Aloha,
While the major focus for this team is generally lack of defense. However I was okay with that. We gave up 111 points which would usually mean a win for this team. Brown scored 32 but on28 shots. I will take that every day. And Pritchard made some incredibly difficult shots under duress. All you can do is tip your hat.
We also only turned the ball over 8 times. Which is generally a good sign. But you don’t turn it over much when you DON’T PASS THE BALL. This is actually a problem we have had a lot this year. If the ball isn’t moving you aren’t getting quality looks and players often are not shooting in rhythm. It is a make or miss league but moving the ball make the MAKES much more likely.
We have 3 extremely talented one on one players. And it can be easy to sit back and watch them operate. But the best offenses move the ball and keep all five players involved. We just do not do that enough.
We can try and make moves to improve the defense and it has gotten better. But it is never going to be better than middle of the pack. It is the offense that’s going to have to get better to make up for it. We are 8th in offensive rating which isn’t good for the offensive talent we have. It needs to get much better.
Oh by the Lakers, try hustling in big games. That would help. Thanks.
Yes. Do please consider hustling and save the whining for dead balls.
Hard to disagree but I honestly think the defense can improve. We can ditch switch everything, because it doesn’t put our best defenders in the position to succeed. Since February they lead the league in deploying the Zone (17.6%) and I think they should nudge that even closer to 20%. That allows guys like LeBron, Vando and Smart to play the lanes and get steals for potential transition buckets.
There isn’t a much better offense this team can build as currently constructed. LeBron, Reaves, Luka and Smart are the primary ball handlers and they get assists off of holding the ball. There isn’t a solid system in place. Much like Darvin Ham before him, JJ seems content to let the wattage of his superstars carry the load. He talks a big post game about sharing the rock but we’re well into season 2 and it’s the same package. So the coach isn’t able to, or willing to, adapt. The players won’t change because, to a man, this style has worked at every other stop on their journey.
My opinion is we have 20-24 or so games to build something, there’s 26 games to go and we’d love to get fined by Silver for resting a couple dudes, if at all possible.