I am not complaining, but for our team to be well balance, our players have to improve the little areas that need to be improved. Yes, we won tonight, but what if we didn't? You see where I am coming from? This team has a lot of rooms for improvements.

Posted by MaTT4281:

I'm not even going to get into KT, considering the other thread basically covers everything.
But for TT and Nazr, I don't really think this would be the game to bring up free throws. TT was attacking the basket several times, he wasn't just settling for jumpers. He just didn't end up getting fouled.
Nazr still played well in the post. He wasn't playing any less intense.
They made their shots, I can't complain.

this has been may assessment of this team, our players are settling for the jump shot instead of going to the rack. Don't get me wrong, I will take a win in how ever ways it is won. However, our deficiencies since the beginning of the season have been the same. TT a couple of games did go to the lines, but it won't hurt if he adopts that style of play permanently. I know that it is tough to go inside, because it gets physical in there, but it is also the best way to get the opposition best player off the court. Especially team with Centers like Shaq, Illguskas, etc.

Posted by rojasmas:

I agree with the TT assessment. Finally the guy was going strong to the hole, even when he got the offensive foul vs Woods. He played a real good game. Three steals even. This should be the way he always plays. We'll see. But I think also that he should get to the line more. Look at Marbury. Crawford is just like TT. You can't count on them to get easy points at the line.

What about Kurt and Nazr? from what I saw, Kurt just stayed in the perimeter

Posted by MaTT4281:

Posted by diderotn:

I am not complaining, but for our team to be well balance, our players have to improve the little areas that need to be improved. Yes, we won tonight, but what if we didn't? You see where I am coming from? This team has a lot of rooms for improvements.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from, but to get to the line, you would have to take away some of the made FG from the players. The main thing that would be accomplished is getting their players in foul trouble.
If TT had gotten all of his points from the perimeter, I would be with you on it. But the fact of the matter is that he drove to the basket, he did what he was supposed to do.

I will take a win in the worst of ways, but I still think that we should find ways to get to the line as much as possible. Especially with the great foul shooters we have on our squad.

Posted by MaTT4281:

Posted by diderotn:

What about Kurt and Nazr? from what I saw, Kurt just stayed in the perimeter

Nazr did stay focused around the paint, the post basically IS his game.
And as I already mentioned, Kurt is being discussed in the other thread. He is hitting jumpers, he isn't getting fouled out there. I don't know about you, but I think we have a better shot at a W if we are using Kurt in a pick and roll vs. sending him into the paint.

What a nightmare it would be if we won the championship but Kurt did not shoot enough free throws to make Briggs happy!

With his speed, Crawford should drive to the basket more. He doesn't go to the line as much as he could.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Who shot a lot of free throws at 4/5 for the Pistons anyway?

Last year, Big Ben only averaged 3.6 FTA per game. Rasheed only averaged 3.1 per game for the season, 2.4 with the Pistons.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by Rich:

Posted by Bonn1997:

What a nightmare it would be if we won the championship but Kurt did not shoot enough free throws to make Briggs happy!

But if the Knicks did win a championship, you could rest assured that a player at the 4 or the 5 would be shooting a large number of FTs. The Knicks don't necessarily need Kurt to go the line more, but they will need a front court player to do it if they are going to the next level.

You can win a championship without having every starting player put up good stats in every category. Who shot a lot of free throws at 4/5 for the Pistons anyway?

True, but that is anomalous. Playoffs tend to revert more to half court games, which puts a premium on a post up game, which leads to big people getting more foul shots.

Just some food for thought. We are 25th in the league in free throw attempts (23.8 per game), but we are 5th in attempts against us (only giving up 24.4 per game). So the disparity there not that huge...less than one attempt a game, and thus less than a point per game. In fact we're only giving up 18.6 makes per game and we are making 18.4 per game. So the right now the free throw threads are bit of an overreaction if anything. The disparity in free throw shooting in the last couple of Toronto games was likely balanced out by a few of our earlier games this year where we outshot other teams.

The point does remain though...you want you're guys up front to draw fouls and double teams to keep defenses off balance. Sweetney is doing a good job of getting to the line in limited minutes and there have been several games where Nazr has gotten to the line a lot (though several games the other way too). Ideally Tim Thomas will pick up his offense and get to the line a bit more and make up for some of the shortcomings up front.