Head Coach JJ Redick Discussion: Spazzing Out

Funnily enough ... this game showed me how valuable AR really is. Imagine Houston with AR as the lead guard.

 

NO! Screw that.

 

Durant is a clown.

 

KD is a b****, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about this. This is basically what happened last season. Went 13-2 from February to early March largely because of a huge improvement in the defense. JJ had that quote about effort being the number #1 difference in the regular season. Turned out the defensive improvement was kind of fake because it was predicated on just playing harder.

 

1. durant's wrong, imo--there are other things you can do to slow down houston. one is just kinda let anyone but durant and sheppard shoot and then box out like your life depends upon it.
2. i get the stuff about showing your cards, and i've said that jj seems to care a bit too much about winning regular season games (e.g., not playing young guys, overplaying/overusing the stars), and i do agree with critics that last year down the stretch we sort of showed all the cards, which made it easier for minny to smack us. but minny's own coach came out recently and kind of admitted that it was mostly a personnel issue (not a strategy issue) that allowed them to run over us.

anyway, i think he got the better of udoka in this mini-series. maybe that's because udoka wasn't trying/was identity-building instead of winning. or maybe it's because udoka had his own personnel issues. but two losses in a row at home to a team you're fighting with for playoff positioning isn't a great way to play it close to the vest, imo.

 

lol, beat me to it.

but i don't think it was just playing harder there. he went to the switch-everything dantoni ball, which we had exactly five guys who could execute and has been exposed in the playoffs before.

 

More likely when they shorten the rotation to laravia, rui, smart, kennard, luka, reaves, ayton, hayes, lebron, there's just not a spot for Vando so they're trying to prepare for that

i don't see a matchup where Vando will get minutes because his lack of shooting just ruins the Lakers offense when they need that spacing

 

think vando's actually been a better shooter this year than jake, and teams are leaving both.

i get that there's probably room for only one of them in the rotation, though. and despite the shooting being similarly ignorable, laravia is the more useful offensive player. interestingly, laravia's defensive metrics aren't good, though (vando's are very good and match the eye test, but his offense is in the gutter).

so, it seems jj chose offense over defense.