Commenter Petey responds to the recap of yesterday’s Phoenix game with a very timely and appropriate reference to a post on Eric Musselman’s blog:
“I don’t have any answers. Maybe that high S/R should be run with EJ and Camby. Maybe you feed Thornton in the post and lure the Phoenix bigs out of the lane [though with Brian Skinner, there's little incentive for them to follow and, besides, Thornton probably can't execute the sort of pass necessary to exploit a rotation].”
Via Musselman’s interesting blog, an anonymous coach notes:
One of the first clinics I ever went to Hubie Brown talked about having to admit that he “couldn’t win with just anybody.” He had just come off a season with the Knicks where his star Bernard King was hurt and so were other key players. I tell young coaches the number one key to coaching is to have better players. I like the saying, “It ain’t the x’s and the o’s, it’s the Jimmys and the Joes.”
You folks could use use B-Diddy and Z-Bo on the floor during crunchtime.
I think Petey’s — and Brown’s and Musselman’s — basic premise is dead on, and one reason I wrote that “the Clippers simply don’t have the able-bodied personnel to get good shots against smart defensive team.” Brian Skinner, while being a useful player in a reserve role, simply doesn’t force the defense to make difficult choices. In the same vain, a defense will give allowances to Freddie Jones that they’d never afford Steve Nash. And few teams will run under a screen for Baron Davis, even if he happens to be shooting 36%. And nobody will leave Zach Randolph uncovered anywhere inside 20 feet.
Until the Clippers have the offensive talent on the floor that makes opposing defenses pick their poison, they’re going to lose a lot of basketball games. But you didn’t need me to tell you that.
