v NJ: Great In-Game Adjustments by the Coaching Staff and some other thoughts

by jukelike20 on Nov 26, 2009 5:32 AM PST

During that 3rd quarter, I was thinking to myself: "Oh no, here goes Nate about to lose us this game." But as soon as I thought that, he started making great adjustments to counter New Jersey's 2nd half defensive adjustments. Credit NJ for playing hard and trying to attack Portland at the rim and in the paint.

New Jersey's basic defensive strategy tonight was to set up a wall whenever Roy put the ball on the floor. They did a great job of crowding him and triple teaming him. During the first half, Roy was able to use this against NJ and find Webster for 2 corner 3s. However, in the 2nd half I'm guessing that NJ's coaching staff emphasized pressing wider to deny the corner 3s. The Blazers were having a tougher time during the first 6 minutes of the 3rd quarter getting looks that they wanted because NJ was closing out fast whenever Blake or Webster got the ball out on the 3pt line. It seemed like the Blazers were totally out of rhythm. Plus Sean Williams is quite the Aldridge neutralizer. More on Aldridge later.

I was very surprised that Portland's coaching staff reacted quickly, around the 6-minute mark, to counter NJ's defensive adjustments. They brought in Miller for Webster to switch up the look. Whereas Webster is a spacer, Miller is someone that can attack the middle directly via penetration or via lob passes. And since the Jersey defenders were leaning towards closing out the corner 3s, Miller was able to use that extra space effectively while Roy played decoy. This was a great adjustment that one or two years ago I think Nate would not have recognized.

Other thoughts on the game:

The best strategy for Blake-Aldridge pick and roll on the wing: TRAP BLAKE. Blake just does not have the ability to make good passes off the dribble. I would also blame LA a little bit for not sliding to better spots for Blake to pass him to. It seems like LA is comfortable right around 17 to 19 feet, but not around 13 to 15 or 20 to 22.

Andre Miller had a couple steals to help break the game open. He also did a terrific job of breaking down NJ's disciplined defense.

I don't care if he shot 4-13, Aldridge had a great game. If you notice all the little things LA had to do tonight you have to give him credit for giving serious effort on a night when things weren't going all that well for him. In past years I would see LA get frustrated and let himself get out of sync, but tonight I saw him fighting hard to do the little things that Nate asked of him. There were times when he had to guard Brook because Oden was in foul trouble. I'm not trying to say that Aldridge did a good defensive job, but he fought hard and stayed physical against the big front line of Boone and Lopez. At some point later in the 3rd quarter I think Aldridge realized that he would have trouble against a freakishly athletic Sean Williams and started to look for easier baskets. I wished they ran the play where Roy has the ball up top, Blake and Aldridge are in the corner where usually Aldridge comes up top to set the screen while Blake waits in the corner, but instead, to change things up, Blake sets a screen for an Aldridge corner 3 which usually confuses the opposing defense. I've seen them run that play at the end of quarters, but sometimes when Aldridge is having trouble against a defender like Williams it would be nice to try and stretch the defense more.

It's too early to say but Dante might have more value for Portland than Outlaw does. Outlaw can create his own shot, while Cunningham is more of a mid-range catch and shoot type of guy. But since Cunningham dwell's in the mid-range he's better positioned for offensive rebounds while Travis is usually drifting right around the 3pt line. Cunningham is CERTAINLY a more attentive defender than Outlaw already.

Nobody could stop Brook Lopez. He is a very very wide body. Pryzbilla couldn't do anything. Aldridge tried his best. Oden wasn't really stopping him, just making him work a little harder. The thing that worked best against Brook Lopez was aggressively double teaming. Lopez doesn't seem to be much of an accomplished post passer yet and it seems like we had the most success crowding him when he got the ball.

Oden is Oden. Roy is Roy and Rudy is apparently the next Reggie Miller. Same height, same weight, same magic haha.

Great coaching job because I feel like we could have easily ground ourselves to a loss. I would not put anything on Roy for his lack of numbers because I think NJ did a great job forcing him out of the game. There were 2 or 3 instances where Roy posted up for a sweet fadeaway around 12 to 15 feet from the hoop. I thought those were two of his better looks during the game.

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I really like

your analysis here, specifically about the coaching. I did not pic up on that when I initially lost the game. Fans rarely throw McMillan a bone when it comes o props, but he deserved it this time. Between what you said here and the notes from the Media Row Report, I have a bit of a deeper appreciation for his knowledge of the x’s and o’s.

Great job….am I FIRST?… after all this time? Hope I didn’t jinx it by writing all this extra stuff…
Rec

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEG OOOOOOOOOOOOOODEEEEEEEEEN

by kajuayn on Nov 26, 2009 7:14 AM PST reply actions

Yes but...

