Dallas at LA Lakers

[Flash]

If this is what Darren Collison can do against LA, I can't imagine what Westbrook is gonna do.

 

Its only game 1 though, plenty of time to get it right.

[ballorama]

SOLID win.. covered that 15 point spread :glasses: , solid win without DIRK and Kaman.

 

Love itttttttt

[AboveLegit]

As I said before, the Princeton offense doesn't fit this team. Yeah it's one game and adjustments will be made, but even during the second half, you saw the team simply dumping the ball into Dwight. This is an offense that takes time to grasp and for players to fully trust it, so I doubt they go away from it anytime soon.

 

You need to give Steve Nash the ball and let him operate, he doesn't need a full fledged system in place.

 

Dwight looked particularly slow on his defensive rotations as well. That's something to keep an eye on as he continues to get healthy.

[Real Deal]

As I said before, the Princeton offense doesn't fit this team. Yeah it's one game and adjustments will be made, but even during the second half, you saw the team simply dumping the ball into Dwight. This is an offense that takes time to grasp and for players to fully trust it, so I doubt they go away from it anytime soon.

 

You need to give Steve Nash the ball and let him operate, he doesn't need a full fledged system in place.

 

Dwight looked particularly slow on his defensive rotations as well. That's something to keep an eye on as he continues to get healthy.

The only problem with letting Nash do as he pleases is that we don't have the plethora of shooters he has always had over the course of his career, especially in Phoenix.

 

Channing Frye

Eddie House

Leandro Barbosa

Quentin Richardson

Joe Johnson

Raja Bell

James Jones

Tim Thomas

Shawn Marion

Jason Richardson

Matt Barnes

Goran Dragic

Grant Hill

Vince Carter

Hedo Turkoglu

Mickael Pietrus

Aaron Brooks

 

And in our five, we have...Ron Artest, who does better shooting off the dribble.

 

I mean, we're going to run P&R, but aside from that, what will Nash do? We can't run the seven-second offense, or any uptempo offense that relies on his drives and penetrations, unless we're going to change everyone else's games to basically build around him, and I don't see how that's a good idea.

[AboveLegit]

Well when you're bringing in a player like Nash to run your team (RUN the team, not lurk around the baseline looking for screens, or playing through the pinch post), you have to cater to his strengths. This offense requires a ton of commitment, I don't think you'll get that from everyone (particularly Dwight). And honestly, it'll probably take this team months to perfect, which means there's less time working on the defense (which looked horrid tonight).

 

Nash has run one system his entire career, I just don't see why he can't make this offense successful that same way. Even during the Amare days he ran the pick and roll, had a player like Frye set up on the weakside, with Hill and Richardson on the corners. It worked brilliantly.

 

You have your Amare in Dwight, Pau on the elbow, and have Kobe and Artest on the perimeter. I know that's an oversimplification, but it sounds a helluva lot better than running the Princeton and taking the ball out of Nash's hands.

 

Kobe will get his no matter what. We saw that even today, he didn't go one on one as much (even if he wanted to, previous matchups with Mayo suggests he'd light him up), and he didn't have to dribble around and shoot over 3 guys.

[Cleveland's Finest]

Was it the princeton offense that was the problem? Or was it the free throw shooting?

 

I think it was the latter. Dallas was impressive tonight.

[Real Deal]

Well when you're bringing in a player like Nash to run your team (RUN the team, not lurk around the baseline looking for screens, or playing through the pinch post), you have to cater to his strengths. This offense requires a ton of commitment, I don't think you'll get that from everyone (particularly Dwight). And honestly, it'll probably take this team months to perfect, which means there's less time working on the defense (which looked horrid tonight).

 

Nash has run one system his entire career, I just don't see why he can't make this offense successful that same way. Even during the Amare days he ran the pick and roll, had a player like Frye set up on the weakside, with Hill and Richardson on the corners. It worked brilliantly.

 

You have your Amare in Dwight, Pau on the elbow, and have Kobe and Artest on the perimeter. I know that's an oversimplification, but it sounds a helluva lot better than running the Princeton and taking the ball out of Nash's hands.

 

Kobe will get his no matter what. We saw that even today, he didn't go one on one as much (even if he wanted to, previous matchups with Mayo suggests he'd light him up), and he didn't have to dribble around and shoot over 3 guys.

Dwight and Amare are two different players, if we're talking anything out of the P&R. Amare could actually stretch the floor, didn't have to camp out near the rim if he wanted a bucket.

 

Plus, if we're letting Nash run his Phoenix offense, we're ignoring three significantly-good passers in Gasol (arguably the best big man passer in the NBA), Dwight, and Kobe. That's a mistake.

 

Nash is almost 39 years old. He's going to get destroyed on the defensive end if we rely on him THAT much on the offensive end (and he's going to hurt us defensively anyway, but yeah), and back on offense, he's going to play like he did last year in Phoenix, doing less and less not by choice, but because he has to lay on his back for almost half of the game.

