Too early for this thread? Perhaps, but Misterearl has got me juiced up for the upcoming season, so I’ll start it off with one obvious key to this team’s success: Eddy Curry’s passing.

Last year Eddy saw consistent double-teams for the first time in his career, and it was obvious that he wasn’t always comfortable handling them, sometimes forcing shots that weren’t there, forcing passes, turning the ball over. He saw these doubles for two reasons, 1) Eddy with single coverage is a scoring machine and 2) teams discovered that doubling Eddy early would rattle him, interfere with that initial pass out of the post, and slow our offense down. It didn’t help that we didn’t have the offensive weapons to take advantage of the doubles. Too often the ball would go out to Jared Jeffries who would brick the shot, or Channing Frye who would pass off on the open jumper. It’s on Isiah for never establishing Frye’s mid-range jumper as a weapon.

Now we have Zach Randolph, and that should change everything. But I suspect that teams are still going to play us the same way initially. We are still going to start things out with Curry in the post, and I think teams are still going to double him early. They are going to contest that pass-out to Randolph because they know that passing out of the post isn’t one of his strengths. So Eddy is going to have to recognize when that double is coming and get the ball out to Zach.

If he surprises the competition (and most of the fans here) and handles those doubles with aplomb? Then we have ourselves one deadly front-court combo. Zach can nail that jumper with the same efficiency of Frye at his best, and can put the ball on the floor and drive too. And if teams are forced to play Eddy in single coverage he will have no trouble averaging 22+ per game, even without being the only focus of the team’s offense. Just check out Eddy’s 43 pt, 17-20 performance against the Bucks’ single coverage late in the season, or the multiple 20+ performances against Chicago’s Ben Wallace.

I court Bippity’s wrath by saying this, but passing out of the double is the single biggest thing Eddy needs to be working on this off-season, save general conditioning. Bigger than working on defense, bigger than rebounding.

Channing Frye suffered last season when Eddy became the focus of the offense. This doesn’t bode well for the Randolph-Curry pairing. And if that doesn’t go well next season? Nothing will.

too early for this thread.

So Eddy is going to have to recognize when that double is coming and get the ball out to Zach.

is zach and eddy playing on the same side of the court or is eddy throwing it across the paint?

eddy needs to learn to get the ball back out to the guards quicker...but it's up to the guards to have the anticipation and instincts to swing it around to the other side of the court - something they did not exhibit last season.

inside defense is a big problem (as is perimeter defense) but i don't see our guards making our other players better or allowing our offense to run smoothly. now i don't know if that's a product of the offense itself or b/c our guards first instinct is to score and not dish.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 08-06-2007 12:05 PM]

Yeah, I don't think Zach is going to change the double teams. Teams are still going to double, and the doubles will still come from the guards. Eddie definitely needs to improve on this.

Now as for passing out of the double teams being the most important improvement. I don't think it's crazy to think that way, and I will hold onto my wrath for now. I do however think offense is not something we need to fix right away. I think fixing our defense is the quickest way for us to make a leap of 3 or 4 wins. By focusing on improving Eddie's overall effort you will see his rebounding and defense improve at the same time, instead of just focusing on one item. After we fix his effort levels than we can focus on the individual skillsets.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 06-08-2007 12:16 PM]

Posted by nixluva:

Very interesting take on the key issue for this season. Passing IMO is extremely important to this teams success. We were an Awful team in terms of TO's. They should be ashamed to avg more than 17 TO's a game. It effected our D to a great extent, cuz all those easy baskets made things hard for us. We simply must get better at sharing the ball and lowering the TO rate. For the offense to work, passing is of the utmost importance.

I think that perhaps this may lead to Isiah starting Steph and Jamal, cuz they would give us better passing IMO. Then he could bring in Mardy off the bench and him being a taller guard, with a good passing angle, would be a huge benefit. I get the sense that Nate will be gone, despite his attempts at improving his PG play. We don't need a small PG. Jamal and Mardy would be our best post feeders and they like doing it. You see many more easy alleyoops when those two are in there. Zach and Curry would really benefit from that arrangement. One thing I observed was that Eddy seemed to do better passing back out to Mardy and taller players in general. If your not a very good passer having a bigger target does make it easier.

Our Team D is another really big part of the equation. I don't expect this team will be a very good defensive team, but they must improve how they defend as a team. They have to get to the point where they react as one and stop all the missed assignments and breakdowns. It's not physical, it's mental. In the past this team has played D in spurts. That has to stop. They have to be committed to team defense from the very start. We'll see if Isiah can get them to do that. I don't have a lot of confidence in that happening. I have more confidence that they'll be more efficient offensively and allow fewer opportunities for teams to run on them. Part of this team's D will be it's offense. Getting to the line will slow things down. With Zach here now this team should continue to be a league leader in FTA's. We'll score a lot, but we must at least shut down the 3pt line. Steph, Q, Jamal, Mardy & Balk have to move their feet and get a hand in the face of 3pt shooters. IF they can't, it's gonna make things tough again this year.

hater

Posted by djsunyc:

too early for this thread.

