We're not just playing bad because Aldridge is out, Lillard is in a slump and Batum is emulating an organ-grinder monkey this season:
The shot selection since christmas has not only been atrocious, it's been downright lazy. The team doesn't work HARD for the EASY shot.
The offense is not crisp and efficient with movement, not of itself, but in forcing the defense to move/cover. Therefore it doesn't punish defenses for mistakes.
The blazers still cant run a fast-break to save their lives
Kaman looks out of shape and is playing accordingly (The old guy at the ymca who thinks he's still got the athletic ability he had 5 years ago)
Stotts is way too rigid in his substitution patterns and doesn't even give deep bench players a run - even with the injuries.
There's a few more things I've noticed but the bottom line is, with the injuries to key players, it may not be their absence that is the reason for the underwhelming play, but may be that the Stotts system, in it's current incarnation, has been exposed and is showing to be a bit sub-par.
That's not to say that can't change (just look at defensive improvement from last year), and despite the injuries, and the lackluster play since christmeas - I think this is a great opportunity for Stotts to retool from the ground up. Hopefully Stotts looks to give some of the deep bench players some more run, and experiment with some different things on the court. Hopefully Stotts can muster some of that creativeness that we see - to refine his system; now that it doesn't have top-teir talent to lean-on.