 

I just don't see why the one guy in our five that has NEVER been to an NBA Finals should be the one that doesn't have to adjust. He has a very high IQ, and he's one of the greatest shooting PG's of all-time (I could argue the GOAT shooting the ball at that position), and with Howard closer to the rim than anyone else Nash has played with (aside from Shaq), it doesn't seem like a great idea.

[Real Deal]

By the way, Howard isn't 100%. He missed his first dunk, no idea how...then nearly missed another that bounced in. He grabbed maybe 3-4 of his rebounds barely jumping and just having the ball basically fall into his lap.

 

That's definitely not an excuse, because with Kobe, Nash and Gasol, we should have won (plus a 70% Howard), but it's something to watch for over the next couple of weeks, especially with Nash and Gasol trying to connect with those lobs.

[Real Deal]

http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mikeborwnwhat_1.gif

 

He really is confused, too. That's the problem.

[Lkr]

I mean we win if we make our free throws. It's that simple to me. You can complain that the offensive system isn't perfect, but we win if we hit our free throws

[Real Deal]

I mean we win if we make our free throws. It's that simple to me. You can complain that the offensive system isn't perfect, but we win if we hit our free throws

Yeah, but we've been down that road before...eight seasons of it. If Howard is going to shoot around 50% from the line, he's only going to hit four more in last night's game. Give Jordan Hill a couple more, and we're still losing.

 

We could have shot better than 49% from the floor, honestly, and the 3-13 from downtown was also pretty bad, considering a lot of those were wide open. Plus, we took 77 total attempts, compared to Dallas' 85.

 

In our last two championship seasons, we shot 77 times or less just 24 total times, 12 each season. That's us without Nash or Howard, and Drew was not the all-star he is now.

 

We couldn't find a groove, weren't getting in the right spots (I had no idea what we were running half the time), and we drained the clock almost every possession, to the point where we nearly had to go ISO at the end of each. It reminded me of the old Miami team, when they were first put together (the big three)...which some will say is a good thing, except that we are trying to execute an offense that we'll most likely stick with, while they just didn't have one at the time.

[Check my Stats]

Why was Steve Nash running it up and then just handing it off to Kobe. Couldn't Steve Blake just do that? Wish I could have saw more than just a few plays of the game.

[Real Deal]

Why was Steve Nash running it up and then just handing it off to Kobe. Couldn't Steve Blake just do that? Wish I could have saw more than just a few plays of the game.

He didn't do it that often, actually. It was going to multiple teammates, but Nash is a coach's player, so he's going to try and run the Princeton (or whatever the hell it was) before he ditches it. The only problem I had with him was that Nash wasn't doing much off the ball, and I think he can work wonders for us catching and shooting. Still need him to have it in his hands more, though, in the P&R at least...but it's only the first game.

 

When we found ourselves down big, Kobe was the first to ditch, gave us about five or seven points to try and cut into the lead, but we didn't play defense.

 

Our best play was near the end (offensively), when we weren't out there trying to please Eddie Jordan. Kobe was going ISO, Nash was making attempts at the P&R, Howard was catching down low, and it felt right...but again, our defense was just horrible, and we aren't going to beat anyone with those bad rotations and us giving up on screens like we did.

[AboveLegit]

Dwight and Amare are two different players, if we're talking anything out of the P&R. Amare could actually stretch the floor, didn't have to camp out near the rim if he wanted a bucket.

Not early on in his career.

 

Plus, if we're letting Nash run his Phoenix offense, we're ignoring three significantly-good passers in Gasol (arguably the best big man passer in the NBA), Dwight, and Kobe. That's a mistake.

 

Nash is almost 39 years old. He's going to get destroyed on the defensive end if we rely on him THAT much on the offensive end (and he's going to hurt us defensively anyway, but yeah), and back on offense, he's going to play like he did last year in Phoenix, doing less and less not by choice, but because he has to lay on his back for almost half of the game.

 

I just don't see why the one guy in our five that has NEVER been to an NBA Finals should be the one that doesn't have to adjust. He has a very high IQ, and he's one of the greatest shooting PG's of all-time (I could argue the GOAT shooting the ball at that position), and with Howard closer to the rim than anyone else Nash has played with (aside from Shaq), it doesn't seem like a great idea.

It's not that he should run his Phoenix offense exclusively, I just think it's better than using the Princeton and designating spots to everyone on the floor. A free flowing offense suits the personnel much better than an offense that simply forces you to be at the right spot at the right time.

 

And I really don't think it's worth spending so much time on. Pau and Kobe are adaptable, but Dwight and Nash have played in one system. And knowing Eddie Jordan, he's going to spend the majority of practices working on the offense, which cripples Mike Brown on defense. That's not a recipe for success.

 

This offense requires so much off ball movement, weakside cuts, backdoor action, high pick and rolls, and probably LA's biggest Achilles heel - spacing. Kobe is a great without the ball due to his experience in the triangle and his IQ, but Artest? Not so much.

 

I think at its' peak, Kobe will benefit from the offense most because Eddie likes to run iso's, quick hitting cuts, and have his guards on the block, but I'm really not a fan of having Nash spot up or cut. If I was LA, I'd want the ball in his hands.