Monday, November 23, 2015

Random observations weekend of November 21st & 22nd

Basketball is fascinating to me.  You can break stuff down to numbers but sometimes there are just indefinable tangibles that defy explanation.  The Timberwolves are so much better with Rubio despite all his offensive flaws.  He just knows how to run a team and it settles everyone down and gets them into their sets.  They’re 5-4 with him this season and 0-4 without him in the line up.  He’s an extremely under rated defender.  The Timberwolves need to cut down on their veteran players though.  I understand they are trying to make the playoffs but there is too much Martin and Prince on the court.  They need to be playing young guys more and assessing what they have rather than thinking about the playoffs.  In fact, one more year of drafting someone good and they could be set for the next decade.  They need to trade some of these veterans in order to take a step forward…

The Rockets just look like they’re barely trying.  I do think their talent is a bit over rated and that Kevin McHale might have done a better job last season than he was given credit for especially considering how many injuries they had.  It’s tough when James Harden is the alpha on your team.  He just has so many lazy possessions both on offense and defense.  He loses his man regularly and settles for way too many forced 3 pointers.  It’s strange to fire a successful coach 11 games into the season even considering the number of terrible collapses they’ve suffered already.  What’s the point in firing him though without a replacement lined up?  J.B. Bickerstaff is Kevin McHale’s guy and he is not going to do anything different.  The game plan is going to be exactly the same.  I can’t really see the advantage in firing McHale other than sending a message to your players that they need to try harder.  I just don’t see Bickerstaff getting any more out of these guys than McHale did.  Daryl Morey is being a bit delusional if he thinks this is a championship team and if he thinks Bickerstaff is the man to bring him a championship.  I really think Harden and the Rockets are suffering from the curse of the Kardashians.  Harden has taken such a big step back so far this year…

I’m really impressed with what Rick Carlyle is doing with the Mavericks.  That guy can coach his ass off.  It makes me a bit sad that DeAndre Jordan didn’t follow through and go to Dallas.  They might have actually been contenders this year.  Carlyle is so good that JaVale McGee got into his first game of the year and looked like a professional basketball player.  He was trying and actually looked like he was in the right spots and knew what he was doing.  Crazy.  In just under 11 minutes he had 8 points and 6 rebounds on 80% shooting.  I get the feeling DeAndre just wasn’t ready for the pressure of a big contract in a new place.  There would have been expectations.  Having stayed in LA he can coast along playing defense and getting rebounds and shooting exclusively dunks off lobs.  Everyone is so happy that he stayed that he really isn’t expected to improve much.  Against Phoenix with Paul and Griffin out DeAndre could only muster 11 and 9 with a -27 +/-.  That was his opportunity to post up and take a bunch of shots and he just couldn’t do it.  I don’t know if it’s his inability to demand the ball or his teammates unwillingness to pass to him but I just don’t get it.  He just doesn’t seem too concerned about having a bigger role.  Dirk Nowitzki is still a game-changing player.  His shooting this season has been fantastic.  I’m noticing he added some arc to his shot which makes it even harder to block.  That’s a smart move for an older player who is getting absurdly slow.  The more arc the less separation you need to get the shot off especially when you’re 7 feet tall. 

Denver’s Malone seems like a pretty good coach.  Why did Sacramento fire him?  Denver doesn’t have a ton of talent to put out there but they try hard and vaguely have a game plan.  My biggest problem with Malone is that he’s been playing way too much J.J. Hickson.  Against the Warriors though he finally put Hickson on the bench for all but 9 minutes.  That’s 9 minutes too much as far as I’m concerned but it’s a start.  For Denver, unless they think it’ll lead to improving a trade asset there’s just no reason to play older players.  There is zero chance they’re going to make the playoffs.  Side note: Ty Lawson talked a lot of trash before the season about how Stephen Curry didn’t have to work hard against any point guards in the playoffs last season.  They flashed a statistic during this game that Curry has shot 59% FG and 72% on 3s for his career against Denver in 21 games.  If true that does not reflect very well on Ty Lawson.  Perhaps he should think about keeping his mouth shut…



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