Pieces, Some of Which Matter
No 'Zards content yet. Sorry guys, I'll get to you soon. Settling into something of a rhythm here, and shooting for one post per day. Occasionally they are going to a be a short hodgepodge of smaller items simply because the longer posts take a fair amount of time to put together from watching the video, checking the stats, identifying interesting example plays and so on. Plus my attention span requires me to be working on about four longish items at any given time.
At the same time, there are always interesting topics that I can touch on briefly while I work on a deep dive into last nights Pacers/Wolves game, as I think it illustrates some differences between a decent team and a title contender. More on this later in the week.
Recorded a podcast with Rob from PPP this past weekend, which he'll hopefully get around to posting someday, I'll link when he does. We talked for about 45 minutes, and the main topics were DeMarcus Cousins and whether he's grown up; Greg Monroe and bad team building blocks; and my buddy Jrue in the context of "empty stats guys".
Speaking of Jrue, I noted in my piece last week that he's been better from a penetration standpoint, as have the Pellies overall since the return of Ryan Anderson. Until last night when they ran into the current regular season champ Spurs. Jrue had a good fantasy line (12/9/7/3/2) while still being...not good. He is using changes of pace to turn the corner on PnR occasionally now, instead of never. But that loping, "in-control" speed seems to still be his default, which means the defense can still attack him rather than the other way around. Also, Monty Williams you are down 25, why is Brow in the game?
Since I just can't get enough of the Blazers, this is pretty cool - the Blazers are using iPads to watch game tape on the sidelines. Hey Wes, if you're reading, please keep shooting, signed a fantasy owner. I could not love this team more and I'll be sad when the Thunder or Spurs are allowed to physically beat the crap out of them to mess up their offense and knock them out in May.
Since I've spent some time on my pet peeve about rotating off of a great shooter in the corner, I guess I should give some play to the other side of that coin: the offense not making the extra pass to said great shooter in the corner. I know he's a rookie, but this is bad, Victor:
I think I scared the dog by how loudly I yelled "one more!" at the TV. This extra pass is a fairly basic NBA play, but he's learns as by all accounts a good, smart guy. Of course, just taking a three is better than faking the three, dribbling nowhere, stepping just inside the line and jacking. Oh, JR.
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