playa2 wrote:And here's why.The avg fan in NY saw something in Copeland that our head coach should have seen to help open things up and spread the floor.
Coach Woodson sat Novak because he couldn't get it done which was clear to everyone and his poor defense would magnify him being exposed on the court.
But the question was who did we replace him with in the playoffs ?
The coach didn't have enough of confidence in Copeland to alleviate some of the pressure off Carmelo Anthony and free up Felton more to penetrate and score or dish the rock.
You could never have enough 3 point shooters because there would be nights when our scorers wasn't scoring on a regular clip.
That one substitution caused this team some games against the Pacers.
Indiana didn't hold out of the series anybody who could be an addition to help them win games.
Why did Woodson wait so long to insert Copeland into the series, this is where we lost confidence in our shooting.
Now to make it so bad , even when Copeland knocked down a needed 3 , Woodson pulled him out of the game.
The announcers were being passive with coach Woodson, instead of insisting on an explanation on why guys who weren't giving the team hope actually help steal momentum from the Knicks team with poor play.
This is why the Knicks aren't scheduled to play the Miami Heat next week.
This team was built one way, it was built to have different components(specialist) come together and help us win games.
When Woodson didn't utilize one of the components the team suffered.
We as fans continued to look to see how we would squeeze water out of a rock with Woodson rotations. I don't know how Woodson slept at night, knowing if any other player would have played as bad as Kidd played (o pts) in playoffs they would have been benched indefinitely.
Danny Granger hosted his basketball camp at Park Tudor High School for the fourth straight year over the weekend. He was only in attendance for one of the two days because of a personal family issue he had to deal with in Los Angeles.Like everybody else in the Pacers organization, Granger is eager for the season to start after they were eliminated by Miami in six games in the second round of the playoffs last season.
“Still not over it,” Granger said laughing about losing to the Heat. “I’m over it. It happens. They were the better team. I think they deserved to win the championship. That’s the way it goes. We have to get better.”
The Eastern Conference will be better next season.
Brooklyn, Boston, New York and the Pacers are expected to be in the mix for seeds 2-4 in the East.
Granger believes they’ve got the second best team in the conference behind the Heat.
“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “Brooklyn, they are going to be a threat. Obviously Miami is going to be there, but I think we still view ourselves as a top-2 team in the East.”
The battle for the seeds 2-4 will likely be determined by which team can stay the healthiest. The Pacers were a relatively healthy team last season.
I agree with Granger in that the Central Division is theirs to lose because of the uncertainty of when point guard Derrick Rose will return from his knee surgery up in Chicago.
“I think we’re in the driver’s seat coming off the success we had last year,” Granger said. “We just have to go out and win the division.”
The key for the Pacers (other than staying healthy) is to avoid complacency after they reached the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The players and coaching staff are getting together later this month in Los Angeles for a workout and bonding experience.
“I think we’re still hungry,” Granger said. “When you have that drive you don’t become complacent. We had a good year, but we really didn’t accomplish anything yet. So, we all still realize that and we’re a veteran team and we know we have a long ways to go.”
Anyone catch how Granger said the Heat were the better team last year, because they beat them? Anyone catch Granger saying they are the 2nd best team in the East and his team is playing in the ECFs right now and they did it the whole yr without him?
5/21/2013 10:43 AM
