It`s so depressing to see what is now happening. What happened to the coach and team that started the season. Remember them? Lock down defense, moving the ball, playing fantastic team basketball. All of that is gone, and to be fair, it has been gone for some time.
I had high hopes for Woodson. This is probably my fault as Woodson came from an Atlanta team which played iso ball. But as the season has gone on Woodson has looked more and more like a clueless coach. He sells himself on being a defense first coach but the warning signs were there for all to see when he dropped Brewer from the starting five and then from the rotation all together. Brewer did slump in form admittedly but he was dropped because he was missing his three point shots. That is not the action of a defense first coach. You drop a top class NBA defender because of a shooting slump? Pathetic. Then we traded him away for a second round pick from Oklahoma which essentially adds up to nothing.
Woodsons refusal to use the bench players that he has at his disposal is pathetic too. Tyson, Raymond, Melo often playing in the late 30 minute mark and on many occasions playing 40 minutes a game. His treatment of Prigioni and Copeland is particularly bizarre. Pablo plays brilliant defense and a hustle game. Okay, I know that he has been hesitant to shoot but Woodson is supposed to be a defense first coach so Pablos tiny minutes and DNPs are ridiculous. Copeland has shown that he is a good scorer. Not just a good scorer but a very versatile one too. He can hit the three, drive at the basket, draw fouls and post up. Exactly the kind of scorer we need to make our offense less predictable. His defense is not that good but given that Woodson dumped Brewer, doesn`t play Prigioni and has other players in the rotation getting heavy minutes despite not playing defense, not playing Copeland because his D is bad doesn`t make sense. And, who would you rather have on the court; Copland or Novak. Copelands defense is not great but Novaks defense is completely non existant. I`m sick of seeing Novak with his arms flapping about like a fish out of water as his opponent just walks past him. If Novak doens`t hit his threes then he is a completely redundant player. We might as well just have four players on the court. Once again, Novaks heavy minutes belie the claims that Woodson is a defense first coach. Copeland can score in many ways, novak only has the three point shot. Put a defender in his face and there`s nothing that Novak can do. Copeland can beat defenders and score in many ways.
Injuries have been a major problem of course. Camby and Wallace have been a big miss for us. But even when Camby has been healthy he has just not played. Or, he has played for about 2 minutes in one quarter before sitting down to never be seen again. woodsons starting line up is a mess. White starts, plays a few minutes in the first quarter then joins Camby on the bench for the rest of the game. Why start a player if you are going to bench him and not play him again? It clearly states that Woodson has no faith in him as a player. So, again, why start him. Shump at the three and `Melo at the four means that we have two of our most important players playing out of position.
Woodsons offense is completely non existent. His theory is simply give the ball to `Melo or JR and let them shoot. I don`t see any plays or sets being run. It`s just the players making it up as they go along. Remember at the start of the season how deadly Felton and Chandler were with Chandler rolling to the basket to be found by Felton with the alley oop or an easy lay up for Chandler. It was one of the reasons why we were carving teams apart. Well, where has that gone? We only see it once or twice now. We must have become the easiest team in the NBA to defend against. All our opponents have to do is double team `Melo and not worry about the other players on the court. It`s simple : `Melo gets the ball and the other four players stand still waiting for him to shoot. Or, JR gets the ball and the other four players stand still waiting for him to shoot. It`s simple and its pathetic and that is completely down to the coach.
And now onto Carmelo Anthony. When the trade was made for `Melo which involved half of our team being sent to the Nuggets many of us here were worried that we had got the worst of the deal. I`m not a `Melo hater. He is a fantastic scorer of the ball but that is simply not enough to be a consistent winner in the modern NBA. At the start of the season he was doing everything. Scoring, defending, rebounding, hustling and making his team and his team mates better players. Incidentally don`t confuse the number of assists that a player has as an indication of if he is moving the ball or not. Ball movement isn`t just about the pass that leads to a score for an assist. Ball movement is about moving the ball around the court to create the opportunity for that final pass to lead to a score. I say that because supporters of `Melo will say that he is moving the ball because his assists are up. Now we are seeing the real Carmelo Anthony, not the fake `Melo we witnessed at the start of the season when he was caring and sharing. we are seeing the same `Melo that the Nuggest coach wasn`t unhappy to lose. Think about that. `Melo was the Nuggest bes player by far but the coach wasn`t too bothered about losing him. That`s because a good coach knows that a selfish player does more harm to his team, long term, than good. Running into double teams when team mates are open. Taking stupid forced shots and not giving any effort to defend. He was bought here to make Dolan money not too be the cornerstone and building block of a championship winning team and I`m afraid that this team will be his team until his contract or his career is finished.
There are so many other terrible things about this team but I feel I have written enough and to be honest this pack of overpaid overhyped flops doesn`t deserve anymore of my time. Thank you for reading this and lets hope that somebody can turn this mess around. Woodson certainly isn`t competent enough to do that.
