Pretty good article, but it didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. I really like Terry Stotts, the person. Like his demeanor, his level headedness, his temperament. But I have serious concerns about the X's & O's with him.
Offensively: By Jan it was apparent that Batum wasn't right, while Lillard had been lights out. At this time a strategy for defending the Blazers emerged . . . Get the ball out of Lillard's hands. Trap him, jump pick & rolls, or run over the top of screens forcing him to drive towards the basket. DON'T LET HIM SQUARE UP ON 3's (even deep 28' +). Batum's defender could cheat off him. Wesley's defender would try to take away his catch and shoot 3s & make him attack off the bounce, which is not his strength. Our offense suddenly became inept. When the defense would extend pressure, there weren't any passing lanes to get the ball down low to LA. He'd end up coming out 20' from the basket to get the ball & w/o the defense having to rotate he's not in a good scoring position for a PF. We all know he can shoot it, but when everything is contested & nobody underneath to rebound, it wasn't pretty. Dame stopped getting good looks, and not coincidentally they stopped going in. When he DID get decent looks, his rhythm & confidence weren't there. When Wes went down it only got worse. To make matters worse there were no adjustment made. With teams extending pressure & chasing us off the 3 pt line, we should have been able to get better looks around the basket. That didn't happen. All we heard from Terry as the losses started to pile up was "I like the looks we're getting . . . we're just not making shots." Contested/forced 3s, & LA fadeaway 20'ers aren't looks we should be happy with. Very disappointed in the stubbornness, lack of creativity, or whatever it was that kept him from adjusting to how we were being defended. And why can't we inbound the ball?
Defensively: Where to start? Last in the league in steals . . . for the 2nd year in a row. We just don't pressure or extend our defense at all. We let teams walk the ball up and get into their offense all day/everyday. Memphis' offense was brutal after AS break. As teams pressured their backcourt, they struggled & that was WITH Conley! You're playing into their hands when you let Calathes walk it up & throw an easy toss to Gasol or Z-Bo. Steve Kerr won't overlook that & the Grizz will get destroyed w/o Conley. And the way we defend the pick & roll is frightening. While other teams are running their bigs out at Dame, making his life miserable, OUR bigs just sag back and give up open jumpers. If you're a PG & you like to shoot midrange jumpers your eyes light up when you see PDX on the schedule. It's not all Dame here. More times than not he's getting screened when Beno Udrih is sticking open jumpers. What adjustments do we make? Why don't we mix up our coverages more? Terry likes to stay true to his principle of playing "sound" defensively & "contesting" midrange shots. Need to be more creative than that coach.
Line-ups: Sure, we had a lot of injuries. But how he decides who comes off the bench & for how long is anybody's guess. Did Meyers & CJ play over their heads in the final games of the series? Meyers looks like a 7'1" Kyle Korver & CJ can get to the basket & shoot it. If LA & Dame shoot their normal % that series could have been awesome with the way Meyers/CJ were playing. Coach talked about how "disjointed" CJ's first couple of years have been. You can't blame that all on injuries. It just feels like the bench hasn't been used right & roles aren't very well defined.
I'm not saying Stotts should be gone, but he needs to learn from this season & get better. We need to be a more dynamic team on both sides of the ball. To beat the big physical teams (Grizz/Hawks/Jazz), the gazelles of the league (Wariors/Clippers/Thunder), and the high IQ teams (Spurs), that's going to require some versatility. It seems like we only know how to play one way right now. That has to change. If we are staring at the same issues after next season then he should be on the Hot Seat.
