3 guard lineup.....

[Entity]

Over the course of this season we have seen several starting lineups and even more different combinations throught a game. Thus far Westphal has tried a 3 guard lineup of Jeter, Udrih, and Evans a few times since Garcia went down and this can involve Garcia as well as he seems more of a SG than a SF. Anyway last nights game has been discussed adnausium about the last min of the game. BUT In the 4th quarter in last nights game against Utah Westphal once again tried the Jeter, Udrih, Evans lineup once again. The result. An 8-0 run by Utah. Their biggest run of the game then when we put a SF back in we instantly went on a 6-0 run ourselves.

My conclusion is this. That lineup did not have a problem defending it was the offense during that set. none of the 3 players looked as if they had a clue during that 2 min stretch. I have seen this several times and I can't fathom how a coaching staff that has nothing to do but watch this team play can keep missing the fact that this lineup hasn't even remotely worked thus far.

 

[Entity]

Just noticed Brick touched on this in his grades. I am glad I am not the only one that has noticed it. I tried to look the lineup up on 82games.com but that lineup didn't even register in our top 20 lineups so it must really have some bad stats.

 

[hrdboild]

I think the fact that the coaches are still playing around with different lineups at this point in the season tells you everything you need to know. There haven't even been any significant injury issues for awhile. If this coaching staff were capable of constructing a lineup with these players that everyone is happy with they'd have done it by now. Cousins has settled into his role and he's been effective. Beno has been mostly effective though he's had some bad games here and there. But everyone else on the team is all over the place. I don't like how Donte has been used, I don't like how Tyreke has been used, I don't like how Landry has been used, Pooh has been asked to do too much in the fourth quarter. Basically if we were trying to lose games we're doing a darn good job of it. I've been watching this go on long enough by now that I've given up hope that this coaching staff is ever going to figure it out.

 

[rainmaker]

I hate the small lineup. It's exactly the opposite of what we should be doing, with our size. A small lineup works best IMO, when all the shorties are good 3pt shooters, and can get out and run. Pooh and Tyreke have been below average shooters all season from the perimeter.

But what I hate more than small ball on offense, is small ball on defense, and the glass. We've had our best success this season when we go big, and when Pooh/Beno are not in at this same time. Small ball can work if you throw Monta/Curry out there, or Kidd/Terry/Berea. Those are just examples, and it can work. But even those guys have more size than Beno/Pooh.

The other problem is when Westy plays small ball, and Pooh/Beno are out there together, sometimes Tyreke is also out there, or Cisco/Landry will also be out there. Basically our worst defensive and rebounding lineup possible.

 

[Dr. Spaceman]

Evans should never have to intentionally play at SF. But lo and behold, Westphal just loves trotting out that terrible Beno/Pooh/Evans lineup out there to get its butt rightfully whooped for a while, at least long enough to put the game out of reach for the rest of the team. Another pairing that should never exist unless the team is ravaged by injury is the Cousins/Landry frontcourt. We also get to witness that one pretty often. As Chazz Michael Michaels would say, truly mind-bottling stuff from Westphal.

 

[Sac.1989]

we could see this lineup tonight if dallas go small as a counter measure with kidd, barea and terry

 

[Bricklayer]

we could see this lineup tonight if dallas go small as a counter measure with kidd, barea and terry

But we really shouldn't. reactive coaching is normally losing coaching. It lets the other team put out its preferred personnel, while forcing you to ape the structure with inferior personnel that you would rather not run. Big edge to the team forcing you into their comfort zone. You're normally better off just going big/normal and trying to smash them with what you do the other way.

 

[Sac.1989]

indeed, lets see which way we go

 

[mac]

My biggest issue with this lineup is the lack of rebounding. How many times have you seen us miss a defensive rebound or have it go out of bounds off of us because Pooh Jeter isn't tall enough/doesn't have big enough hands to secure a long rebound

 

[bajaden]

But we really shouldn't. reactive coaching is normally losing coaching. It lets the other team put out its preferred personnel, while forcing you to ape the structure with inferior personnel that you would rather not run. Big edge to the team forcing you into their comfort zone. You're normally better off just going big/normal and trying to smash them with what you do the other way.

I agree with this 1000%. Nothing irritates me more than to see my team try and match up with the other team by going small, instead of taking advantage of our size and making the other team match up agains us. If we were to put a small lineup on the floor against the Lakers or the Celtics, how many people think either of those teams are going to sit down their bigs to match up agains us?

 

[bajaden]

My biggest issue with this lineup is the lack of rebounding. How many times have you seen us miss a defensive rebound or have it go out of bounds off of us because Pooh Jeter isn't tall enough/doesn't have big enough hands to secure a long rebound

If you go back and look at that game, we dominated the boards against Utah until we had that line up on the floor. Thats when the Jazz started getting second chance points and our lead went south.

 

[Bricklayer]

My biggest issue with this lineup is the lack of rebounding. How many times have you seen us miss a defensive rebound or have it go out of bounds off of us because Pooh Jeter isn't tall enough/doesn't have big enough hands to secure a long rebound

This actually has happened a surprising number of times. You just don't even think about it normally until you see that ball fly obviously over his head. It just sands out like a sore thumb. Probably from being spoiled with Reke out there at 6'5".