SocraticBallin22 wrote:nyknickzingis wrote:AND Noah woke up in the 4th. Why can't Noah play with that energy more often. That was the Noah who was worth 72 million.
Don't mind Noah playing only half the game as long as he brings the energy he did tonight every minute on the court. Also, he needs to be aggressive like he was tonight driving to the basket when teams are not guarding him.
Noah on the court has to be paired with the right group though.
In that 2nd half we were down 15 before Coach H deciced to go with O'Quinn and Melo as our bigs. It really helped. 4 smalls and a stretch 5 in O'Quinn. We changed how we were playing on BOTH ends. Then Noah came back and played fantastic defense. He was also better on offense because (wait for it) he didn't have to play with the starters. He even closed well.
That's the thing I keep saying. Noah can have major impact off the bench. But we can't keep playing the same starting 5. Even our closing lineup tonight, it was 2 point guards with Jennings/Rose and our usual starting front court. Something has to be done to change the way the starters play. They just don't seem to have good chemistry and in my opinion just enough team speed. This game changed once we went smaller and Melo to the 4. This is what we need to do. Either play a smaller quicker backcourt with Jennings/Rose more often. Or bring either KP or Noah off the bench (Noah preferably). The league is just too fast right now to be playing the starting 5 we are.
Here's what I suggest if Noah MUST start.
1- Bring KP at the 6 minute mark, and move Melo to 4 with Holiday coming in as a starter.
2- Replace Lee with Jennings. More team speed. More fastbreaks. More pressure on the ball defensively.
To me it has to be one of the above 2. The team has enough talent to be a 3rd or 4th seed in the East if they sort out how they use their rotations. The constant talk about slow starts on the road. Well it's all back to energy. Speed. When the offense starts to bog down into Melo or KP ball too much, the reason is that Noah simply is ineffective as a scorer, Lee isn't a shot creator and if Rose is not creating it will likely be a 1 on 1 play with Noah's man easily sinking to KP or Melo. Now instead if you have Jennings in place of Lee, you can push the ball more at ease and it gives you another dribble penetration and shot creating threat. Noah's lack of ability to score is a little negated because Jennings and Rose will constantly be trying to get into the paint and Noah's man will go help, leaving Noah open for layups (which is the one type of shot he is decent at making). Alternatively starting Holiday instead of KP is out of the box type of thinking move, but it can help as well if you're thinking about lineup effectiveness.
That is if Noah must start. The much simpler solution to me is to start O'Quinn, and use Noah off the bench. When Noah plays with the energy and effectiveness you like you close with him. When not, you give him only backup minutes.
I think the coaches and Phil are hoping Noah and Rose rediscover their Chicago chemistry. Which is not a bad idea, but if we want to do that we have to run the ball through Rose much much more than we are. We have to scrap most of the Triangle and most of the other sets we run and go much more Rose/Noah pick and rolls to start the offense. That and pray neither Rose or Noah get seriously hurt.
Anyway great come from behind win. Great game by Melo. What a shooting clinic. He played with a flow and freedom I really liked. Rose in this and the Laker game (last 2 healthy full games he's played) like a MVP level Rose. Guys weren't lieing when they said it. Rose looks like his old self. He's getting to the rim at will and with ease scoring in there. We need to run much much more pick and rolls with him and Noah and him and KP. Those are extremely effective.
12/20/2016 10:13 PM