Questions for the basketball gurus...

[OrangeTown]

Normally I don't post a lot about actual performance, technical basketball questions, or strategy decisions on here. I'm a huge fan but more of a poster who just posts once in a while, trying to be humorous, or to alleviate some tension in some posts. However, a combination of watching tonight's game and imbibing numerous drinks and ample amounts of Tito's has brought me out of hiding. I apologize in advance for any drunken typos or wandering thoughts. That being said, I present the following discussion points:

1 - When I watch games, it seems to me the other team often does a better job at executing screens. I see the guy with the ball dribble past the screen nice and tight and our defender has to struggle to stay above the screen to defend the 3 and when they cut under it, often see the opponent pop back for a fairly open 3. When we do the screening, most of the time I see someone like Lydon set the screen up top, and then move to the lane way before our ball handler even comes near him to use the screen. It almost seems like there is no screen even being done. My question: when we have the ball, is this execution a result of our offensive strategy? Are we purposely setting what seem to be lazy screens? Is it something to do with not wanting the defense to switch up on us? I'm assuming part of why it seems to work for the other team is because we are playing a zone and can't just do a switch up of men on defense like they often can.

2 - Why do we have Gillon inbound the ball so often on the baseline? I don't have much to add on to this question - sometimes it just seems he's smothered by whoever is on him and we end up just heaving the ball into the backcourt. I understand he might have better vision than others but goodness he seems to struggle sometimes there due to his size.

3 - Somewhat related to the last question with regard to Gillon's size, it seems like there are so many times where Lydon has either a mismatch or just good position on his defender down low but we seem to miss the opportunity to get it down there. Tonight, watching the game, I started to wonder if a lot of it has to do with Gillon's size. Many of the times I noticed Gillon had the ball but perhaps wasn't able to drop it over his defender to Lydon. Lydon was fighting so often to get solid position but so many times he wasn't found. Do you feel Gillon's lack of size could be part of the reason? Or just poor court vision at times by the team? Or something my novice basketball brain just doesn't comprehend?

Okay well that's about it for my one actual on topic post of the year. If nothing else, this team is exciting to watch, and I love seeing the improvements from earlier in the year. I look forward to having some of the more knowledgeable posters providing some insight for me. That excludes, off the top of my head, CuseTroop, JarHeadJim, myself (in case I forget I wrote this tomorrow and decide to talk to myself), and that's all I can really think of right now.

We got this, everyone. Keep your heads up.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Normally I don't post a lot about actual performance, technical basketball questions, or strategy decisions on here. I'm a huge fan but more of a poster who just posts once in a while, trying to be humorous, or to alleviate some tension in some posts. However, a combination of watching tonight's game and imbibing numerous drinks and ample amounts of Tito's has brought me out of hiding. I apologize in advance for any drunken typos or wandering thoughts. That being said, I present the following discussion points:

1 - When I watch games, it seems to me the other team often does a better job at executing screens. I see the guy with the ball dribble past the screen nice and tight and our defender has to struggle to stay above the screen to defend the 3 and when they cut under it, often see the opponent pop back for a fairly open 3. When we do the screening, most of the time I see someone like Lydon set the screen up top, and then move to the lane way before our ball handler even comes near him to use the screen. It almost seems like there is no screen even being done. My question: when we have the ball, is this execution a result of our offensive strategy? Are we purposely setting what seem to be lazy screens? Is it something to do with not wanting the defense to switch up on us? I'm assuming part of why it seems to work for the other team is because we are playing a zone and can't just do a switch up of men on defense like they often can.

2 - Why do we have Gillon inbound the ball so often on the baseline? I don't have much to add on to this question - sometimes it just seems he's smothered by whoever is on him and we end up just heaving the ball into the backcourt. I understand he might have better vision than others but goodness he seems to struggle sometimes there due to his size.

3 - Somewhat related to the last question with regard to Gillon's size, it seems like there are so many times where Lydon has either a mismatch or just good position on his defender down low but we seem to miss the opportunity to get it down there. Tonight, watching the game, I started to wonder if a lot of it has to do with Gillon's size. Many of the times I noticed Gillon had the ball but perhaps wasn't able to drop it over his defender to Lydon. Lydon was fighting so often to get solid position but so many times he wasn't found. Do you feel Gillon's lack of size could be part of the reason? Or just poor court vision at times by the team? Or something my novice basketball brain just doesn't comprehend?

