I love how everyone's asking "what's wrong with this team?", dancing around the issue, searching for answers when we've had the answer for a few yrs. now. there's a pattern here.
ever since stevens got here there's been a consistent theme. shoot jump shots and just keep shooting them. his 1st season here the players would take pull up jump shots from just under the 3 pt line with 20 secs. on the shot clock, it was so bad at times I was wondering why we even dribbled the ball down the court when we inbounded the ball because it just seemed like a waste of time with the bad shot selection we had...(and continue to have).
all we need to do(and I've mentioned this many times before) is look how we've been eliminated from the playoffs under stevens. we go through a 2-3 min. stretch in an elimination game taking prayer shots from 3 that are usually contested, but even the wide open ones don't fall because of the bad habit of taking bad shots.
have we ever heard of the phrase "open for a reason"?
yeah we're not getting guys open this season, teams are leaving us open. I've recognized this over the yrs., teams pretty much play us for the pass on drives - because no one on this team is a consistent threat to drive all the way to the basket. they're saying you're going to have to make 35 3's to beat us. sound familiar? that's what the bucks did... we happened to make 'em.
it was one thing when we had AB and all that other garbage, but now we're supposed to have better players, much better players... and I believe we do. but when guys like tatum, brown and hayward are just relegated to being jump shooters what was the point if the result is the same?
there is no higher percentage shot than a dunk or a lay up. why do we make it so difficult on ourselves?
i'm not saying we need to get rid of stevens just yet though just because I don't agree with the philosophy... I didn't always like doc either. but this season is real big in giving us the answer on weather we should.
I know no one will agree to this but I fully believe... heck! I've been around long enough to know a bad coach can sink any team, but a good coach gets the guys to play together regardless of x's and o's and or philosophy.
we've gotten better every season under stevens, every season his philosophy has killed us imo. depending on how this season ends some guys might need to look in the mirror.