Posted by martin:
I think there is an outside chance to hit 40-42 wins IF the offense is clicking on all cylinders and no one is hurt. The potential is there for Marbury/Francis to finally step up in a way that 20/8 can only run it. Those two would obviously dominate the ball (in a way that Isiah planned it with cutting and stabbing at the basket) but I think that would diminish the long-term effectiviness of someone like Curry. However, I would say that if Franbury did step up the offensive output, it would also ease the burden of guys like Curry and Frye in the short term.
The East is full of weak teams in which a high powered offense can dominitate on any given night and force the opposing team to play catchup and play a style that they may not be accustomed to. Run, run, run and move, move, move. Is this good for team development or playoff development? I think no.
The defensive side of things - and namely improvement in rebounding, rotations, getting back on D, weak side D and perimeter feet-movement - will dictate to me how development of the team is going.
My ass is still not out there but you'all get a glimpse of some cheek.
You make some good points. I think in the end like Bip said, we all are pretty close on what we think the max for this team is and even the more realistic expectations. I also agree that I differ in the prospect of this team collapsing. I don't see it happening, but that's just my opinion.
I think that the offensive side of the ball will be there and get better as the year goes along and they get more comfortable with the system. On the other end of the court, its really gonna be about effort and chemistry. The effort should be there right away, with no excuses. I expect that it will take some time to develop good defensive chemistry tho. There should be no way that we allow 102 ppg again this year. If we could get that down to about 95 to 96 ppg that would be good for this team. One thing that will help that is to lower our TO rate. We had a horrendous avg and that leads to a lot of fastbreaks. This is why I tend to harp on the offense so much. Our D wasn't very good, but what made it worse, was our total failure to be efficient on offense. When you're missing shots or just plain turning it over, that puts your D in a bad position. It also had an effect on our players mentality. They didn't go as hard on D when the offense was bad. That's not a good thing, but understandable when it comes to a team that has mostly offensive minded players. They tend to play harder on D when they're going good offensively. That's a bad character trait, but its who they are.
As far as the playoffs go and this team developing into a title contender one day, its a process. This group has to get there first and then we can deal with how they do once they're in it. We almost have to play at a faster pace. That doesn't have to mean playing out of control, just with more of a push to get up court and with higher energy in our sets.
9/7/2006 10:23 AM