Okay well that's about it for my one actual on topic post of the year. If nothing else, this team is exciting to watch, and I love seeing the improvements from earlier in the year. I look forward to having some of the more knowledgeable posters providing some insight for me. That excludes, off the top of my head, CuseTroop, JarHeadJim, myself (in case I forget I wrote this tomorrow and decide to talk to myself), and that's all I can really think of right now.

We got this, everyone. Keep your heads up.

Coach Orange has answered the first question several times, and you aren't seeing it incorrectly. We are fairly bad at executing screens. Many other teams do this well, we don't.

I've been asking the second question for months now. Again, it makes no sense to me. Our shortest but fastest guy should be out trying to get open.

And the answer to your 3rd question is yes. Yes he's too small. Yes, many of our guards over the years are bad at feeding the post.

 

[HoustonCuse]

For #3, Gillon misses a large number of passes in the half court. I don't think he has great vision. Partly because of his size and partly he just doesn't have that as a big strength. Not a crack on him, but he has missed cutters at a high rate all year. Overall we are weak at taking advantage of situations where the defense is compromised. Tonight TB did a shot fake and got his guy fully in the air. Instead of taking a any advantage of that he nonchalantly tossed the ball to Gillon at the top of the key- resetting the offense to zero as the shot clock clicks away.

 

[CaptainJ]

Normally I don't post a lot about actual performance, technical basketball questions, or strategy decisions on here. I'm a huge fan but more of a poster who just posts once in a while, trying to be humorous, or to alleviate some tension in some posts. However, a combination of watching tonight's game and imbibing numerous drinks and ample amounts of Tito's has brought me out of hiding. I apologize in advance for any drunken typos or wandering thoughts. That being said, I present the following discussion points:

1 - When I watch games, it seems to me the other team often does a better job at executing screens. I see the guy with the ball dribble past the screen nice and tight and our defender has to struggle to stay above the screen to defend the 3 and when they cut under it, often see the opponent pop back for a fairly open 3. When we do the screening, most of the time I see someone like Lydon set the screen up top, and then move to the lane way before our ball handler even comes near him to use the screen. It almost seems like there is no screen even being done. My question: when we have the ball, is this execution a result of our offensive strategy? Are we purposely setting what seem to be lazy screens? Is it something to do with not wanting the defense to switch up on us? I'm assuming part of why it seems to work for the other team is because we are playing a zone and can't just do a switch up of men on defense like they often can.

2 - Why do we have Gillon inbound the ball so often on the baseline? I don't have much to add on to this question - sometimes it just seems he's smothered by whoever is on him and we end up just heaving the ball into the backcourt. I understand he might have better vision than others but goodness he seems to struggle sometimes there due to his size.

3 - Somewhat related to the last question with regard to Gillon's size, it seems like there are so many times where Lydon has either a mismatch or just good position on his defender down low but we seem to miss the opportunity to get it down there. Tonight, watching the game, I started to wonder if a lot of it has to do with Gillon's size. Many of the times I noticed Gillon had the ball but perhaps wasn't able to drop it over his defender to Lydon. Lydon was fighting so often to get solid position but so many times he wasn't found. Do you feel Gillon's lack of size could be part of the reason? Or just poor court vision at times by the team? Or something my novice basketball brain just doesn't comprehend?

Okay well that's about it for my one actual on topic post of the year. If nothing else, this team is exciting to watch, and I love seeing the improvements from earlier in the year. I look forward to having some of the more knowledgeable posters providing some insight for me. That excludes, off the top of my head, CuseTroop, JarHeadJim, myself (in case I forget I wrote this tomorrow and decide to talk to myself), and that's all I can really think of right now.

We got this, everyone. Keep your heads up.

I'm leaving this to the gurus, but your description reminds me of myself a bit, including the consumption of beverage to encourage posting. I seem to remember you posting more...or maybe it was other JLH avatars...they all look the same to me. Either way I do seem to remember you posting more, and hope you'll drink more so that you post more. Matter of fact, I hope everyone on here will drink more... to make my posts look more attractive.