Does Brandon dominating the ball hurt the Blazers?
This was on truehoop this morning, about CP3 and the Hornets dealing with him coming back from his injury. As I was reading this I couldn't help but since that they could easly replace Pual's name with Roy's, and the Hornets team with the Blazers.
"Niall Doherty of Hornets247 has been watching the Hornets, and Paul, closely:
In five games since returning from injury, he's averaging 15.8 points, 14 assists, 4.8 boards and 3.4 steals.
Having noted all of that, this next sentence might seem a little misplaced: Chris Paul is part of the problem.
I say that because I don't see him buying into what Jeff Bower and Tim Floyd are trying to do with the offense. We saw some nice progress made towards more ball movement and less pounding when Paul was out injured, and I assumed that would continue when CP came back. Unfortunately though, I'm seeing the offense regress into Paul dribbling most of the shot clock away before launching a contested jumper while his teammates stand and watch.
Of course, there's no denying Paul's brilliance, and with the way he's been shooting this season those contested jumpers aren't necessarily bad shots. The problem is that the Hornets can only go so far with Chris Paul dominating the basketball. For the Hornets to be a real threat offensively, they need everybody involved, multiple passes on each trip down the floor, not just one guy prodding the defense for 15-20 seconds. That requires too much of Paul and too little of everyone else, including the guys playing defense.
Chris has been responding to the team's poor performance by playing hard, playing hurt, and getting on his teammates even more so than usual. I'm thinking what would serve him and the team better is to realize that his Herculean efforts aren't adding up to more W's. A smarter approach is needed."
about 2 years ago
usmcr3049
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Now if only Nate McMillian would try and get
this team to buy into an offense that actually included everyone instead of reinforcing bad habits like the 1-4 set the team always runs for Roy, even in the 1st qtr of games.
Ben II Blazersedge.com || New to Blazers' Edge?
great piece on TrueHoop
And I think it rings true for sure. It seems that the superstars who figure out HOW to dominate a game while at the same time keeping their teammates moving and involved in the offense instead of “watching” are the ones who wins titles. Thinking you have to have the ball in your hands every time down the court is not going to be a long term winning play. Your best bet to catch the defense off guard is if they think the ball could be going to any of the 5 guys on the court at anytime rather than them knowing “ok, now XXXX is going to run an isolation over there, so let’s cheat an extra foot or two that way”.
How did you guys win that?
"We scored enough points. We scored 107, they scored 105.
-Nate McMillan Postgame, 3/4/2009
Dear Nate,
Start Miller, let him run his own sets like he has his entire career, sit back, watch and learn. The team will run more. More players will be involved in the offense. Brandon will get his touches and his points if he buys into the system. If you think way back, this may remind you of… Ummm… you as a player.
in the little bit we've seen Brandon playing off the ball with Andre at point,
Roy has actually been quite effective. He’s getting the ball in great triple threat position coming off of both downscreens on the baseline and screens out on the wing. Why we don’t do it more is beyond me.
How did you guys win that?
"We scored enough points. We scored 107, they scored 105.
-Nate McMillan Postgame, 3/4/2009
not just you
it is beyond everyone why this doesn’t happen more.
Ben II Blazersedge.com || New to Blazers' Edge?
yeah
you would think Brandon would go “hey, catching the ball at the free throw line extended with my man still coming around the screen puts me in a MUCH better position than having him guarding me straight up from 30 feet away – I kind of like this idea”. But it seems he doesn’t (or so it would seem thus far – I’m willing to give Brandon the benefit of the doubt for awhile".
Honestly, I don’t know why this is so difficult – tell Joel to outlet the ball to Miller immediately. Tell LMA and Martell to start running as soon as Joel is securing the ball. Tell Miller to run! if nothing is there, look for the secondary break. finally, if that isn’t there, hit LMA on a postup or PnR, or Roy coming off the downscreen from Przy.
How did you guys win that?
"We scored enough points. We scored 107, they scored 105.
-Nate McMillan Postgame, 3/4/2009
This will be the benefit of all our bad loses and injuries...
I think Brandon and co. have been afraid to break away from their bread and butter from last year. I’m sure they’ve been thinking: “Last year we gave the ball to Brandon and occasionally chucked it in to LA, and used Blake to space things, and that netted us 54 wins. We’ve lost because we’ve gone away from that. We just need to get back to that.”
Well, losses have an interesting way of getting people to rethink their strategies. Hopefully the pressure refines us.
I think you’re clearly correct. Roy has been effective playing like a real two-guard. It doesn’t mean that he can’t dominate the ball at times, but he shouldn’t do it all the time. And the team has looked much better with the other guys making cuts and coming off of screens. I suspect… no, I hope, that when McMillian has a chance to coach these guys a bit more, and everyone has a chance to adjust to the shock of losing so many guys so quickly, that we’ll see these changes implemented.
If not, I think we’ll see some roster changes. Hopefully there are some good ones to be made if that’s where we end up.
Very very slightly
Roy has controlled the ball less this year and with Miller and Rudy he should play off the ball more but not much more. Thats his game he is a great ball handler at the 2. He should have the ball a lot. Its not like he dominates the ball like CP3. Guys can still get in rhythm. Roy’s style could use some polish but its the least of the Blazers problems. He needs to score more going back door.




















