Posted by tomverve:
You're right crzy, 3 point shooting is hurting us this season on both ends of the court. It should be noted that we don't have great 3 point shooting personnel-- Q and JC were both volume shooters from 3 last year and both had pedestrian accuracies around 35%. But, of course shooting 35% from 3 is equivalent to shooting a little better than 50% on 2s, so even average 3 point shooting has its benefits. And on top of that there's all sorts of things about how it can spread a defense and help enable the post/driving/midrange game and so on.
On the flip side, we really don't have much from downtown. Q and JC are average in terms of accuracy and on top of that, both are notoriously streaky. Marbury can hit an occassional 3, but it's not a shot you'd want to design a play for. Frye would certainly be an intriguing possibility though, as many of his shot are only a foot or two inside the line anyway and he hits those at a great clip.
Interestingly, I checked Reggie Miller's 3PA during Brown's years with the Pacers and his attempts were actually comparable to his career averages, including two of his most prodigious seasons in terms of putting up the 3. So LB might not be so aversive to the 3 point shot if we had a true gunner from there. Still, I agree, we should definitely utilize the shot more than we do.
As for the D, I don't know what to say. We should be athletic enough to be able to make the rotations needed to defend perimeter Js reasonably well, and we have a coach who's known for preaching D. I'm at a loss for what to say about that right now.
I agree with the fact that we don't necessarily have the best shooters, but we do have guys who can do it from there. And as you say, it's far more valuable for Craw and Q to shoot 35% from 3 than 45% from inside the arc on mid-range jumpers. Shooting 3s stretches the D, and because the shot is worth more, a lower accuracy is acceptable. This team needs to stretch the D to help Curry and Frye in the post and to help Marbury drive.
Brown is notorious for disliking the three as an offensive weapon. I always remembered Miller and thought that was off. I don't have the resources to check out what the rest of the Pacers shot from downtown, but I remember Byron Scott killing us too. But as coach of the Sixers and the Pistons, his teams barely shot threes at all. With the Sixers you could say it was a personnel thing, but he went out of his way to ditch certain guys on his team who could shoot the three and import non-shooters like Lynch and Snow. With the Pistons, he clearly had the personnel and this year Flip Saunders, a smarter offensive coach, has the Pistons running the best offense in the league and taking 7 more three point shots per game.
I feel like I can visualize how this team should be playing and could be playing right now and that's what drives me nuts. I think Brown has a much different vision than me and I don't think his vision fits our current personnel. Our current personnel can win, you just have to be willing to swallow some - GASP - dribbling! and - GASP - three point shooting! as a coach. And Brown isn't able to. Our loss. Or should I say our repeated blow out loss?
12/16/2005 10:58 PM