Weekend in Review

I was out of town this weekend, saw Penn State beat Purdue during a
wonderful Happy Valley weekend. The only downside was, I didn't get to
watch either of the Sixer games this weekend. Just looking at the boxscores
today, I'm feeling mildly encouraged. It's a good win to beat the Bulls on
their home court, and there's no shame in losing a close game to the Nets,
whom I am still picking to win the East. Now for a few reflections on what
I see in the boxes:

1. Jason Smith is now the back-up center. I'm a little surprised by this,
but the stats seem to indicate that Smith is producing. We can all debate
away, but it seems clear that in the mind of the one guy who counts, Coach
Cheeks, Calvin Booth is now third string. Who would have predicted this
allotment of minutes to Smith based on his pre-season play? Not me. I
thought he played well enough to make the team; Cheeks thinks he is good
enough to play ahead of Booth, Randolph, and Amundson. Stay tuned, the Coach
may be right.

2. The team has a big hole to fill at two guard. Willie Green is missing
way too many shots, and frankly his defense is not near good enough to keep
him on the court if he is not going to be a scorer. I'm disappointed in WG
this year. I thought he was coming on strong at the end of last year, and
being fully healthy I expected a lot better from him. We ain't seeing it!
Sadly, his obvious replacment, Rodney Carney, has not shown anything
better. With Dalembert and Evans starting in the frontcourt, and not
expected to contribute a lot of offense, the Sixer shooting guard has got to
be a shooter and a scorer. Maybe Lou Williams will turn out to be the best
of a bad menu here. The team's perimeter defense already stinks (thank you,
Jason Kidd, as if we needed reminding), and it won't get any better with a
little guy like Williams spending a lot of time trying to guard some of the
two guards in this league. Frankly, I do not have any good ideas here.

3. It's tempting but a bad idea to move Andre Ig to the back court. Andre
is grabbing a lot of boards in the small forward slot, and while I would
like him to shoot more, putting him in a position to jack up more 20 foot
jumpers is not what I have in mind there. More inside shots and trips to
the foul line, yes. On the whole the team is rebounding very well with a
Dalembert-Evans-Igoadala front line. The team should look to fast break
more with the rebounding advantage they are showing. All of their deficient
two guards--- Green, Carney, and Williams--- can excel in the open floor, as
all three can run like the wind, and are good finishers on the break.

4. Andre Miller is taking a lot of shots. Tip of the hat to old Andre,
because he is hitting a good percentage, but in the long run, I don't think
we want to see our point guard putting up 17 shots a game. This is not a
criticism of Miller, who is playing well. No doubt he recognizes that if
the two guard is not hitting his shots, and Andre Ig is shooting less than
he should, well, those shots have to come from somewhere. In a better
offense, those shots would come more from the 2 and 3 spots, and less from
the PG. I think Cheeks knows that, and Miller, too. Time for Andre Ig to
assert himself, even more, and time for someone on the roster to step up and
go 8-16 one night at shooting guard. Ahem, our first round draft pick is
not getting any kind of chance at all, just thought I'd mention that. Yeah,
he has looked like he is not quite ready for prime time, but could he really
be much worse than what we are seeing now from Green and Carney? Just a
thought.

------ Kurt Straub

On Nov 4, 12:29 pm, "Kurt Straub" <jkurtstr... DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote:

>
> 1. Jason Smith is now the back-up center. I'm a little surprised by this,
> but the stats seem to indicate that Smith is producing. We can all debate
> away, but it seems clear that in the mind of the one guy who counts, Coach
> Cheeks, Calvin Booth is now third string. Who would have predicted this
> allotment of minutes to Smith based on his pre-season play? Not me. I
> thought he played well enough to make the team; Cheeks thinks he is good
> enough to play ahead of Booth, Randolph, and Amundson.

Well, I have been pretty critical of Smith but as far as those other
three go I would still be playing Smith as well. And despite his lack
of toughness, I always figured that given his height he would end up
playing center from the high post. Booth always seemed like a pickup
purely to fill in a bit in small spots to help preserve Dalembert from
foul trouble (and I supported that acquisition). And Smith seems at
least as willing as Randolph and Amundson to run around enough to meet
Cheeks' sacred 'energy' criteria, while at least seeming to have some
latent talent (as a mid-range scorer) that could be developed. Based
on pre-season play, I had been optimistic about Hill turning out to be
a find, but that's moot now. It's certainly not a welcome situation
but given the roster situation it was almost inevitable.


