MVN - Most Valuable Network

Simple Solutions

With every team having played at least five games, we can begin to get a reasonable picture of some of everybody’s flaws and strengths. Some teams are meeting their high expectations (San Antonio, Houston, Boston, Detroit). Others are showing why they have low ones (Minnesota, Sacramento). There are a handful that have been pleasant surprises, bursting out of the gates and making themselves noticed (New Orleans, L.A. Clippers, Indiana).

At the same time, there have been a few cases of dramatic disappointment through the season’s first two weeks. As always, I have the magical answers to turn things around…

Chicago Bulls (1-5)
The Status Quo: For the sake of this piece, we’ll assume that Kobe isn’t coming to the Windy City any time soon. The rough start hit a low point in a 30-point loss to Toronto, a game in which Scott Skiles yanked his starters as a group in the 3rd quarter and benched them for the remainder of the contest.

The defense has not been a problem, as Ben Wallace and company have held opponents to 96 points per game. The offense, on the other hand, has been dreadful. They take care of the ball well enough, actually averaging 2 fewer turnovers per game than their opponents. But when you shoot 38% (including 26% from beyond the arc), averaging 86 points becomes a reality.

The Fix: What stands out is their difficulty to get open looks on the perimeter, which relates directly to their lack of a low post scoring threat. Trying to run the offense through Ben Wallace or Joe Smith isn’t the answer. They need to do just the opposite – spread the floor, run some pick and roll with Gordon/Hinrich and Luol Deng, and try to create dribble penetration. They feed off of draw and kick, and guys will find it a lot easier to make shots when their defenders have to help on drives. I don’t think they want to be a fast break team; they simply don’t have enough firepower to outscore people every night. Their defense it solid, but they need to make teams work at both ends of the floor. Even though they don’t have a high scoring frontcourt, they still need to make opponents protect the paint.

Washington Wizards (1-5)
The Status Quo: The Wiz’s first win of the year on Sunday was a good one – a road victory over divisional foe Atlanta. Like Chicago, they are struggling badly on the offensive end. Unlike Chicago, they don’t have a reliable defense to fall back on when shots aren’t falling. This is a group that, for better or worse, will rely on the scoring of its best players. If Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler make shots, they could be dangerous in the East. But Jamison and Arenas are both shooting under 40% from the field, and Mr. Hibachi doesn’t have the grill heated up from 3-point land (14%).

Gilbert is their biggest question mark, by far. I can’t imagine he is completely comfortable with the condition of his knee, which will likely have to be drained periodically for the next couple of months. That being said, if he’s in the lineup he needs to make shots. And on top of that, he needs to take care of the ball. His 4.7 assists per game look respectable until you compare them to his 4.8 turnover average, which ties him for worst in the NBA.

The Fix: Force the tempo. They are a team who will excel when the focus of the game is on offense. Brendan Haywood is their only big frontcourt body, and even he moves pretty well. Their depth at the guard position should allow them to play at a high speed and keep Arenas’s and Butler’s minutes under control. On that note, I think Eddie Jordan needs to rest Gilbert a little bit more for the time being – playing 40 minutes a night can’t be good for his knee, and keeps him from kicking it into high gear for an entire game. Thirty-five full-speed minutes from Arenas would be better than 40 average ones. They also could do with a little more dribble penetration – Jamison is the only player having any success from the 3-point line. Their shot selection needs to improve, which could mean running more of the offense through Butler, whose midrange game will help Arenas get more clean looks on the perimeter. Washington’s players feed off of momentum, and they can’t continue to have the crushing turnovers and contested long range jumpers that have plagued them thus far.

Golden State Warriors (0-5)
The Status Quo: The Boys by the Bay have an entirely different set of problems. Putting points on the board hasn’t been an issue, but keeping opponents from doing the same has been a challenge they haven’t met. The 108 they gave up to the Cavs was the fewest total the Warriors have allowed so far, and even the looming return of Stephen Jackson doesn’t promise to plug all (or any) of their defensive holes.

The bench is also an enormous question mark; Dallas’s subs outscored G-State’s 49-10 in their most recent defeat. Baron Davis and Monta Ellis both played all 48 minutes, and even though Mickael Pietrus was out with the flu, it’s likely that at least three starters would have played well over 40 minutes anyway. Patrick O’Bryant is still a work in progress, as is Marco Belinelli.

The Fix: Jackson’s return from suspension will help in many areas and will push one of their current starters to the bench (Kelenna Azubuike). For these guys to be a serious playoff team, however, they need to decide on a personal level to play some defense. While Davis and Azubuike were praised for scoring a combined 64 points against the Mavs, they also managed to give up 21 and 24 to Devin Harris and Josh Howard, respectively, not to mention the 24 Jason Terry racked up off the bench. Azubuike has all the tools to be an excellent defender, and you would expect a young guy like him to prove something with his D. I think it’s also time for Don Nelson to give Brendan Wright some playing time – they can’t just give Jason Richardson away and get no production in return. It’s not like Wright has shown ineptness, since he has only appeared in one game for a whopping four minutes. Offensively, everything is working, but they need to use their athleticism to at least contain people on the perimeter. Extending defensive pressure would be a good option.

Miami Heat (1-5)
The Status Quo: Hands down, this is the ugliest team to watch in the league right now. They’ve cracked the 90 point barrier exactly once, in a 106-101 loss to the Suns. With Shaq, they don’t really have the option of trying to get out and run on a consistent basis – they’re pretty much resigned to playing a plodding, grind-it-out style with him in the lineup. Shaq also can’t continue to shoot 40% from the free throw line. I know we expect him to be bad from the charity stripe at this point, but that’s unacceptable, and it counts as wasted possessions.

While the supporting cast can’t be expected to carry the production load for an entire season, it needs to at least bring something positive to the table on the offensive end. Jason Williams (41% from the field), Penny Hardaway (32%), Dorell Wright (40%), Smush Parker (30%), and Mark Blount (35%) aren’t taking any of the pressure off of Shaq, Udonis Haslem, or Ricky Davis. They are better defensively, but that has as much to do with a low number of possessions as it does with effectiveness.

The Fix: D-Wade’s return will obviously be a huge boost, but they can’t expect that to turn everything around by itself. Even then, they will have roughly the same roster that was swept away by Chicago in last year’s playoffs. As dull and ugly as it will be, they need to stick to their strengths. Jason Williams is highly underrated in terms of assist to turnover ratio (3.3 to 1), so they can be confident in him to distribute to Wade, Shaq, Davis, and Haslem. As far as I’m concerned, Smush Parker should make himself comfortable on the bench in favor of Chris Quinn, who isn’t nearly as erratic. Haslem is the perfect fit to pair up with Shaq on defense, and they will need Wade to wreak havoc with his perimeter defense (he got a free pass on this last season because of his brilliance the year before). If they have to win games with scores like 90-85, then so be it. It wasn’t all that pretty when they won the title, either.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis, Shaquille O'Neal, A View From Below the Rim, Jason Terry, Hibachi, Antawn Jamison, Jason Richardson, Caron Butler, Ben Wallace, Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Miami Heat, Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.