Originally Posted by SithCeNtZ:
It doesn't have any to do with the quality of player catching the lob in most cases. The problem is coaches have adjusted and until the second half yesterday we haven't countered. The defensive plan is simple: when Harris, Pettiford, or yesufu drive, do not under any circumstances send both his primary defender and the center to try and block his shot. This is because none of our guards are actually shooting in this circumstance. If you go back and watch some of them yesterday and the game before, you will see the primary defender of the guard actually drop back to KJ or whoever and defend the lob rather than try and guard our PG from scoring. This makes a lob pass extremely difficult because you have to clear both defenders who are looking for it. It's also a primary reason we aren't going to the line, because we aren't drawing defenders on drives with our guards. However you saw in the second half we stopped the lobs and actually started shooting at the rim and good things happened. Harris made a layup and got fouled a couple of times. If we keep doing that the lob will open back up, but you can't have our guards throw the lob 99% of the time like they have been doing and expect it to be some sort of magical unstoppable play.
I don’t disagree with any of this. My point was really just that guys like Agbaji, Jackson, Wiggins, etc allowed for a huge margin of error on those lobs.
Some of their best highlights came from really bad passes that would’ve sailed out of bounds if thrown to lesser athletes. [Reply]
You have to love the gravity that Dick presents. He isn’t forcing contested shots either.
He drew a couple guys, found Adams, who then made a nice pass to McCullar for an easy bucket. Those types of plays are why he isn’t just a shooter. [Reply]