NBA Offseason 2013 Thread

[OrlandoFeds 34]

I wasn't aware that I had to explain why next year's lineup having both Baby and AA in it is a bad idea.

 

Oh please they both played together at the start of the season when we were winning so don't act like his idea was so ridiculous and if you're too arrogant to respond with an actual answer than let someone else do it.

[LaVar 108]

AA has disappointed me but he had some positives moments. He was the reason we beat LA and he gave us some scoring. I thought his defense would be better and also his 3pt shot, but it is harder to produce easy buckets on a bad team and hard to keep your energy up when your down a lot every game. I do really want to see how a team of:

Nick

Baby

Harris

AA

Burke

would play together.

 

I think we would win more games than we would like too. Harris and Baby will be nasty on defense. No second chance points with nick, baby, and harris rebounding everything and giving crazy energy. Burk would give us the easy buckets we need.

 

Now, I think there will be better pt guards next year; with smart, harrison, and k. Hill, so I would not mind BMac (after a lot of thought). BMac would give us some spacing and allow us to run the jj screen plays (curl and fade reeds). That being said we could get Allen crabbe late for spacing and jj plays and use the pick on someone else like noels.

 

 

but the noels injury does scares me.

[JJZFL 620]

AA has disappointed me but he had some positives moments. He was the reason we beat LA and he gave us some scoring. I thought his defense would be better and also his 3pt shot, but it is harder to produce easy buckets on a bad team and hard to keep your energy up when your down a lot every game. I do really want to see how a team of:

Nick

Baby

Harris

AA

Burke

would play together.

 

I think we would win more games than we would like too. Harris and Baby will be nasty on defense. No second chance points with nick, baby, and harris rebounding everything and giving crazy energy. Burk would give us the easy buckets we need.

 

Now, I think there will be better pt guards next year; with smart, harrison, and k. Hill, so I would not mind BMac (after a lot of thought). BMac would give us some spacing and allow us to run the jj screen plays (curl and fade reeds). That being said we could get Allen crabbe late for spacing and jj plays and use the pick on someone else like noels.

 

 

but the noels injury does scares me.

 

We already had Nick and Harris on the floor a lot this season. I may have missed something, but I didn't see a lot of "crazy energy" on defense. And I did see an awful lot of second chance points given up.

 

Let's say for arguments sake that we might get a bit better with a line-up like that, though, and win maybe 30 games. How does that help us develop?

[O_SteveO 102]

If we're trying to tank again it isn't

If we're trying to develop young guys as much as possible, it is.

[magicblue 315]

If we're trying to develop young guys as much as possible, it is.

 

If were trying to showcase AA and/or Baby, it is.

[LaVar 108]

We already had Nick and Harris on the floor a lot this season. I may have missed something, but I didn't see a lot of "crazy energy" on defense. And I did see an awful lot of second chance points given up.

 

Let's say for arguments sake that we might get a bit better with a line-up like that, though, and win maybe 30 games. How does that help us develop?

 

I never said nick played good defense. I did say harris and baby would be nasty on defense.

 

You dont grab 11.9 rebs per game and not use energy. Nick was 2nd in the nba in rebs per game and 3rd in double doubles. I think he gave great energy. I don't think he played great defense (one on one or team), but he did give great energy. Nick helped limit second chance pts and closed out defensive stops by grabbing the critical boards to end processions. In case you did not know, defensive rebounds is part of defense. Therefore, he helps in his own way.

 

I do think that harris played good defense. He played both the sfs well and the pfs well. He quickly picked up rotations well with out a lot of practice and was very vocal to help for team defense. JV stated how versatile harris was in guarding different positions. He (harris) also grab 8.5 boards a game for us and got 1.5 blocks, and .9 steals. At 20 years old, I think he did a good job.

 

We all know that baby can defend and give energy, so enough said. Its baby.

 

I think scoring was a big problem for our defense. Missed shots, lead to easy buckets for the other team. I also think we had a problem with sgs and pgs. The bobcat games are still in the back of my mind. Shot blocking was a big issue but harris and harkless helped latter in the season but we could still improve.

[LaVar 108]

double post error

[JJZFL 620]

I never said nick played good defense. I did say harris and baby would be nasty on defense.

 

You dont grab 11.9 rebs per game and not use energy. Nick was 2nd in the nba in rebs per game and 3rd in double doubles. I think he gave great energy. I don't think he played great defense (one on one or team), but he did give great energy. Nick helped limit second chance pts and closed out defensive stops by grabbing the critical boards to end processions. In case you did not know, defensive rebounds is part of defense. Therefore, he helps in his own way.

 

I do think that harris played good defense. He played both the sfs well and the pfs well. He quickly picked up rotations well with out a lot of practice and was very vocal to help for team defense. JV stated how versatile harris was in guarding different positions. He (harris) also grab 8.5 boards a game for us and got 1.5 blocks, and .9 steals. At 20 years old, I think he did a good job.

 

We all know that baby can defend and give energy, so enough said. Its baby.

