There were so many WOW moments with Noah last night, and not in a good way. How 'bout the play where he was boxing Bogut out of bounds yet wasn't even looking at the play--even though he was being forced out of bounds, all Bogut had to do was tap the ball to a teammate because Noah wasn't even paying attention to the play behind him. I couldn't believe it. I felt like he had several other plays where he lost focus like that...and then there's Noah on offense--man, I thought we were playing 4 on 5 offensively with Ronny Turiaf in the middle a few years ago, but this guy's worse. I appreciate the effort he gives but I agree--I hate the contract we gave him and said so at the time.
I think a good potential solution would be to activate and play Marshall Plumlee. That kid's hard-nosed and active -- maybe a better overall version of Cole Aldrich. I think he might be able to give us more than Noah on both ends. There's a certain effect we're looking for with Noah in a SL that features 4 other scorers. Let's see if Plumlee has a better chance at providing that effect. I wonder what a Plumlee/Hernangomez tandem would look like full-time -- I wonder if that's our best option to get that desired defense/offense mix in the middle. And speaking of Willy--I really don't know what to think of him up to this point. The minute I think he's got a nice future, he regresses the next game showing subpar rebounding, poor hands, isn't aggressive enough, etc.. Some of it may not be his fault though--like in the end of the game when we had it won, did we have to keep featuring Melo in the post the way we did? How 'bout a steady diet of Willy in the post right there up 15+ instead?? I wish there was a little more urgency to find out what Willy can do in the post--to me, that was one of the better facets of his game that he was showing in all his Euro highlight clips before he even played a game here for us. Overall, before we look at any trades, Euro signings or DL call-ups for help, I'd like to make sure we don't have the solutions for any of our troubles in-house.
Here's some simple things I'd recommend the team do:
• Activate and play Plumlee.
• Demand Courtney Lee play more aggressively on offense. Dude's passing up scoring opportunities out there. Rose, same thing. A lot of these Melo ISO plays develop late in the clock because 2-3 players already passed up opportunities. If we wanna see less Melo ISO, the other guys need to be more aggressive offensively looking for theirs.
• Continue to go with Holiday, maybe even a heavier dose of Holiday now. Real nice 2-way player. He may be the best 2-way player on the team in fact. Great to see him playing well. He had a huge affect in winning this game. Great move starting Holiday over Lee to begin the 2nd half. Reward him with even more PT and more shots now, esp. if Lee's reluctant for whatever reason to step up and play more aggressive. I like how Holiday's always ready to put up shots. I'd actually like to see N'Dour play like that too.
• Overall, I think we'd benefit from a much quicker offensive style--get in our sets much quicker and the first guy who has an open look--PUT IT UP!! Go for a much more aggressive approach offensively with less thinking and less chewing up clock...Remember D'Antoni's SSOL offense he ran in PHX and is probably running in HOU? I think a variant of that approach would do us wonders--maybe a 10-15 SOL approach. Don't let it get to Melo ISO. Be aggressive and attack early in the clock. It would get us more shots up at the basket in the game and get everyone much more involved. Finding a way to get others more shot attempts while limiting our dependence on Melo would help us. I actually think Hornacek would prefer to play this way. Then why aren't we??
• Play N'Dour with Rose on the court, not Jennings. Unlike KP/Jennings, N'Dour/Jennings have ZERO chemistry out there together. I think Jennings with all his bad body language when mistakes are made/when his passes aren't handled hurts N'Dour's confidence big-time -- I've noticed this right from preseason... And encourage N'Dour to shoot the ball more. I feel like he's reluctant to shoot and play a bigger role in the offense. The skills are there. Overall, I think N'Dour has more potential than Lance Thomas on both ends--find a way to realize that potential. Don't give up on this dude, esp. with Thomas out.