Did you also notice that Portland was on a 9-0 run and Coach subbed out two guys? Then the Nets came back and cut into the lead.

Why would you disrupt the rhythm by subbing out two guys when you’re in the middle of a run. Didn’t make sense to me.

And I still think Andre is proving to be way more valuable than his minutes are showing. He should be playing 30 a game easily.

by biggfish02 on Nov 26, 2009 11:36 AM PST reply actions

i'm not sure ...

where in the game that portland was on a 9-0 run and nate subbed out two guys. The only run of at least 9 points during the NJ-POR game was in the middle of the 2nd quarter when Portland was on a 11-0 run. Towards the end of that run Nate subbed in Blake for Miller which ended the 11-0 run and that let NJ cut the lead going into halftime.

I don’t disagree that Andre Miller is way more valuable than his minutes are showing. At the same time how much value does Miller gain or lose by playing more minutes if it’s at the expense of cutting into the roles of other perhaps more important players on the team? I’m not saying Miller doesn’t deserve more minutes, I’m just posing the question: how important is it to play your best players the most amount of minutes versus playing those players who fit into the most optimal playing dynamic for the team’s success?

Batum only played like 12 to 18 minutes last year, but I can probably argue that his value to the team was much higher than the minutes he played. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we would’ve played better if Batum was on the court more. I think that it’s more that Batum fit exactly what Nate wanted in certain situations. Anyways, blah blah blah.

by jukelike20 on Nov 27, 2009 7:19 AM PST up reply actions

Re Roy and Aldridge

I don’t know why,but from the games I’ve watched Roy doesn’t want to use the high pick. Numerous times he’s either waved it off or dribbled AWAY from it. Part may be the Blazers keep sending Oden or Pryz up high to set screens and neither has any kind of outside shot so both defenders jump Roy-or whoever-and Roy hasn’t been able to find them rolling. Perhaps w/Aldridge-as you suggest-or Dante,Roy might start effectively using the high screen.

Also Aldridge did a good job on the defensive glass. Esp considering how few Oden got.(Not a knock on Oden,I’d imagine NJ was focusing on him,still just 2 defensive boards.)
It sure looks like getting Aldridge a fast break basket or two really energizes him into a more complete player.

by Tisbee on Nov 26, 2009 2:50 PM PST reply actions

Roy goes away from the pick

To pull the double away quick and keep a passing angle. When Aldridge comes up to screen, it’s common for his man to move toward Roy early— so Roy goes 1-2 dribbles away to make the defender commit. When that happens, Aldridge usually takes a step away from Roy, and often a half step farther from the basket. That makes an easy angle for Roy to pass to him, and puts him in a place he can hit from consistently. Roy does tend to go over the pick more when Oden or Joel set it, but I’d still like to see him use the screen more, and for Aldridge to roll to the basket more frequently.

by Biddy77 on Nov 26, 2009 8:29 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Someone should chart how Roy uses the pick.

If anybody has access to Synergy, I bet they have statistics on how a player decides to use a pick and the end result.

I’ll just leave a few comments from my own unscientific observations:

- I think Roy likes to break towards the basket before the pick even comes because of how frequently opposing teams trap him on the pick and roll. This might be a function of either Roy’s inability to make a smooth sweet pass between the trappers and/or the inability of the pick setter to roll to the right spot and be ready for a trap splitting pass.
- I notice that almost always, the pick-setter stays stationary on the pick and just tries their best to “hold-up” the guy guarding Roy. This is the right way to play it if Roy’s defender is trying to fight through the screen and the pick setter’s defender is hedging for the roll. But when Pryz or Oden set the pick I rarely even see them roll to the basket in such a way that they’ll be fed by Roy, so I’m assuming that other teams pick up on that and decide to just trap Roy.
- The job of the pick-setter is very very critical to Roy’s ability to make a play off the pick and roll. If the pick-setter knows that they are going to trap the pick and roll then they might as well not set the pick cleanly and leave early to roll to the basket. If the pick-setter knows that they are going to switch on the pick and roll, then they need to set a clean pick and try to either clear out for the Roy vs Big man mismatch, or they have to hurry and get position to exploit the Pick-Setter vs Little man mismatch. If the pick-setter knows that they are going to fight through then they have to set a “sticky pick” — that is, try to get Roy’s defender to be trapped in their chest so Roy can penetrate. In these instances, it’s important for the weak-side perimeter spacers to dynamically move to great spots to catch and shoot if the weak side defenders try to come and stop Roy’s penetration.

Whew.

by jukelike20 on Nov 27, 2009 7:33 AM PST up reply actions