1) I was exceedingly frustrated for the last 15 minutes of that game that we stopped putting Jones on the right block, getting the ball on the right wing, and just feeding the post in a traditional, simple way. He got his 14th and 16th (or 18th) points EASILY from that spot, then we literally never put him there again. Instead, we had him floating on the left block most of the remaining possessions with lots of "action" for 20 seconds, only to spring him WAY up there for a late ball screen and roll. We started going for lots of on the move stuff and bad lob passes when it seemed so simple that he not only was unstoppable on the right block, but also was AJ Ogilvy-ing their team into foul after foul (and hitting all his free throws till the end.) Why not go simple when you have a major mismatch?? I know the offensive sets are hugely successful and the right thing most of the time. But we needed to milk that mismatch that night against that particular team and might going forward as an adjustment while we are short handed. Do it till they stop you.
2) We might need to zone as many teams as it makes sense against. Partly to preserve fouls on Jones, partly to have Jones under the basket more, and partly to help stop penetration into the lane till we have Luke back. We aren't cleaning the defensive boards in our man defense anyway, so why not zone to decrease penetration for the next month?
3) Perimeter defense might need to take some priority over precision offense. So I'd consider JRob at 3 some with Toye at 4. J Rob has been struggling recently at the four spot on each end. So has our perimeter defense. I do feel like he's only in a temporary funk and will end up being good at the four for us. But he has lots of successful experience at the three, so that switch might not be bad. I wonder what playing our two biggest wing defenders together would look like at the 3 and 4, but reversing their positions for a stretch. And while there is some disagreement about MFD's defensive play so far this season, I think he is struggling against bigger wings and especially in help situations off the ball. BUT sliding him over to the two spot, his length becomes an advantage and he's less involved in the paint as our help guy, a win-win. Defensively, MFD would be much better at the two than at the three, IMO. A lineup of Baldwin, MFD, Roberson, Toye, and DJ might be our best defensive look at this point. Stallings briefly mentioned considering Toye at the four a bit. So perhaps he has some subtle, temporary position changes like that in mind.
2) We might need to zone as many teams as it makes sense against. Partly to preserve fouls on Jones, partly to have Jones under the basket more, and partly to help stop penetration into the lane till we have Luke back. We aren't cleaning the defensive boards in our man defense anyway, so why not zone to decrease penetration for the next month?
3) Perimeter defense might need to take some priority over precision offense. So I'd consider JRob at 3 some with Toye at 4. J Rob has been struggling recently at the four spot on each end. So has our perimeter defense. I do feel like he's only in a temporary funk and will end up being good at the four for us. But he has lots of successful experience at the three, so that switch might not be bad. I wonder what playing our two biggest wing defenders together would look like at the 3 and 4, but reversing their positions for a stretch. And while there is some disagreement about MFD's defensive play so far this season, I think he is struggling against bigger wings and especially in help situations off the ball. BUT sliding him over to the two spot, his length becomes an advantage and he's less involved in the paint as our help guy, a win-win. Defensively, MFD would be much better at the two than at the three, IMO. A lineup of Baldwin, MFD, Roberson, Toye, and DJ might be our best defensive look at this point. Stallings briefly mentioned considering Toye at the four a bit. So perhaps he has some subtle, temporary position changes like that in mind.
