BruceO wrote:You guys can criticize his idea but please please analyze what is being said. Theres a reason we are losing. The record speaks for itself. What is the difference in makeup between ourselves and championship teams? what is the difference in makeup between ourselves and upcoming teams? what is the difference in makeup between ourselves and playoff teams we might face? What are the differences in makeup between us the posters and the players?
Now the height, lateral speed, hops, strength, wing span are all advantages. It takes skill to utilize these advantages. Point Blank when I play against a player whose shorter or won't be able to block my shot I shoot over him. If he's too slow I go around him. If he has no cardio I run him around the court till tired. If he's weaker than I am I post him up. Or push him around and repeat it over and over again. Theres no reason he can stop me If i have the skill and the will. If you can't jump high enough or reach high enough to block me there is no stopping what I am trying to do if superior in a way.
We suck at D. Why is this? Whats being exploited? Is it our scheme thats bad? This question has to be asked. So lets look at personnel without any Homer vision and see how they've done on matchups.
Dwight Howard vs our centers.
Our young guys are not strong enough, they were abused over and over with Dwight using his strength over them. They are picking up fouls left and right that are ticky tacky and don't know how to challenge shots without fouling. This is part of the reason I wanted Eddie gone. Not because of the strength reason but because these young guys are not being taught anything inhouse. They have to go to special camps to learn big man skills. Why aren't they being taught. Why no big man coach like the ones invested in by Orlando and LA for their young big man. Those young guys are flourishing
PF:
How would we respond if faced with one of these PF's:
Garnett, Rasheed, Tim Duncan, Gasol, Bosh, Amare.
True those are the elite PF's but thats who we will face in the NBA finals. One of those guys will be there.
Garnett vs Jamison
Garnett has a height, reach, speed, size advantage. Jamison will lack the tools to stop him. You can't expect him to stop Garnett the same way you can't expect Songaila to stop a true center as shown in small ball.
The rest of those elite power forwards have more of the same advantages. It will be difficult for Jamison to make these guys contribute offensively less than they normally would. It's the reason they are elite. They have the tools and they are able to use them against Jamison.
These PF's also contribute to their team defenses giving much needed size down the middle. All these guys can defend C's and PF's incase of switches and have indeed played the C spot.
So when faced with these mismatches Haywood has to guard them. Who guards the paint if they space Haywood away from it? Whats Jamison doing on the C's of these respective teams?
If Jamison defends the PF then he will require help when posted up. Hence the double teams then the quick kick outs to open men and the three point barrages. So who will jamison defend if no the PF who creates a mismatch against him? IF our C defends him then who defends the C?
This is why I feel we are kidding ourselves with him at that position. Although jamison has been a good enough player to contribute in rebounds and scoring. But those mismatches can't be helped. Why develop a complicated scheme to make up for it when we can get personnel that help.
This is why I wanted Gasol when there were rumors of his impending move. I thought give them Jamison please. He is expiring. Maybe he can come back after expiring. But this didn't matter.
SF:
Hedo vs Caron with Pietrus at SG
Lebron vs Caron with Pavlovic and Delonte West at SG
Pierce Vs caron with Ray Allen at Sg
Tayshawn vs Caron with Hamilton at SG
Marion vs Caron with Wade at SG
The common thing that these guys have is they are all longer than Caron. Go back to Wizardynasty and ask yourself if the observations about who wins defensively and offensively is consistent with the history of their matchups.
Caron might be able to defend Hedo. But theres times he cannot due to Hedos height. Remeber the game last year Hedo abused us and no one was a good matchup for him. Deshawn is too short, caron as well. Jamison is his size but too slow. Only one who stopped him was Dmac. Who incidentally is the only one who could stop Stephen jackson as well. Good three point shooting SF's have a field day against Caron. Look what Q rich did.
I've said Caron cant defend Lebron. we had to get Ruffin to defend him that one playoff and dude walked right to the basket and beat us. We now get Deshawn to defend him. Put yourself in Lebrons place. You are facing Wizards and they put a defender whos 3 inches shorter, 40 pounds lighter and not as strong as you are. How can he stop you from scoring, rebounding or passing? Also you can rest defensively cause this guys a jump shooter whos drives to rim are ugly. Don't even know why they foul someone who will miss at the rim. Then all the teams are doing is getting another player to defend Caron. Orlando is getting Pietrus, Cleveland got Pavlovic.
Keep going and looking at the other matchups as well. Whats happening is IF the SF is unable to defend Caron on these teams they have a SG who's able to. The SF then coasts defending Deshawn who's not a threat to score. So the only way to stop this from continually happening is either get a SG who will make the SF unable to defend him. Or get a larger SF so the SG is unable to defend him and the SF has to.
