Right now we have 6 guys who can play.

[Gabjon]

Two of them fouled out and if MCW his a FT we win. For those suggesting we should not have played stall ball you are wrong. We were playing 4 1/2 on 5. We needed the clock to run out, it was our only shot of winning. Cooney and DC2 are not ready. DC2 cannot defend the rim. Our zone cannot defend the 3pt line if the center cannot defend the rim so he can't play. We were winning with our defense and we lost 2 of our better defenders, Cooney is not a better defender than the guys he is coming in for. Neither DC2 nor Cooney are bringing anything on the offensive end. DC2 can't finish, and Cooney is struggling. If and when we get James back we are a FF4 team because he brings what this team is missing. Think about how many of MCW's drives would have lead to a kick out to James for 3? When was the last time we an easy 3 in transition? Image how much easier the game would have been if Nova had to bring a big guy out to guard James? We will be in every game with our defense, but without James we will struggle to score the ball.

 

[jekelish]

You can milk the clock without playing flat out stall ball. Having one guy (especially a guy who was as bad as MCW was today) pounding the ball for 25 seconds and then trying to force something in the final 10 seconds is just not good offense.

You can run your regular offense and still run 20-25 seconds off the clock on every single possession, and that way you still have ball movement and are more likely to get good looks. I hate stall ball. It wasn't the only reason we lost today, but it was one of them.

 

[Cuse44]

I don't think stall ball had anything to do with the loss. The ball never leaving MCW's hands during that time might have. Triche, and probably even Fair HAVE to touch the ball

 

[jekelish]

I don't think stall ball had anything to do with the loss. The ball never leaving MCW's hands during that time might have. Triche, and probably even Fair HAVE to touch the ball

But our version of stall ball is designed to keep the ball in that one player's hands for as long as possible. We rarely, rarely move the ball when we are stalling, especially if the other team is going to hang back and let the guy pound the ball for 25 seconds.

 

[JeremyCuse]

The problem is we have 4 guys who can score on there own and shoot, Triche, MWC, Fair, and Grant. Rak can get O boards, tips ins and dunks but has pretty much zero post moves, DC cant get more then 3 minutes a game, BMK is a blackhole on offense, and Cooney is way overhead. This team desperately needs Southerland back, the offense is sputtering and the next two games arent great matchups for our offense either, Im allready cringing about Monday.

 

[stuckinbig11]

Two of them fouled out and if MCW his a FT we win. For those suggesting we should not have played stall ball you are wrong. We were playing 4 1/2 on 5. We needed the clock to run out, it was our only shot of winning. Cooney and DC2 are not ready. DC2 cannot defend the rim. Our zone cannot defend the 3pt line if the center cannot defend the rim so he can't play. We were winning with our defense and we lost 2 of our better defenders, Cooney is not a better defender than the guys he is coming in for. Neither DC2 nor Cooney are bringing anything on the offensive end. DC2 can't finish, and Cooney is struggling. If and when we get James back we are a FF4 team because he brings what this team is missing. Think about how many of MCW's drives would have lead to a kick out to James for 3? When was the last time we an easy 3 in transition? Image how much easier the game would have been if Nova had to bring a big guy out to guard James? We will be in every game with our defense, but without James we will struggle to score the ball.

I have no problem with stall ball if BT has the ball.

 

[Gabjon]

You can milk the clock without playing flat out stall ball. Having one guy (especially a guy who was as bad as MCW was today) pounding the ball for 25 seconds and then trying to force something in the final 10 seconds is just not good offense.

You can run your regular offense and still run 20-25 seconds off the clock on every single possession, and that way you still have ball movement and are more likely to get good looks. I hate stall ball. It wasn't the only reason we lost today, but it was one of them.

No that opens up the turnover opportunity. Pounding rock is the right thing to do. We needed to make one shot or free throw. It wasn't coaching I do think they should have given BT a shot at it, but MCW needs to finish at the rim better. Scoop was great at that...

 

[jekelish]

No it's not. And I'll never agree that pounding the ball is the way to go.

 

[RICuse44]

Just wanted to make some points. The team playing defense against you is the same team that will be playing offense if you make a shot, miss a shot, or turn the ball over. The part I never got about sitting beyond the three point line dribbling with one guy for 25 seconds is why not put some pressure on the defense? At the very least you make them move, even a little bit. Otherwise its almost like a timeout for them where they can regroup. Unless you have a guy who is a great drive and score/dish player (Jonny was the best I've seen in recent years, Sherm and Pearl would be the others) then this theory makes no sense. We do not have one guy who should have the ball in his hands at the end of the game (I would say Triche but he has not shown the confidence to do this). So why not run your regular set to look for a shot? That's what Norman Dale would do.

 

[Cuse44]

Just wanted to make some points. The team playing defense against you is the same team that will be playing offense if you make a shot, miss a shot, or turn the ball over. The part I never got about sitting beyond the three point line dribbling with one guy for 25 seconds is why not put some pressure on the defense? At the very least you make them move, even a little bit. Otherwise its almost like a timeout for them where they can regroup. Unless you have a guy who is a great drive and score/dish player (Jonny was the best I've seen in recent years, Sherm and Pearl would be the others) then this theory makes no sense. We do not have one guy who should have the ball in his hands at the end of the game (I would say Triche but he has not shown the confidence to do this). So why not run your regular set to look for a shot? That's what Norman Dale would do.

Actually Norman Dale went to the four corners late when he had the lead. In the championship game Chitwood pounded the ball and hit a jumper at the buzzer. And his drunk assistant ran the picket fence...don't get caught watching the paint dry. : )

 

[anomander]

You can milk the clock without playing flat out stall ball. Having one guy (especially a guy who was as bad as MCW was today) pounding the ball for 25 seconds and then trying to force something in the final 10 seconds is just not good offense.

You can run your regular offense and still run 20-25 seconds off the clock on every single possession, and that way you still have ball movement and are more likely to get good looks. I hate stall ball. It wasn't the only reason we lost today, but it was one of them.

our offense consists of the high ball screen for the pg, and that's basically it. we did get into our offense we just didn't convert. stall ball usually works we just didn't make any plays today, and defensively we were weak with cooney in there bc of our foul problems. the other team needs to play perfect, and we need to help them, and that's exactly what happens. sure maybe JB should have gave BT the ball instead of mcw, but why is he going to take the ball out of the hands of his all american pg?

 

[OttoMets]

Don't usually find myself defending stall ball - it's easy to remember games that we've lost because of it (Butler).

Thought it was the right move today - not only did we have two guys fouled out and find ourselves needing to run some clock, but I don't agree that we had been clicking offensively. Because of that, might as well go into the stall and hope to sneak out of there with a win.

If the Next Coming Of Magic just makes four unguarded 15-footers with the clock stopped (hell, even just one of them), it works. It didn't. Lousy execution by the players.