You know that there's another trade coming, so we might as well hold off.
If Dickau and Jones are taking someone's minutes, this is a whole different team.
If you assume that we're trading those guys and consolidating salaries bringing a player back then that guy will have some impact as well. You could trade those two for Ricky Davis' expiring, or those two plus a JJ for J-Will's expiring.

I get the feeling that Isiah wants to bring back another major player though.

Posted by arkrud:

The passing out problem for Eddy is bi-product of bad passing to him in first place.
If he is in good position it is no need to pass out. If the inside pass coming too early or too late Eddy need to adjust the position and repost - so all this is on guards.
If Eddy will play with Nash or Kid he will have 10-15 easy baskets each game.
Steph usually is passing late.
Jamal is good to throw risky alee-oops and that’s it
Nate is looking for shot first.
Mardy has the best ability to do the right pass to Eddy and I will put Lee at second place with it (shame for our guards)
Zack's presence complicated offense even more. The great PG (see above) will benefit from this right away (as well as both post players) but average or bad passers (which we have) will be confused even more and I expect TO to increase.

Fair assessment of the passing skills of our players. I don't know if I expect them to get worse at passing tho. It would seem to me that adding another guy who can catch anything thrown in his direction would actually help, not hurt. I LOVE Lee's passing ability. I was just watching an old recording of the Knicks vs Wiz and Lee made a beautiful touch pass to Curry for a score and you can see how he thinks ahead of the play.

I'm hopeful that Isiah will give mardy more a chance to be in there, cuz he is about the only guard that thinks Pass 1st and 2nd. His size is a big plus and he clearly got better the more he played. Curry and Mardy started to develop some good chemistry. I can see him easily doing the same with Zach. He's not flashy. Just gets the job done and he doesn't make the pass too late either.

It's also true that Isiah has another move to make. I really think his best move is to clear some space and get rid of Jared. I don't have anything against him except that we have better options and he's in the way. I kind of feel the same way about Nate. He's a fun player, but if we moved him that's another open spot cleared. If we could clear the way for Balkman, Chan and DNich, I think that would give us the best fit for our needs. Even tho Chan and DNich are green they just fit better IMO. DNich is a lowercase Rip type of guy. Just let him run around and catch and shoot. That would already occupy the attention of one defender, so that Zach, Curry & Lee will be more open. I say why waste time. Just make room for these guys and start the process of developing things with them. It's not just about this year but the many years to come.

Posted by COSSUCKS:

Malik is the best post feeder on the team. Thats the problem.

Yeah that was really crazy how much better things looked when Malik was making the pass. It made you wonder what the heck the other guys are doing when he can make it look so easy? Part of what made it so easy was that it was a surprise. His defender wasn't so keyed on trying to stop him from making the pass from where he was making it. Malik was usually right in the middle of the court at the FT line area. His defender really couldn't leave him to try and double Curry, cuz he was in a very dangerous position to attack the basket if they did. I think Lee is just as good when given a chance in the same spot. Just to bring it up, this was by design from Isiah, so we have to give him some credit for using that play.

Mardy just needs more time from what I saw. He was making some good passes too. But just remember that when a guard is making the entry pass his defender is a quick guard who can drop off and crowd Curry. If Mardy was a greater threat to shoot it, they wouldn't back off of him so readily. Let's hope he improves his shot.

Posted by COSSUCKS:

Malik is the best post feeder on the team. Thats the problem.

I think that is a result of playing in a team oriented offense with another great offensive player in Tim Duncan. Those guys were trained over and over again on how to feed the low post.

Here we are just learning. I think some of the guys will get better at it. But the truth is, no matter how much you work on it, Jamal and Nate are shoot first 2 guards and Steph is a scoring PG. Their games are about scoring. Even if they were also very skilled at moving the ball they still would be shoot first players by definition. I like the addition of Mardy because you can put him at the 2 and have a reliable passer at the position. Ideally I think you replace a Nate or a Jamal with a true pass first defensive PG. Why wait 2-10 years for them to learn when you can find one that can actually do it.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by COSSUCKS:

Malik is the best post feeder on the team. Thats the problem.

I think that is a result of playing in a team oriented offense with another great offensive player in Tim Duncan. Those guys were trained over and over again on how to feed the low post.

Here we are just learning. I think some of the guys will get better at it. But the truth is, no matter how much you work on it, Jamal and Nate are shoot first 2 guards and Steph is a scoring PG. Their games are about scoring. Even if they were also very skilled at moving the ball they still would be shoot first players by definition. I like the addition of Mardy because you can put him at the 2 and have a reliable passer at the position. Ideally I think you replace a Nate or a Jamal with a true pass first defensive PG. Why wait 2-10 years for them to learn when you can find one that can actually do it.

Don't you need your SG to be able to shoot? If you're putting him in there to pass, why not as the PG?

Now what about the Free Throws? I still think we can pick up 4-5 games simply by hiring a FT coach and turning guys like Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury into more reliable FT shooters. Eddy gets to the line so much and gives away 6-8 points a night probably on his misses.