 

I think scoring was a big problem for our defense. Missed shots, lead to easy buckets for the other team. I also think we had a problem with sgs and pgs. The bobcat games are still in the back of my mind. Shot blocking was a big issue but harris and harkless helped latter in the season but we could still improve.

 

I agree with some of what you're saying. Nick did do a very good job of rebounding. And Harris played with energy at times. However, we gave up over 101 points per game. No one can seriously argue that our defense was good. Especially not our interior defense, which was awful. I can't find stats for points in the paint, but it sure seemed like we gave up a bunch. We were badly out of position many times, allowing easy lay-ups. And most worrisome, it seemed like our defense got worse as the season went on, even after baby came back.

[LaVar 108]

I agree with some of what you're saying. Nick did do a very good job of rebounding. And Harris played with energy at times. However, we gave up over 101 points per game. No one can seriously argue that our defense was good. Especially not our interior defense, which was awful. I can't find stats for points in the paint, but it sure seemed like we gave up a bunch. We were badly out of position many times, allowing easy lay-ups. And most worrisome, it seemed like our defense got worse as the season went on, even after baby came back.

 

I do agree. A lot of the points in the paint came from slashing from guards, pick and roll drop offs, poor rotations from players like andrew, and bad shooting that lead to lay ups. Harris and baby have never played together so we dont know how they play on the court. Harris needs to improve his 3 ball to play more sf.

 

You cant have one or two good defenders. we need the team to be on one page. I am still waiting to see if harkless is a good defender. He only had a few good defensive games. (the new york game was a good one of him vs melo.) He has great length and athleticism but he gets beat off the dribble easy and cant get around picks very well. I would like to see more stops. Its one thing to get assigned the best player on the opposing team but it is another thing to stop them or make them work. He has the tools. can he put them together and become a top flight defender?

[JJZFL 620]

I do agree. A lot of the points in the paint came from slashing from guards, pick and roll drop offs, poor rotations from players like andrew, and bad shooting that lead to lay ups. Harris and baby have never played together so we dont know how they play on the court. Harris needs to improve his 3 ball to play more sf.

 

You cant have one or two good defenders. we need the team to be on one page. I am still waiting to see if harkless is a good defender. He only had a few good defensive games. (the new york game was a good one of him vs melo.) He has great length and athleticism but he gets beat off the dribble easy and cant get around picks very well. I would like to see more stops. Its one thing to get assigned the best player on the opposing team but it is another thing to stop them or make them work. He has the tools. can he put them together and become a top flight defender?

I agree with everything in your post. I guess the question I have is whether coaching had anything to do with the team not all being, as you say, "on one page" on defense. I also wonder if our young players (certainly including Harkless) were adequately developed from a defense standpoint during the season.

[LaVar 108]

I agree with everything in your post. I guess the question I have is whether coaching had anything to do with the team not all being, as you say, "on one page" on defense. I also wonder if our young players (certainly including Harkless) were adequately developed from a defense standpoint during the season.

 

 

I believe injuries played a big factor. The different lineup changes impacted cohesiveness and players knowing what to do. We played younger players so they are bound to make mistakes. Harris and Lamb came half way through the season and did not have camp so that was a problem. Harkless missed camp as well. There were a lot of factors that went into our defensive stats.

 

JV also is a rookie. He tried somethings that did not work like playing McBob (josh) at sf way too much. His defenses schemes switch too much and cause match up issues; this causes big on small post ups, bad rotations, and players out of position for rebounds. I can't pen point the scheme he is using from his pass; it is not the Celtic overload or the spurs/jazz match up man with no really double teams. It is hard to judge jv because of these factors, but truth be told - the young players did get better.

 

Though, I did want to see harris featured more. There was a number of times harris had small forwards he could have over powered on the block and he did not sniff the ball. There could have been plays for cross screen posts for harris vs smaller players. we could have had 1 - 4 pick&rolls or 2 - 4 pick&rolls with harris handling the ball. There were too many pick&pop plays for a low 30% Harris 3 ball. Harris did get some shots up, but the position of some of the shots could have been improved by the coach and match ups could have been better recognized by the lead guard.

 

JV will be judged in 2014-2015.

 

All in all, If we had less uninjured players (baby, harkless, arron, and harrington), our defensive numbers would be different.

 

 

 

updated

[JJZFL 620]

I agree. There were so many variables that it is hard to judge Jacque Vaughn on this season. I would have liked to see us make less mistakes on defense where the other team got easy lay-ups as the season progressed, but as you said we did keep changing personnel.

 

I think the personnel will be a lot more stable next season. Most of our players will have had at least one year in the NBA. I don't expect us to compete for a significant playoff spot next year but I do expect our defense to be better, with significantly fewer mistakes.

 

I think it's possible JV may be judged somewhat on next season, not just 2014-2015. If there continue to be many defensive mistakes leading to easy points for other teams, and if teams continue to regularly score 60+ against us during 1st halves, I believe questions will come up.