Jaylen”s off-season workouts

[Kernewek]

Great. This will help him play basketball better underwater. That’s about it.

You seriously can't think of how such exercise might help his cardiovascular system? Really?

Just that the point being Jaylen doesn't need improvement in cardiovascular endurance or leg strength and jumping ability. He has those down pat. I'm not hung up on him improving "his handle" either. Looks to me like he handles the ball well. But even Globe-Trotter Curly Neal couldn't dribble through three defenders at once the way Brown attempts to do repeatedly.

It is Jaylen's decision making that is the problem, as well as Tatum and Smart. If those three guys could significantly improve their court awareness, getting rid of the ball early and not panicking in close games, it would go a long way towards improving this team.

Personally, I think they would also benefit greatly from a more creative offense with more variety and more off-ball player movement. As is, we grind down into stagnant half-court sets that only become more difficult to execute as a playoff series is extended.

While I'm inclined to agree with Roy and others here - we're not his trainers, we're not in the room with him, we should trust them to do the thing correctly - the last two paragraphs are intriguing, because I agree with you, Smoothie, I just don't think it's fixable.

The coaching staff helps here for sure, but creativity in an offense can only go as far as the players involved in the offense. I think our core is great, but I don't think they're made up of particularly creative players, and I also agree that this is a concern, because right now they're running into problems when they try to brute force wins with their talent (and we saw this especially at the start of last season before the run). They force things and if things don't work they start to fall apart a bit. I'm not sure what the cure is here.

[tenn_smoothie]

Why unfixable ?

There was progress made during the second half of the regular season regarding Brown/Tatum/Smart moving the ball before traps arrived, better shot selection and with less forced dribbles. But they struggled at times in the playoffs, where defense is better and opponents adjust and throw different looks at a team. I got as frustrated as most when Jaylen would dribble into trouble, but because of the lack of off-ball movement and with the shot clock winding down, sometimes he had no choice but to try something to create a shot for himself or others. Tatum's struggles in the finals were sometimes due to the same reason - not enough options to go to.

The fixable part is up to the coaching staff. They have to put in offensive sets that include off-ball movement and off-ball screening and cutting. You think Golden State's players are just this naturally creative bunch who figured out their movement-heavy offense on their own ? They were taught and coached creativity within set offensive patterns. I would say that Curry, especially, does have a natural feel for where to move and how to cut to open up his shot opportunities, but that is not true of the entire team.

Gouk, your comment on Brown's fitness was fine, just that it was a non-sequitur. You completely missed my point.

[Kernewek]

Why unfixable ?

There was progress made during the second half of the regular season regarding Brown/Tatum/Smart moving the ball before traps arrived, better shot selection and with less forced dribbles. But they struggled at times in the playoffs, where defense is better and opponents adjust and throw different looks at a team. I got as frustrated as most when Jaylen would dribble into trouble, but because of the lack of off-ball movement and with the shot clock winding down, sometimes he had no choice but to try something to create a shot for himself or others. Tatum's struggles in the finals were sometimes due to the same reason - not enough options to go to.

The fixable part is up to the coaching staff. They have to put in offensive sets that include off-ball movement and off-ball screening and cutting. You think Golden State's players are just this naturally creative bunch who figured out their movement-heavy offense on their own ? They were taught and coached creativity within set offensive patterns. I would say that Curry, especially, does have a natural feel for where to move and how to cut to open up his shot opportunities, but that is not true of the entire team.

I think your last sentence really gets to the heart of the problem - Curry is the Warrior's best player, so the coaching staff is going to build offensive sets that cater to his strengths (I also think you're underrating Klay Thompson's movement, but that's neither here nor there). You can give our guys the most free-flowing sets in the world, but our best players are not naturally great at sharing - or moving without - the ball.

When I say I don't think it's fixable, I don't mean they can't get better at it. 

It's got two parts:
1 - I don't think it's ever a style of play that will come to them as naturally as, say, a Parker/Ginobili/Duncan Spurs, let alone the gold standard for this (the 2002 Kings). But I also don't think it's a coincidence that after Derrick White (TGF) came over from San Antonio that the team started playing better.

2 - I don't think the regression to standing around is going to stop against more difficult competition and when the shots aren't falling. Game 5 was a pretty good example of that: running down the shot clock in the half court & bad spacing leading to pretty ugly basketball - this is something that I think Jalen, TGF, and even Williams mentioned after the fact.

All of these guys are All-World talents. But even when things are clicking I'm reminded much more of the Heatles or our Big Three when Rondo was on the bench, the your turn, my turn offense*. And, hey, both of those teams won championships, so it's not a bad thing. It's just a thing, hopefully it's just an aesthetic problem on my part