Hard... to... watch. Especially on the perimeter. AD is solid, and Aminu holds his own, but the rest of them baffle me. I'm a big fan of Ryan Anderson, but he is one of the least athletic NBA players that I can think of. He makes up for that lack of athleticism with some crafty offense, but, bluntly, he's an embarrassment on the other end of the floor.

One of the worst teams in the NBA scored 17 points on the final 9 possessions to comeback from a 9 point deficit with 3 minutes to go. Our beloved Pelicans failed to successfully stop them on one of those final possessions.

Sorry for the random rant. Had the game recorded and just watched it for the first time. The playcalling in high-leverage situations is also atrocious, but that's a topic for another day.

This post was edited on 3/6/13 at 1:02 am

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 3/6/13 at 8:24 am to Dr.Bob

Some of it is young guys ball watching, overhelping, missing rotations, just not ready to play NBA level defense.

But I do think Monty needs to rethink his system given the talent. Packing the paint doesnt work when perimeter players cant even slow down their man.

How many times have we seen a guard fly into the lane, a big or corner defender steps up, then a pass to the open man for a dunk/3? Or put back dunk because no one is there to box out? Its just way too easy.

Watching Lopez stay with the ball handler 25 feet out on PnRs just kills me.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by Jester

Baton Rouge

Member since Feb 2006

34311 posts

Posted on 3/6/13 at 9:02 am to corndeaux

quote:
Some of it is young guys ball watching, overhelping, missing rotations, just not ready to play NBA level defense.

But I do think Monty needs to rethink his system given the talent. Packing the paint doesnt work when perimeter players cant even slow down their man.

How many times have we seen a guard fly into the lane, a big or corner defender steps up, then a pass to the open man for a dunk/3? Or put back dunk because no one is there to box out? Its just way too easy.

Watching Lopez stay with the ball handler 25 feet out on PnRs just kills me.

All of the above. Right now, we have several guys logging significant minutes who are below-average defenders. Most of them are very young and learning. I think as our colts mature physically and mentally, we'll see much better man defense and rotations. Until then, it's a struggle.

That said, when you are this bad defensively, some of it has to be scheme. However, having one true center who is poor defensively, Anderson who struggles at PF, and Davis still learning how to use his tools as your front line is probably why we're seeing so much "pack the paint."

Also, is packing the paint more scheme or lazy, undisciplined defense? Again, some of both, but we're looking at a dumpster fire right now. A lot needs to change there and I think a more complete offseason program with a complete roster will go along way to correcting it.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 3/6/13 at 9:49 am to Jester

quote:
Also, is packing the paint more scheme or lazy, undisciplined defense? Again, some of both, but we're looking at a dumpster fire right now. A lot needs to change there and I think a more complete offseason program with a complete roster will go along way to correcting i

I thought Monty said something to the effect that his philosophy is to pack the paint. I could be wrong on that.

I agree that they need more time and better players, but whatever system they are using is broken.

Using NBA.com, I looked at opponent FGA and %s from different shooting zones. The three zones I focused on are in the restricted area, mid range, and corner 3- the first and last arguably the best shots an offense can take and the middle the worst.

Compared to the rest of the league, opponents take the 4th most shots in the league in the restricted area, the least amount of shots from mid range, the 4th most corner 3s.

As for %s, in the restricted area OPP FG% is 12th highest (Lopez has shocked me with his shot blocking this season), 5th highest in mid range, and 5th highest in corner 3s.

LINK

This is obviously a DUH to what we see every night. But it bears repeating, they let teams shoot where they want to shoot. Even when teams take mid range shots, given the high %, they are open shots.

Page 1