As seen is the Suns game, our small line up is getting thwarted on mismatches. As soon as we lose Ronnie to an arthritic day off, we have to deal with salvaging fouls on STAT: hence Williams' fouling out against Phoenix.
As soon as Amar'e's whistled for his first, we're pushing poop up a hill and there's not an opposing coach that doesn't expose it, either.
Simple Solution:
We can't continue to let Moz and AR rot on the bench. Even if each of them plays just 3-4-5-6 minutes for the sake of not only fouling, but slamming bodies on forwards defensively to allow rebounding opportunities for Landry, Wil, Gallo, Ray, Walker whoever's on.
The offensive minded small line up we've been running at the end of quarters:
1. Ray
2. Douglas
3. Landry/Walker
4. Wilson and now no doubt Gallo
5. Williams
is beyond a liability. It has to be the - if not close to the - worst defensive line up in the league.
Are we really going to run that defensive line up against SA, OKC even Houston in the next 3 games?
It's gotta stop.
That line up stays on the court for roughly 2-3 minutes twice a game. Can we not at least TRY a line up of:
Ray
Walker/Wil
Wil/Gallo
AR
Mozgov
????. Can an offensive genius not construct a P&R, P&K or isolation offense with that line up twice a game for 3 minutes?
The Gov and AR are not good players right now. But we're not asking them to be any more than defensive role players in that line up. Mozgov sets screens impeccably well, is extremely physical and blocks a shot here and there. Randolph rebounds at a high rate and can block shots as well. But that's all they need to do! Excluding them offensively isn't a big deal. We don't have to sacrifice any fluidity offensively. We just need to stop the ball and run a perimeter/iso/P&R/penetrate and kick offense for 3-4 minutes, twice a game.
Is that not reasonable? Are they really that bad that they can't facilitate a simple role of fouls, rebounds, boxing out and setting non receiving picks for 3-4 minutes a game?
I don't think so. We're wearing down our small rotation and teetering on hitting .500.
That's my solution to the issue. What else are we gonna do?
I guess I couldn't blame coach if he played the Gov some. AR, I would rather not see at this point..
The thing that concerns me is the lack of effort on D. But w the short rotation we're using I can see how we'd get that bi-product. It sux. I wish we had a better bench.
Unfortunately we have guys llike AR and Moz, Rautins that Mike D doesn't feel comfortable w.
But, he's gotta shake things up a bit. Play Moz if you have to i guess, smh.
LMAO...
Why didn't you attempt to figure out why what's happening happened?
Hint: you saw the short-term effects of the MDA style & system... now your seeing the long-term effects. Hummmm
Lol, I realize perfectly well why we're starting to slip -- We're not that good.
Our personnel, especially on the bench is not where we need it to be, which is forcing Coach to play a short rotation. This in turn is fatiguing our players, supposedly (not totally convinced).
This is having a profound effect on Felton in particular as TD is just not adequate as a back up. We all know this.
It's simple.
But, what's Coach gonna do?? Unfortunately he's been sacrificing/ risking our best players for the sake of victories, which isn't the most prudent strategy. I can't blame him for it because it's been working until recently and he has us in the thick of things.
Idk what the answer is.. Is it to play guys that can't be trusted like AR and Moz? Mason who just sux?? Or play a guy like Rautins who apparently isn't ready?
Maybe this is the solution. Seems counterintuitive to me but hey...
Listen, the key thing here is except Felton our guys minutes are normal. STAT has to give alot of effort on offense going against doubles and triples so I worry for him the most, and w Turiaf out he's basically on an island defensively. He needs help if this is what we're faced w.
Coach needs to play another big other than Williams who can't handle guarding guys in the post, as we've seen w him fouling out mid-way I think through the fourth on Monday. I guess I would have to advocate we give Moz a bit of time. W no Turiaf you have to do something other than play Williams. Not that Moz will be much better, but lets atleast see again where he's at.
If he's still where he was at the beginning of the season and AR is still inept and useless then we're facked w out Turiaf, basically. That's what it is.
Also I think it's important to note that Mike D would not be coaching our big men, under most circumstances. I mean we do have Herb for that cause right??
Question: What the hell is Herb doin w our bigmen, lol- smh???
Bottom line is, this team is thin on the front line. We need more veteran front court players.
When Turiaf is out there are no good options.
One thing that is in our favor is that other than STAT, our team is young. We should be able to handle giving a concerted effort on D nightly even though we play small.
This gets overlooked, but in the game against the Spurs we played great defense for periods thruout the contest. Guys rotations were sharp, everyone was talking and the team was just focused on keeping everything tight. That's what we need. This type of scrambling defense even w a smaller lineup is effective. Guys just need to commit to it.