So this is the reason why I've been advocating getting a larger SF. Perhaps in tandem with Caron. It's also the reason I want Nick to develop. For carons sake.
The SG position I've touched on from the SF's persepctive. I think the SG has to be able to contribute towards the Sf's success. Deshawn cant create his own offense, can't penetrate effectively and is generally off the mark. Also the defensive switch situation happens. The better defensive guard would traditionally guard gil and put pressure on him. Rondo, Eric snow, Delonte, Larry Hughes etc. Meanwhile the weaker guard defender would defend Deshawn. Again no liability here because its not like he will go off. This cause gil to struggle. Get a SG who will put pressure on offenses if the PG guards him.
PG:
I like what gil brings to the table. He is able to do alot, penetrate, create own offense, shoot with range, pass. Block shots and excite franchise. His weaknesses are his ability to prevent being beat off the dribble. Also to find a way to help team when he's streaky. He's the only PG on roster thats able to do that. The rest are too small, too old or not skilled enough. Also all bad defenders
So these are fundamental changes that need to change to our personnel. It's something that coaching won't take away. It's why we are 2-11. Moves have to be made. Continuity won't help us solve this unless the young guys come in to plug these holes. It's why the young guys are doing better than vets.
So on roster unneeded pieces are AD, Juan, Dee, Deshawn, Etan, and perhaps to a lesser scale Songaila, Dominic and Pech.
Better replacements I'd target would be off the top of my head who are also young and are moveable pieces are:
1)Jarret jack once his trade restriction is over. Is good defensively. Stopped Gil the night he said he'd drop 50 to 4 points. Is cheaper and better than AD.
2)Travis Outlaw. getting him will enable us to play Caron at the 2 at times. He's clutch and very good sixth man.I've liked him, Marvin Williams, Granger, Thad Young and Al Thornton.
He might be available immediately. Wiretap mentions his being dangled for Mike conley. But what will memphis do with him considering they have Rudy Gay? And what will we do with Dominic?
I was fidgeting with the trade machine and offered
portland: incoming players Mike Conley, Dominic Mcguire (young point guard, Good defensive SF)
outgoing : Travis outlaw
Washington: Incoming players travis outlaw, marko jaric, Darko Milicic
outgoing: Etan Thomas, DeShawn Stevenson, Dominic McGuire, Antonio Daniels
Memphis: incoming players, Etan Thomas, Antonio Daniels, Deshawn Stevenson.
Outgoing Players: Mike Conley, Marko Jaric, Darko Milicic.
1.Portland gets the point guard they want, and get a replacement for Outlaws role
2.Washington gets outlaw, a big PG/SG/SF in jaric who isn't part of Memphis plans or rotation and Darko who has tools not to be victimized in the post plus youth. And is good replacement for Etan. Good backup for either the PF or C spot.
3. Memphis gets three vets of questionable ability who have been starters for a second year player in a pg rotation thats deep, a n underused player in Jaric who is at the end of the bench and Darko isn't at his full potential.
IF (a) this trade gets done and (b) we lose enough to get lucky and get Blake Griffin our lineup would be this next year
Haywood, McGee, Milicic, Pecherov
Jamison,Blake Griffin, Blatche, Songaila
Caron, Travis outlaw
Nick Young (perhaps caron)
Gilbert, Marko Jaric (preferably Jarret jack)
McGee and blatche get more time to develop and chances to play to their strengths.
The thing that bothers me still Is i can't speak for Markos potential performance. If he does well he could spell at the 1 through the three. Defensively I also question his ability. I'd rather find a way to acquire jarret jack. Also other potential under performers can be Milicic, Pecherov, Blatche, Travis outlaw and songaila. They've all shown enough to be considered good. There will be depth but will there be impact.
travis outlaw would have to take pressure off caron both as a backup and in tandem. Options will have to be explored here to allow Caron and Gilbert to breath. Ths will fall in the responsibilities of their backups. A worthy defender for Small forwards would have to be acquired or developed. My prototype is Battier.
The good news is we have young developing players in McGee, Milicic, Pecherov, Blake Griffin, Blatche, Outlaw, Nick young, Jarret jack. And solid players Jamison, Haywood, Caron and Gilbert. We would be competitive now and in the future. We'd be more fundamentally built and all the players would be young and on a cheap contract. I prefer young players, they are cheaper, improve faster and easily moveable. They also develop more on job experience if acquired early
It's just my two cents. Please look at our players position by position as they are currently made up
and imagine you got one of the championship caliber teams and were coaching against us. Or were a player with measurable tools thats better than our current players. Can you beat us?
Currently the odds say 11 times out of 13 even an ordinary team would beat us.
This is a hall of fame post!
