12-24-2020, 11:58 AM
(12-24-2020, 11:41 AM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: Basketball is still an inside-out game. Move the ball, get penetration and find the open shooter on a kick out pass. That´s good offense with a high 3-point volume. Against the Suns we saw a team that couldn´t get in the paint. Passed the ball around on the perimeter and forced bad 3s.
The Mavs desperately need to create more scoring opportunities in the paint. Against the Suns they only had 4pts in the paint from the three bigman. No easy baskets out of the pick and roll, no post ups. Luka, Brunson and Burke struggling to beat the defense of the dribble. Not enough off ball movement. I only remember one cut from Josh Green leading to a layup in the 2nd quarter.
Part of the problem is certainly Luka not being at his best. Right now he lacks some quickness but in the 2nd half he at least made some adjustments and started to play bully ball in the paint. In the post he had no problem with Bridges and easily backed him down for a layup.
Bigger problem is the center position. Powell is not moving like he used to. Maxi is not a good pick and roll player (basically a pure stretch 4/5 at this point). Boban is a liability on defense. Looking at the small sample size of three preseason and one regular season game WCS might be the best option.
Great post. This generalization was my takeaway, too.
Like others have said, I hate when THJ tries to create shots for himself, and there were other things that drove me crazy too, but the cause of all the issues was that the team simply couldn’t generate any penetration.