rainmaker
Hall of Famer
I tend to agree. At first after Smart took over, there was a honeymoon period, as usual with new coaches. Then a bit after leading up to the AS break, we were doing some good things. IT was playing very well, the floor was spread and the spacing was much improved, Cuz had room to operate and we were playing off him well, with a fair amount of movement. The off the ball movement was considerably better.
But, it stopped. After the AS break as the season wore on, the spacing went to s***. There was less movement off the ball. Smart stuck Reke in the corner. IT's play subsided a bit. The lineups started getting weird and we went smaller. The rotations, which Smart appeared to have worked out earlier, completely changed from game to game, with guys being pulled early, not being pulled for too long and playing 15-18 mins straight, the defense got worse and our half court offense was stagnant, with many plays ending in a Cuz iso 18ft from the hoop, IT trying to do something 1v1, Reke trying to do something 1v1, or the wrong guys shooting at the end of possessions.
I do think our offensive numbers were misleading. We scored more, as we ran more, and scoring in transition bumped up our FG% a few points, even though it would naturally have gone up a little as we literally were shooting worse than any team in recent NBA history. But even with the fastbreaking and easier buckets our FG% didn't go up that much and we still finished around 20th in the league. My opinion and it's just mine, was that our halfcourt offense just got worse after the AS break, and if it wasn't for us fastbreaking at every opportunity it would have looked a fair amount worse statistically as well. Scoring more did not equate to a better offense. We just ran more.
So it'll be interesting this year. Smart wants to concentrate on defense, whcih is great. But we won't improve much on that end if our halfcourt offense doesn't improve considerably, and we start looking for better shots instead of the first shot. I'd prefer a sound defense, based on going back and teaching the fundamentals, positioning, and having a concentration on running sets in the halfcourt. With a slower pace and more concentration on defense, our defense will lead to enough fastbreaks, as our team did early last decade. We would tighten it up defensively and then break out after forcing turnovers, but we weren't undisciplined. It wasn't just a track meet in both directions which is what it looked like last year. You can be disciplined defensively and have it lead to transition baskets and be exciting, as we were 98-03 or a team like OKC is now, or it can be undisciplined where you're relying on steals/gambling and breaking at every opportunity, and shooting the first good shot, such as Pho or GS this last decade.
As for the triangle, I'm nervous about that. We don't have Winter or PJax teaching it. It's extremely complicated. It's tough for guys who've been in the league for years. Odom and Artest both had difficulties learning it, took them almost a year, and that was with Kobe and Fisher helping, along with PJax. I'm not sure that's the offense to be teaching such a young team. It's based on reads. It's based on taking what the defense gives you. It also requires good shooters and proper spacing. There's a reason most teams don't run it.
Will be interesting.
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