I was proud to give Idaho Green his first TP because I essentially agreed with what he said.
People on this board who know me at all know that I've been concerned about Doc's ability to whiddle a 13 man regular season rotation into an 8 or 9 man playoff rotation. I'm not the only one who thought that obviously, but it was a problem we hoped he could solve. He hasn't and I don't know if he can.
The fact is we do have 13 legit NBA players. We have 6, maybe 7, players who are a notch above the rest, and 7 or 6 role players, depending on your feelings about Cassell. We need to play those 6-7 guys (KG, Pierce, Ray, Rondo, Perk and Posey, maybe Cassell) and fill in our remaining minutes with what we need.
One problem is, for all the "ubuntu" talk, I don't see our guys embracing the status of role player. I'm talking specifically about House and Cassell who are apparently sulking. Those guys know or should know their limitations and should be happy to take the minutes they're given and do the most with them. More importantly, Doc should have prepared everybody for this. Every one of those 7 role players should get minutes in the playoffs, but every one of them should also know that they may not play in a given game or even series.
Given our matchup against Atlanta, a team that plays one post presence (Horford, with occasional sub from Zaza), 2-3 tall athletic guys who essentially stay on the perimeter and crash the boards from outside (Smith, Williams, Childress), a tall shooter (Johnson) and one point guard (Bibby, sometimes Law), you have to play the guys who fit. Whether we're in a half court game or a running game, we need the guys who give us the best chance to beat our opponents. That's Posey and Allen, but NOT House, Powe and Davis.
I like Leon Powe and to a lesser extent Glen Davis. But they do not fit this series. Neither is agile or athletic enough to stick with guys like Smith and Childress and Williams, and both are far too small to handle a bigger athlete like Horford. Those two guys cannot defend any of the Hawks' players and cannot keep them off the boards. There's no reason they were on the court for 29 minutes of Game 4. None.
For me, the first warning sign with Doc came when I saw Big Baby on the floor in Game 3 - he simply does not fit this series and essentially does not know what he is doing. He has regressed this season, plain and simple. Powe and Davis might be usable in series where we're playing more of a half court game. When they go up against older, lumbering presences, they are effective. However, when their opponent matches their effort level (which often happens with younger teams like the Hawks), they are just outmatched. The Hawks play one post guy on the court at any given time. As long as either Perk or KG is in the game, they're covered. Davis should not be playing in this series and Powe should not be playing nearly as much as he is.
Posey should clearly be playing 32-35 minutes a night, acting as the primary defender on Johnson or Smith. The type of player the Hawks put on the court - long athletic tweeners who stay on the perimeter and go inside for offensive boards - are exactly the types of players Posey can neutralize. Maybe he'd be better on Smith than on Johnson, but in either case, he's a better option than what we have and should be playing huge minutes in a series like this. Is there any question he's our best bench player? Is there any question he is perfect against the types of players the Hawks have? Can anybody explain to me why he played only 18 minutes and Powe played 22?
That's also why I think TA would fit better than Powe as the 8th man. TA is an active defender and can give you a few minutes pestering Joe Johnson. He has a role that can be useful in this series. The roles played by Powe, Davis and House are simply not as useful against the Hawks. All would be more valuable than TA against Cleveland, but this is a series where he'd be perfect.
Rajon Rondo should be playing 40 minutes. He's young and has the energy and can give the defensive energy no other point guard on our roster can bring. This series, going against Bibby, is where he's most important. Against a Cleveland or Orlando, he might only need 32-35 minutes, but against this squad we need him out there. And when he's out, just put Cassell in. Cassell has played against Bibby for years in the Pacific. He can handle those 8 minutes. But we have to have one of those two guys on the court because...
Ray Allen cannot be wasting his energy bringing the ball up the court (as he did the first six minutes of the 4th quarter last night, the stretch in which we lost the game) and defending Joe Johnson. It's just ridiculous. He should be playing 36-40 minutes a night exclusively as a 2, making Joe Johnson work on the defensive end, and picking up a guy like Childress or Williams defensively. Those guys don't create offense and aren't very good shooters, Allen just needs to try to keep them off the offensive glass when he's in there and prevent them from making quick cuts for easy buckets. Then he can have the energy to make Johnson chase him, hit his shots, and take it to the glass every once in a while to keep the Hawks defense honest. Offensively, Allen was our most effective player last night (with the possible exception of Rondo). Defensively, he was a liability. Why? Because he can't cover Joe Johnson. That's not his fault because that's not what we brought him here to do. That's what we brought Posey here to do, and that's what we kept TA for.
Paul Pierce is out of sorts. Ideally, he should be the guy hounding Joe Johnson (leaving Posey for Smith and Horford for KG). But something's not right with him. We still need his minutes, but if he needed rest in Game 3, we should have given it to him and opened up more time for Posey and TA.
Honestly for the most part, I'd be playing a 7 man rotation. Rondo gets 40 minutes a night, and Cassell takes the other 8 minutes. Rondo/Cassell sticks with Bibby/Law. Allen, Pierce, KG and Perk start. Pierce sticks with Johnson at the beginning. If he can't take it, bring Posey in a little quicker. Keep Posey on Johnson pretty much all night. If Posey really needs a breather, or we want to rest his legs for a few minutes, let TA get a few minutes on Johnson. Then keep a rotation of Pierce, KG, Ray and Perk around them. That's it. It's not rocket science. 8 men. That's all you need. Powe maybe gets a handful of minutes when matchups allow. Other than that, you don't need him. It's not an insult to these guys, it's about winning everybody a championship.
We lost that game because of the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter. We shut them down to close out the 3rd and took a 10 point lead. Then we inexplicably put House in there which screwed us in two positions :
1. House can't defend, handle the ball or create shot opportunities for anybody plus he takes a few minutes to heat up. Why would you put him in completely cold when you're protecting a ten point lead in a playoff game on the road? Our point guard position was essentially empty for that stretch.
2. Ray Allen, a 34 year old who had played 30 of 36 minutes already, now had to add bringing the ball up the court AND defending our opponent's best player to his task list which at the time was wearing down Joe Johnson on the other end of the court and providing our offensive spark.
Because of House's substantial limitations, suddenly our 2-guard position was weakened too. That doesn't even get to the fact that House can't guard Mike Bibby leaving more of a burden on our other players, allowing Atlanta to do what they do best - crash the offensive boards for garbage buckets. In those six minutes, the Hawks outrebounded us 8 to 2, with two offensive boards leading to extra buckets. They gained the momentum and there was no question they'd win the game after that stretch in which they cut the lead from 10 to 1 and got the crowd into the game again.
We won this year on defense, how we ended up letting Eddie House and Ray Allen, arguably our two worst perimeter defenders, defend the Hawks' only two playmakers/shot creaters in the crucial stretch of the game is beyond me.
In all, there are (or should be) series in which Powe, Davis and House will be necessary and TA will be completely unnecessary - this is not that series. I still think we take this series in six. Unfortunately, my hopes for a title are taking a serious hit and my confidence in Doc's ability has reached an all-time low.
Topic: Who should play more, who less? / Tony Allen better be (merged) (Read 24749 times)