Posted by McK1:
Marbury should go get the ball back when he passes it to Rose or AD instead of standing there and start getting below the foul line for something other than a shot attempt.
If any of you read Black Hawk Down, in it they talked about the philosophy of the SEALs to always keep moving always keep probing for a better vantage point. That is what the NY guards don't do. You watch Nash, you watch AI they are constantly probing. You don't have to dribble from three in. Pass it to Rose or AD at the elbow and then immediately hussle to go get it back. Now you are at the foulline wth your dribble and the defense in scramble mode. IMO these are some of the simple things Larry Brown didn't know he had to coach. Larry said Steph isn't Ivey and its reasons like what I just mentioned as to why. AI knows how to move in the half-court against any defense and thats not something he had to learn on the pro-level. From his freshman yr at G-Town he always found a way to put his team in a great vantage point to attack.
I just don't think your assessment of Steph is accurate in terms to how he's played his whole career. Perhaps right NOW under LB he's not doing these things, but Steph has been near the top in terms of probing the defense his entire career. That's how he got most of his assists. LB doesn't want the ball to move in the way you suggest. That's not how he had Billups play. The difference is that this is NOT the Pistons or AI's Sixers, who I might add didn't really move the ball that well on offense during Larry's time. AI was a NUT, then.
Its so easy to look at how Steph looks now and totally forget how he actually played before LB. This team scored 97ppg last year on 45% shooting which was actually pretty good considering the mess this team was last year. We just didn't play D. Mainly Steph didn't play D. Now he does. But LB took away his main weapon and I don't think this squad has the players to support the way LB wants to play offense. We don't have the same players. This team actually NEEDS Steph to drive and kick for wide open shots or find the big for easy layups like Nazr used to get. It would cut down on TO's and help these guys to get a good deal of easy buckets. No one is saying that we have to play that way the whole game, but our offense didn't need a complete re-write, just tweaking. It was the DEFENSE that needed an overhaul.
We could score on anybody last year, we just couldn't stop anyone. All we needed was some better post play, which we now have. We needed for JC to learn how to play more efficiently by taking better shots and driving more. JC did that, but LB has basically wasted him on the bench. Instead of increasing the number of curls for him and letting him get into a groove stroking the ball. JC doesn't need fewer shots, he needs MORE shots. Frye could take over the KT role and more, so we're fine there. We don't have even the poor level of TT at SF right now, but once that gets solved we should be good. With the same offense as last year but with an improved D, we would be winning right now.
12/15/2005 7:46 PM
