khans2k5 wrote:Bazz has one move. He goes to his left in the post and takes a hook shot that he tries to draw contact on to get a foul. He doesn't really score anywhere or anyway else other than on the block and the FT attempts resulting from that one move. At the end of the day, his offense doesn't come within the flow of the offense. It comes as a black hole, ball stop. It works when he is the only scorer on the court like he was often tonight, but I don't think we should be shutting down the offense just to get him the ball. He still is not a good jump shooter, so he is a post up specialist who doesn't do much else for you. I think Adelman played him at the right time and pulled him at the right time tonight. At the end of the day, we have no business beating Portland missing 3 out of 5 starters. It was a good effort and hopefully it allows them to keep their heads up and keep the energy up going into the next game.
As someone who watched Muhammad live many times at UCLA, I can say you are epically wrong in saying he only scores in one way. You are correct that the move you describe is his best move; in fact, on most nights, like last night, it is close to unstoppable. The way Shabazz uses his size combined with a freakishly explosive vertical jump makes this an incredibly effective post move. But Shabazz is a prolific scorer in many ways. He is effective on the fast break, relentless on putbacks on the offensive board, and on back cuts to the basket when paired with a good passer. And beyond that, he shot 38% on threes his freshman year on good volume...better then Chase Budinger's percentage his freshman year and equal to C.J. McCollum's rate during his four years in college.
Does he play the way Rick Adelman wants his wings to play? Of course not. We have seen what Rick wants from his second team: corner offense ball movement resulting in a three point shot. This is a beautiful offense when it works, but unfortunately you need a lot of shooters on the court for this to be effective, and the Wolves reserves are generally not effective shooters. What a luxury to have a guy off the bench who has been a prolific scorer everywhere he has played.
Shabazz has always had the reputation of being a very hard worker in practice, and I would like him to be getting some practice minutes paired with Rubio. I think that he could become what selfish PG Larry Drew didn't allow him to become in college: an unstoppable scorer in the pick and roll. Flip and Rick have both complimented Muhammad on his work ethic, but his style of play doesn't put him in Rick's top ten players on the roster, so he may not even be getting consistent second team minutes in practice. This season is lost. Adelman has guaranteed that with his tunnel-visioned rotations. But last night proved to me what I have thought since draft night...given real minutes in the NBA, Muhammad can be a prolific scorer. I think that a new, aggressive and open-minded coach will either start him or give him 20-25 reserve minutes at SF, and let him show that the ability to score in bunches that he showed in the Pac 12 translates easily to the NBA. I was disappointed in Shabazz when he put up that second missed three last night, when he had been scoring so easily on the block, because it gave stubborn Rick Adelman the opportunity to yank him and say "See, that's why I can't play him" while ignoring his performance (including defense, by the way) the rest of the game. I agreed with his decision to bench him at the moment as a teaching tool, but I will not agree if he uses it as an excuse to bury Muhammad on the bench.
More Muhammad.
Less Adelman
