Necessary changes...

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

Kudos to O'Brien for realizing something we all knew
about 5 games into the season:  that the team flows
better with Jiri on the court.  The problem is that
O'Brien doesn't know the best way to utilize Jiri. 
Jiri is not a small forward.  He holds no advantage
over any other three man in the league.  While he
defends well, it is in spite of his lack of
athleticism.  He defends off pure anticipation and
smarts.  This lets him get by for the most part, but
he is still a huge liability on the defensive end
(O'Brien may cite him as a good defender, but he's not
stopping anybody...Shandon Anderson went off, McGrady
burnt him when he felt like it, and Redd had his way
as well [on Saturday..didn't see Friday's game]). 
Every starting player should have some sort of
advantage against the man he is playing.  He should
either be quicker, stronger, faster, or taller. 
Unfortunately, when Jiri plays the 3, he has none of
these advantages.  He'll never be faster or
quicker....he may luck out and be taller, but his lack
of strength will cancel that advantage out.  However,
put Jiri at the point and all of a sudden he has more
than one advantage.  First of all, height.  He can see
over most points and thus his vision is enhanced,
allowing the ball movement and assists to increase. 
Second, strength.  Jiri in the post against the other
teams point guard would be murder, both scoring-wise
(think Mark Jackson) and passing-wise.  Plus, he'll
rebound well.  But, how to get Jiri at the point? 
Well, it goes with moving Mike James from the point. 
We all know what kind of player James is:  if he's
hot, he's great, if he's not making his shot, he might
as well not be playing.  In essence, he is a shooting
guard.  Thus, in the interest of getting the most out
of him and of putting him in the position to succeed,
he should be a back-up two.  Tell him to come off the
bench looking for his shot.  Now, we have the age-old
problem of having a small two:  defense.  To rectify
that, we play James and Jiri in the backcourt AT THE
SAME TIME.  James can cover the 1 on D and play the 2
on offense.  

Putting James to the bench, brings Banks to the
starter's circle.  He belongs there.  We all know he's
the best point on the team.  And, in the interest of
playing the best players and of developing our
long-term potential, we need him on the court from now
until the end of the season.  He's the best that we
have and gives us the best chance of winning.     

Of course, none of this address O'Brien's supposed
reason for putting Jiri in the starting
lineup...because the starting unit flows better when
he's on the court.  While technically this is the
truth, in essence, it's just another way of saying
that since we have a 2-guard as our point, we're going
to need more passing.  Jiri helps the flow much like
Antoine did; by being the de facto point guard because
our team doesn't see fit to play a real one.  The
problem isn't Kedrick (who passes quite well and is
anything but a black-hole; that is, he can't be
causing the lack of ball movement that plagues the
first unit).  The problem is a point who dribbles
around looking for his shot, who never passes on the
break (again, looking for his shot), and who basically
kills any flow we might have.  You COULD fix this by
playing Jiri at the three, but it'd be easier to
actually get a point guard.  Enter Marcus.  You start
Marcus and not Jiri cause of the potential of
defensive liability.  James and Jiri compliment each
other and they should anchor the second unit's
backcourt.  

Of course, my true motivation of this whole post is to
get playing time for Kedrick.  Why isn't he playing? 
It defies the reasoning O'Brien puts forth as logic. 
He's a team leader in plus/minus.  He's the best 2/3
man-on-man defender and runs the break the best as
well.  These are three areas of emphasis for the C's. 
To top that off, he's been shooting the ball well the
last 3-4 games.  Yet no time for Kedrick.  If you
watch O'Brien's substitution patterns, you'll see that
often Kedrick is pulled when the team, as a whole, is
playing bad.  This makes no sense.  Kedrick, given
such a limited role in the offense, has virtually no
impact on the "team flow".  It's not like he's
handling the ball or making decisions.  He's in the
corner, waiting for the kickout.  The things that do
effect ball movement are our offensive sets and the
point guard.  There's no cause and effect relationship
warranting Kedrick's removal, other than the fact that
he's not Magic Johnson.

What's my point?  Well, we still haven't figured out
how to use our players.  Removing Kedrick for Jiri
because the flow is better just shows ignorance of a
greater problem: point guard.  Fix the point guard
problem, put Jiri into a position where he has
guaranteed advantages against his man every night, put
James into a position to really use his hot shooting
nights, and give Marcus the keys, and all-of-a-sudden,
we'll be talking about how much Kedrick has improved. 


Ryan

P.S.  As a postscript, this post was written prior to
reading the last 4 days' posts (no email in
Turkeyland).  As such, I may have unknowingly repeated
some thoughts/observations.  If so, my bad.  But
remember that while imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, unintentional imitation is the great
indicator of truth.

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