UKRAINEFAN
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
- Messages
- 14,940
- Likes
- 12,120
- Points
- 113
Can't find a thread on this so here goes, from a Dwight James blog; I agree with him and hope that Roy and the Blazers can learn from this.
http://www.dwightjaynes.com/the-trail-blazer-postmortem-begins-after-an-ugly-season-ender
"I believe the Trail Blazers need to take a very hard look at their style of play during the regular season. I believe it led to many of the problems they had in the playoffs. Some of these things must change for the team to get to the next level.
Prior to the opening of this series, I had a chance to talk to a few NBA scouts who had prepared for the possibility of playing Portland in the first round. The only promise was that I couldn’t quote them directly or give any hints as to the teams they worked for. Most of them didn’t want their stuff printed until after the first-round series was finished.
I can tell you the one thing that stood out from what all of them told me – Portland is very easy to prepare for. The reason: “They run so many isolations.”
One scout said, “It’s really just about all they do — particularly in the fourth quarter. You know how they play, everybody does. They’re going to give Brandon Roy the ball at the top and just stand back and watch him play. They may run a little screen for him, but it’s window dressing — he’s going to try to take you.”
Well, he’s pretty good at that — what’s wrong with Brandon going one-on-one?
“Nothing, once in a while,” one scout said. “But he’s not going to go one-on-one against Houston in the playoffs. He’s going to go one-on-five. They just won’t let him get to the basket. They’re going to lock him up.”
Said another scout, “What he’s done a lot of this season is go left. That’s fine, but he tends to put his head down, head to the basket and jump into somebody, expecting a foul call. He isn’t going to pass, he’s going to go hard to the basket, looking for a whistle. In the playoffs, you don’t always get that call.”
"I will say many other things in the future about the way the Blazers play but there’s one more thing that fits right in with what we’re talking about. Roy has the ball in his hands in one-on-one situations way too often. In fact, he has the ball in his hands, in general, way too much. He has the ball more often than Michael Jordan used to have it for the Bulls.
He’d profit from playing more often without it in his hands and so would his teammates. Much will be made about how little help Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge had in this series but a lot of that is a product of the team’s lack of offensive structure. Really, they don’t run a lot of team offense. Roy has the ball all the time, just looking to create stuff that’s mostly for himself. Others can go several trips up and down the floor without even touching it. Making no excuses for Rudy Fernandez last night, he was awful — but really, he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to get going in the first half, either."
http://www.dwightjaynes.com/the-trail-blazer-postmortem-begins-after-an-ugly-season-ender
"I believe the Trail Blazers need to take a very hard look at their style of play during the regular season. I believe it led to many of the problems they had in the playoffs. Some of these things must change for the team to get to the next level.
Prior to the opening of this series, I had a chance to talk to a few NBA scouts who had prepared for the possibility of playing Portland in the first round. The only promise was that I couldn’t quote them directly or give any hints as to the teams they worked for. Most of them didn’t want their stuff printed until after the first-round series was finished.
I can tell you the one thing that stood out from what all of them told me – Portland is very easy to prepare for. The reason: “They run so many isolations.”
One scout said, “It’s really just about all they do — particularly in the fourth quarter. You know how they play, everybody does. They’re going to give Brandon Roy the ball at the top and just stand back and watch him play. They may run a little screen for him, but it’s window dressing — he’s going to try to take you.”
Well, he’s pretty good at that — what’s wrong with Brandon going one-on-one?
“Nothing, once in a while,” one scout said. “But he’s not going to go one-on-one against Houston in the playoffs. He’s going to go one-on-five. They just won’t let him get to the basket. They’re going to lock him up.”
Said another scout, “What he’s done a lot of this season is go left. That’s fine, but he tends to put his head down, head to the basket and jump into somebody, expecting a foul call. He isn’t going to pass, he’s going to go hard to the basket, looking for a whistle. In the playoffs, you don’t always get that call.”
"I will say many other things in the future about the way the Blazers play but there’s one more thing that fits right in with what we’re talking about. Roy has the ball in his hands in one-on-one situations way too often. In fact, he has the ball in his hands, in general, way too much. He has the ball more often than Michael Jordan used to have it for the Bulls.
He’d profit from playing more often without it in his hands and so would his teammates. Much will be made about how little help Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge had in this series but a lot of that is a product of the team’s lack of offensive structure. Really, they don’t run a lot of team offense. Roy has the ball all the time, just looking to create stuff that’s mostly for himself. Others can go several trips up and down the floor without even touching it. Making no excuses for Rudy Fernandez last night, he was awful — but really, he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to get going in the first half, either."
