I said it the other day I think on the Cavs game thread and now Derrick Rose is talking about the same thing in the papers: gotta implement much more pick & roll/pick & pop. We saw a lot of it the last two preseason games against the Celts and Nets and it worked well. Real well...Again, it's easy for guys to run, the guys like it and want to run it, it's much less complicated than any version of the triangle, it's super effective and we have the personnel to be very successful with it. It should lead to a lot of high % offense -- 2 very quick penetrating/attack PGs that can get deep in the lane and make plays for themselves or others (should get a ton of high % shots for everyone involved, the two PGs and others, while also increasing the amount of FTs taken). We have all the ingredients to make it work: two very quick attack PGs, interior bigs that can finish at the rim (not the best in the world but collectively KP, Noah, O'Quinn, Willy etc. should be able to convert enough and be effective enough on those opportunities. Willy shows a lot of promise in this area), and excellent kick out opportunities for better-than-average shooters--Melo, KP, Courtney Lee, Holiday, Kuz, LT shot over 40% from 3 last year, etc.. Implementing more P&R/P&P is about as big a no-brainer as there can possibly be with this team right now.
Gotta let Hornacek run what he wants to run and what he thinks is best. I really hope none of this complete confusion we saw out there the other night has to do with trying to force triangle to appease Phil... All this "yeah, we're still gonna run some elements of the triangle" stuff needs to go by the wayside now I'm thinking, if that's how Jeff and the players really feel about it. No idea if Phil is meddling with what's going on and insisting that at least some triangle has to be run -- if so, he needs to back off. He resigned Melo who's not really a big triangle player (although he can do it), he went out and got a coach who's not really a triangle coach (I know Jeff said they used to run some triangle concepts in Utah but a lot of his success in PHX came with heavy P&R and transition play), then he goes out and gets a lot of players, D-Rose and Jennings specifically, who aren't triangle players at all and now Rose after one game is speaking out against it. I know it's hard for Phil to accept but I'd do away with all triangle concepts completely. Phil's taken some big steps (for him) as far as broadening his horizons by adding non-triangle personnel from the coach to certain players that he says were all "hand picked" -- and I applaud him for that. Now let those guys do what they do best. Rose is right--what the hell is he doing running to the corner multiple times in a game? Come on--that's not his game. I don't blame him for speaking out about it. And Melo is spot on too with his comments--let guys play to their strengths. Starting Saturday against Memphis, I say pick and roll these guys to death out there and don't look back. Ideally, this offense should be equal parts running when it's there, P&R/P&P/drive & kick and enough ISO for Melo because he's a great player and it works for him. I'd do away with anything else that might be overly complicated and bogging us down. Obviously the D needs to improve in a big way but first thing's first--let's get this offense going in the right direction. Have an offensive game plan that plays to guy's strengths and stick to it. We have more than enough weapons where we should be successful offensively. No reason we shouldn't be. And make the adjustments now. Don't wait 25 games..
10/28/2016 2:17 PM