers. One of our best "3 point shooters" in Marcus Thornton has shot rather horribly from 3 the last few games, and against NO had some really bad misses. He played well in other areas, but my point is that if you're going to build a team around driving in and kicking out for 3 point shots, your main shooters had better not be airballing the shots or hitting the frikin side of the backboard from the corner. Frankly I feel that having a real designated 3 point shooter on the team would be a real benefit, kind of what Bonner/ Roger Mason Jr did for the Spurs, or Brian Cook, Horry in his later days etc. I am very strongly hoping that Jimmer can provide us with some steady 3 point shooting - but so far he hasn't done that.
There's no need to have 3 - 4 guys who can create their own shot on the floor at the same time (Evans, Thornton, Salmons, Cousins). You just need 1 perimeter guy and one post player who can do that, and then surround them with guys that can finish or hit open shots at a high clip. I'm sure that's why many feel that ideally we'd start Evans and Jimmer and then bring Thornton off the bench.
This doesn't only apply to when we have Evans running the offense/ distributing. We could have Ricky Rubio (who after watching some videos of I must say I'm very impressed with), but it wouldn't do that much good if guys still miss open 3s and can't finish around the rim.
