I want Dame to get players involved. Like with Aminu in game 4 I want him to make sure Harkless gets a bucket or two to start him off, Kanter even if he can't move needs to be fed the ball in the post, time and time again if needed, no excuses.
Dame shouldn't come out trying to assert his offense, let the game come to him, take the right shots, take it to the hole even if it's not his game, not to get fouled, to get going. But even more important to me is spreading the ball around, getting players involved, once Harkless, Aminu, Kanter, are feeling it, they'd be feeling it on defense more, which is the key reason I make it an emphasis.
They're playing several minutes in every half with both Jokic and Plumlee, countering that with just one of Kanter or Zach is almost impossible, even if you stop the bucket they get the offensive board. There's almost no other option than to use if not both Zach and Kanter than Meyers Leonard. I wish it didn't have to happen for the first time in the series because it'd take him a few possesions at least to get into it but these are simply undermanned possesions.
Harkless not playing in the final minutes of game 4 simply cost us the game. He's our best defender and this is one of the two reasons we were getting No stops.
The other reason is when Zach or Kanter are on Jokic, and both are doing amazing jobs defensively, it's almost impossible for them to help defend. Jokic is a handful, he can score from anywhere, you can't leave him open anywhere on the floor but if our center doesn't help defend, we almost can't get stops. If they need to switch, they need to switch, if they need to cover on a player going to the basket they can't not cover on him. They simply have to make the right decision every time and if it means switching off Jokic then hope Aminu or Harkless rotate to cover him but they have to make the right decisions to help defend no way around it.
One last minor but still important thing. Aminu has this tendancy that costs us at least one 3-pointer against us per game when he goes out to the shooter, say Millsap, and he doesn't really goes out at him. He just puts his arm up, shows he's gotten to him, but he's only hoping he misses, not making sure. Even if it's Milsapp or Barton and not Murray, this is one or two 3s they make a game. I want him to close out on Any shooter like he'd make sure it's a miss, like it's the deciding 3 of the game, like how he closes a player inside, I understand Chief himself often time misses the 3 but he doesn't defend himself. I don't want even once to see an half assed closed out, this is not some regular season game, this is the biggest game in a long time, every shot counts.
