The biggest disappointment with Woodson last night was when he pulled Prigioni for Felton the last 7-8 mins. or so. Priggy left when we were +6 I believe and the ball was moving well all around the perimeter. THJ was reaping the benefits, knocking down all those deep shots. It was the only stretch Melo looked in rhythm as well all night....Timeout New Orleans, then after a break in the action, he comes back with Felton the rest of the way and we look like a completely different team. As soon as we pissed away the 6-point lead in what felt like 10 seconds, it wouldn't have taken me long to go back to Prigs there. Biggest mistake of the game and that's on Woodson (along with allowing JR Smith to continually have the damn ball in his hands time after time with the clock running down looking to make decisions for the team...Another horrible decision where there was no adjustment). You gotta recognize the impact Prigs was having and ride that out the last 5-8 mins or so, whatever it was. To me, that was the game. I just don't get it --- what game was Woody watching last night???
Having said that -- I agree I would do some other things first BEFORE letting Woody go and said as much about a week ago:
#1 - Play Cole Aldrich and Toure Murry. We need to see if these 2 can help us, have a positive impact and possibly be a catalyst toward regaining our winning ways...If I were Woody, with my back up against the wall the way it is, I would have to know what I had with these 2 before I got canned. Simple as that. Steve Mills should wanna know as well. Not to mention that each guy has the potential to give us a much needed lift in 2 glaring areas of need -- in the middle and in the backcourt at both guard spots. I was asking for a 10 game sample for each guy 8 games ago!! This minor move is long overdue.
#2 - If Aldrich and Murry got their chance and didn't have the impact I was looking for, I'd trim the fat at the end of this roster (opening up a good 3 spots starting with Chris Smith's), identify all of our weaknesses and re-tool with some young, cheap alternatives that could potentially fix some of these problems. There are options out there --- Marcus Cousin as a good all-around 5-man; Hassan Whiteside or Jordan Henriquez for some legit rim protection; Malcolm Thomas (playing out of his mind in the DL -- he's looking like Michael Beasley at K-State!) or Kevin Jones as a younger, more productive option over STAT and K-Mart at the 4; and a good young, cheap PG that could give us a different look (increase overall speed & breakdown ability and believe it or not adding more scoring at the point could be a blessing as well) like Pierre Jackson (this could be our very own Kemba Walker right here, a guy with just as much ability as little Isaiah Thomas--more probably), Jeremy Pargo, Curtis Jerrells, or a crafty lead guard that can shoot the lights out like Seth Curry (he's come back down to Earth a little the past couple of games but is still showing a lot of positives---last game he had 9 T/Os but nearly had a triple-double with 9 dimes). Those are the guys I'd have lined up to augment the end of this roster in the hopes of coming up with a spark.
This is my plan before canning Woody. Execute #1 & #2 first. Look for help here first before unloading Shumpert for pennies on the dollar or before surrendering and trading away Tyson and Melo. If I were Steve Mills, I'd have to be completely sure I couldn't win with this group led by Melo before I threw the towel in and started over. A & B before C & D ---> Look to 2 young players from within for a spark; reshape the end of the roster attempting to come up with legit fixes and better options; then and only then think about **** canning Woody; and finally if by the deadline we're still not showing any life at all, then execute the firesale and start over. To me, there's gotta be attempts at a solution first before progressing toward that type of conclusion...I'm not asking for a blockbuster trade here -- these are all reasonable things well within our power I'm asking for us to do....See, I would've put this plan in motion 10 games ago.. The longer we wait, the more complicated things become, the worse things get and the harder it becomes to fix. Put this minor plan in motion here and let's see if we can shake things up a bit and turn things around.
12/1/2013 11:56 PM