Q12543 wrote:What I have seen so far is waaaaay too many guys in the paint because we simply have no pure shooters in the starting lineup and everyone loves to drive the basketball. Unfortunately, KAT is the closest thing we have to a pure shooter. But the good thing is he is dragging a big man out there with him, so there is an important secondary benefit to him being parked at the top of the arc. It's one less big man for Wig, Butler, and Teague to contend with when they make their flourishes into the paint.
Is he dragging the big man out though? How many times does he get the ball out of the PnR at the top of the key with nobody near him and nobody challenging the shot? He's not really stretching the defense. They are largely just giving him that look.
Q12543 wrote:What I have seen so far is waaaaay too many guys in the paint because we simply have no pure shooters in the starting lineup and everyone loves to drive the basketball. Unfortunately, KAT is the closest thing we have to a pure shooter. But the good thing is he is dragging a big man out there with him, so there is an important secondary benefit to him being parked at the top of the arc. It's one less big man for Wig, Butler, and Teague to contend with when they make their flourishes into the paint.
Is he dragging the big man out though? How many times does he get the ball out of the PnR at the top of the key with nobody near him and nobody challenging the shot? He's not really stretching the defense. They are largely just giving him that look.
I think a somewhat non-stated secondary benefit of KAT being on top of the key and taking 3's, is that he can get back easier limited transitional scoring opportunities. When the big is down low like KAT, misses the shot and misses the board, I've seen many times he over the last couple years that he s trailing the play and it's 5-4 or worse leading to easy buckets.
I'm all for KAT taking as many 3's as he wants. He hrs a nice percentage and allows the defense to be setup usually much better on misses or makes.
"This season. 34.6% last year. 37.3% his rookie year on a much lower volume (75 total attempts compared to 191 last year). So he could improve there this year still, however he's been below league average for 2 years now. League average is 35.6% this year. 35.2% last year. And 35% his rookie year. I wouldn't call it effective offense. It offsets some of the other stuff he does but you don't want to be a volume 3pt shooter even at last years 34.6%. That's just not good enough to demand a large volume of attempts as suggested."
It's not? I'm not talking about 8 more attempts per game. But it's simply not good modern basketball to pass up that shot to take a contested 20 footer instead. That happened last night. And it happened at the end of the Suns game when Butler took a contested 28 footer instead. Spacing is great. And just being willing to take those shots (and make more than 1/3 of them) has residual advantages.
By the way, Houston is shooting only 34.2% on all of its three point attempts (including the corners) and they have the 2nd ranked offense in the league.
Q12543 wrote:What I have seen so far is waaaaay too many guys in the paint because we simply have no pure shooters in the starting lineup and everyone loves to drive the basketball. Unfortunately, KAT is the closest thing we have to a pure shooter. But the good thing is he is dragging a big man out there with him, so there is an important secondary benefit to him being parked at the top of the arc. It's one less big man for Wig, Butler, and Teague to contend with when they make their flourishes into the paint.
Is he dragging the big man out though? How many times does he get the ball out of the PnR at the top of the key with nobody near him and nobody challenging the shot? He's not really stretching the defense. They are largely just giving him that look.
I guess we are seeing two different games. While I don't think he always gets a hard close out, teams absolutely know they can't just let him roam free beyond the arc and ignore him, as they would with a Gobert, Jordan, or Drummond for example. He absolutely has to be accounted for and often is guarded by opposing PFs because they are a little quicker to recover and close.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:"This season. 34.6% last year. 37.3% his rookie year on a much lower volume (75 total attempts compared to 191 last year). So he could improve there this year still, however he's been below league average for 2 years now. League average is 35.6% this year. 35.2% last year. And 35% his rookie year. I wouldn't call it effective offense. It offsets some of the other stuff he does but you don't want to be a volume 3pt shooter even at last years 34.6%. That's just not good enough to demand a large volume of attempts as suggested."
It's not? I'm not talking about 8 more attempts per game. But it's simply not good modern basketball to pass up that shot to take a contested 20 footer instead. That happened last night. And it happened at the end of the Suns game when Butler took a contested 28 footer instead. Spacing is great. And just being willing to take those shots (and make more than 1/3 of them) has residual advantages.
By the way, Houston is shooting only 34.2% on all of its three point attempts (including the corners) and they have the 2nd ranked offense in the league.
True in general. The only thing about KAT specifically is that he is actually one of the few players whose 2 pt FG% is actually better than his 3pt eFG%. He is THAT talented offensively.
If we actually had other shooters around him, I would argue that he needs to spend more time in the paint, at the elbows, and low box. But because our roster is built with two wings that can't shoot from outside consistently and a PG that prefers to drive, we desperately need better spacing. KAT is really the only candidate to help create that space, unless we decide to start Bjelly over Taj.
Q12543 wrote:KAT has to pull the trigger on those open 3's. We absolutely need more volume on 3's, not all these drives where there are 11 guys in the paint (including the ref).
Oh, and I'm tired of the Wiggins post-ups. Designing plays for Wiggins to take contested turnarounds is an archaic play design. No one does that anymore Thibs! If had the strength to back a guy down, that's one thing. But 12 foot contested turnarounds....horrible shot!
I want Towns to take 20 3's if nobody is gonna really guard him out there. He can make them.
12' turn around jumpers I can live with. You know what drove me nuts? They honestly had good ball movement most of the game and Butler continues to dribble the ball down to like 7 seconds before anything happens and they get CRAPPY possessions late. I wanted to throw my phone I was watching the game on.
Edit: I see reading through the thread Towns 3 point shooting from the top of the key is well covered. Good stuff from both sides.
longstrangetrip wrote:Oh, oh...did I just hear a smattering of boos as Rubio missed his 4th three of the night? He's been ice cold the past week. Is the SLC honeymoon on hiatus?
He is 1 for his last 21 from 3
Ouch.
Nice half from KAT and a big 3 at the end of the quarter from Teague...nice to see him dominate Rubio in a complete turnaround from their first meeting.
Now, can we hold the lead? You guys know what I'm concerned about. Thibs played his bench a whopping 22 minutes in the first half, while Utah's bench played 44. 5 minutes for Belly...really? I just don't get it. Maybe they can suck it up tonight and not cough it up like they did against the suns.
The problem LST is that Bazz and Crawford are an absolute disaster defensively. Thibs should never sit Wig and Butler down at the same time because he needs one of them to guard the opponent's top bench wing (Hood in this case).
Always have been, but Thibs has got to find a way to play them anyway...otherwise our starters will continue to be disasters defensively like they were at the end of the Suns game. Despite is poor defense, Crawford was still a plus one in his minutes while the starters get some rest.
Yes, try Belly a little at SF...Thibs has to find a way to get him in more.
Honestly considering this is a bad defensive team i don't think Crawford in particular has been bad. The problem with Bazz is his offense or lack of ability to do anything other than his basic Bazz game. It is really limiting.