> 2. The team has a big hole to fill at two guard. Willie Green is missing
> way too many shots, and frankly his defense is not near good enough to keep
> him on the court if he is not going to be a scorer.
> Sadly, his obvious replacment, Rodney Carney, has not shown anything
> better...Maybe Lou Williams will turn out to be the best
> of a bad menu here. The team's perimeter defense already stinks (thank you,
> Jason Kidd, as if we needed reminding), and it won't get any better with a
> little guy like Williams spending a lot of time trying to guard some of the
> two guards in this league. Frankly, I do not have any good ideas here.

As I've argued before, I don't see how Williams' defense could really
be any *worse* than Green's. I really can't understand what the team
continues to see in Green. If virtually any player were given the
free hand he has been given they would have been able to throw up that
occasional 30 point game to make it seem like they could be a 'streak'
scorer or whatever it is Green is supposed to be esteemed for. But it
doesn't mean anything when it's done in the course of 35% shooting
(39% career), while not doing *anything* else--not even being able to
get to the free throw line. If there's any perception that he's worth
anything around the league, he should be dumped as soon as possible.
Given the size issues, I would say Carney is the best (though not
necessarily 'good') option here. He's not legitimate starting
material by any stretch of the imagination but he's at least competent
(and of decent height) defensively, and from what I saw in the
preseason and through his limited opportunities thus far, it does seem
like he has improved--his rebounding in particular. The problem is
that his outside shooting is still pretty weak, which makes it so
Iguodala would be the only person in the starting unit with any kind
of range. Like with Williams' defense though, it's not like it can be
worse than Green. So, if Iguodala is staying at SF, it's a trade-off,
better defense with Carney or better shooting with Williams.

> 3. It's tempting but a bad idea to move Andre Ig to the back court. Andre
> is grabbing a lot of boards in the small forward slot, and while I would
> like him to shoot more, putting him in a position to jack up more 20 foot
> jumpers is not what I have in mind there. More inside shots and trips to
> the foul line, yes.

I've only seen tape of the Toronto game but from what I saw there, I
was thinking that Iguodala actually needed more perimeter
opportunities. Some kind of perimeter threat besides Korver has to be
established and it's not coming from Miller, Green, Carney, Evans, or
Dalembert. More importantly though, whether it's to be for spot-ups
or drives, the team has to run set plays for him in the half-court.
He's not a creative enough one-on-one player to do much more than try
to awkwardly power his way to the hoop and hope to get fouled. A lot
of his many turnovers though have come from him just getting bottled
up and fumbling the ball in those situations. Again, it would help if
there were a perimeter threat out there to provide spacing which is
why, while I like the rebounding at SF, I think Korver really should
be starting for now.

> 4. Andre Miller is taking a lot of shots. Tip of the hat to old Andre,
> because he is hitting a good percentage, but in the long run, I don't think
> we want to see our point guard putting up 17 shots a game. This is not a
> criticism of Miller, who is playing well. No doubt he recognizes that if
> the two guard is not hitting his shots, and Andre Ig is shooting less than
> he should, well, those shots have to come from somewhere. In a better
> offense, those shots would come more from the 2 and 3 spots, and less from
> the PG. I think Cheeks knows that, and Miller, too.

If they do, they're not running plays to help open up those shots from
other positions. If he's the distributor he's supposed to be, it
shouldn't be *that* hard to run Iguodala off some Dalembert/Evans
screens and have Miller get him some open shots. Instead he has been
taking a number of open looks from mid-range and driving for some easy
scores--like you say to fair success so far but it's not really what
the team needs. Given the SG dilemma of point #2, if Miller has
decided he has to be a scorer himself and is going to end up shooting
17 times a game and only getting 5 assists, Williams seems like he can
do that and with better range on his shot. Go with Williams, Carney,
Iguodala, Korver, and Dalembert and run like hell.

>Ahem, our first round draft pick is
> not getting any kind of chance at all, just thought I'd mention that. Yeah,
> he has looked like he is not quite ready for prime time, but could he really
> be much worse than what we are seeing now from Green and Carney?

Agreed. Seeing how much Smith has been force-fed in order to develop
him it's surprising that Young seems to have been given up on for
now. Maybe if Green throws up 2 or 3 more 30% shooting games they may
give him a try.


--IK