I'm just several steps ahead of the crew A few good games which is expected of any one not named Corey Brewer playing in a Mike AntoniO offense led by James Harden and people here want to knight him (Dekker) Then when he is even slightly guarded and returns to norm, people want to bench him.
Dekker couldn't guard....LEBRON....so who we need instead is the defensive legend Omri Casspi. Did I get that right?
Like Casspi but not at the expense of not developing Decker and Mike D only likes 9 people in his rotation anyway. I would prefer Montrell getting more time instead of Casspi.
True. It is against league rules to make him do anything else like play him in the position he played in college.
sure is. why doesn't mda put him in when he doesn't fit the mold of a 4 in this system. what is he thinking trying to make proper coaching decisions.
NO! What he's saying IS, Dekker isn't shooting well nor is he playing good defense, so let's sign Caspi.
Sorry, Dekker does more for this team than Cassipi ever could. The latter is a good depth player to be sure, but Dekker provides solid defense, legnth, and athleticism that Cassipi simply can't.
I thought about Decker's development before I posted this, but I think that comes second to winning. If Casspi gives you a better shot to win now, you have to make that deal. I agree with the 9 man rotation thing, so here's what it should look like: Harden / Lou Beverley / Gordon Ariza Anderson / Casspi Capela / Nene Spot contributions from Harrell and Dekker. Casspi brings better shooting and he's a vet that knows what to do. I also love that he takes those super long 3s, similar to Anderson.
The truth of the matter is that neither Dekker or Caspian could stay with Lebron even their lives depended on it. What the OP is saying is that Caspi, left wide open, is more likely to make a 3 point shot than Dek at thus point in his career. -- that could be important in our scheme.
If we picked up Delfino and he dunked on Durant in the playoffs I think humanity would unlock a new level of existence.
Thank you. Obviously neither Dekker nor Casspi can stay in front of Lebron. That doesn't really matter....we aren't trying to win that way. If we were, we would have traded for Ibaka or Tucker. As things are, we are trying to overwhelm teams with our offense, specifically 3s. If Dekker can't hit 3s, then the paint clogs and our offense turns into desperate contested ISO jumpers....those aren't the shots we want. To be clear, I don't think signing Casspi means zero minutes for Dekker in the playoffs. Versus certain matchups, his athleticism could be a real asset for us. But we cannot afford for the offense to gum up at ANY point in the playoffs. We can play with effort on the defensive end, like we did last night, but we are flawed beyond fixing on that end. There are going to be mistakes....our best chance at overcoming defensive lapses is to shoot our way out. I don't like what I'm seeing from the second unit right now. The spacing isn't there, and Dantoni is obviously committed to controlling Anderson's minutes (30 last night). Meanwhile, Harden put up 40 minutes and Ariza had 39....we can't do that over a 7 game series (not to mention the length of the playoffs). Perhaps I'm seeing correlations that aren't the real cause, but it looks like we are taking the wrong kind of shots with that Nene-Dekker front court. If it's spacing, Casspi should help that. Lou, Bev, Gordon, Casspi and Nene/Capela should be by far the best offensive bench unit in the league.
of course the spacing you're used to isn't going to be there. There isn't a harden on that 2nd unit that demands the attention. Whoever is in that 9th spot Dekker etc is not going to be playing much in playoffs, if any regardless. If casspi is somehow on this team, the same goes for him. if you're expecting the offense to just be on point at all times during the playoffs, you're just setting yourself up for failure. The rockets will have to be able to guard and they've shown flashes of being able to have solid team defense and get stops when needed.
Yes...I'm expecting an offense with Harden, Gordon, Anderson and Lou Williams to be on point at all times during the playoffs. That doesn't mean they are always hitting 3s, but the "flow" of the offense has to be there. Again, we can play with effort on the defensive end....we saw that in the 4th quarter. But lets not confuse effort with great or even good defense. They continue to make horrific mistakes on that end. But if the offense gums up while we are making those defensive mistakes....then you get the 2nd quarter. Obviously not having Harden on the court (+23 on, -18 off) had something to do with that, but that doesn't sufficiently explain our struggles when he sits, especially having weapons like Anderson, Williams and Gordon.
the flow of the offense is still there but when the rockets are missing there shots, obviously that's where it gets thrown off. I'm not confusing effort with great defense. They played great team defense in that 4th quarter. That wasn't just about effort. It was obvious they had a collective gameplan and they stuck to it.
The game plan was to wear down Cleveland.....which worked. I'm dubious we get the same results in the 4th if Cleveland had been playing after a full day of rest. And lets not forget that much of our huge offensive rebounding advantage likely disappears if Love is playing. Just my opinion, but we are not as good as Cleveland or Golden State...its as simple as 3 or 4 stars are greater than 1. Our only chances against either are in their/our relative health and our shooting/offense. Just as we did with Lou Williams, I say go all in with Casspi as your backup PF and try to boat race our opponents.
