Breaking down the major issues of the 3rd quarter, with screenshots

https://imgur.com/a/lrUC6Ed

1-4) To me, this is the primary issue with the KAT/Rudy pairing. With Rudy on the floor, KAT will see smaller forwards and wings defending him. Your instinct is to get him in the post to take advantage of his size. But look at Rudy’s man – he doesn’t have to respect 1 inch of spacing with Rudy, and he has one eye on KAT the entire time looking to come help the second he makes a move towards the rim. First postup, KAT shot an awkward floater over the helping Capela, Rudy helped finish. Next one, Capela blocked his shot. Your choice are either try and take advantage of the natural size advantage, and constantly have to worry about the help defender – who’s almost always going to be the opposing center. Or, operate from the 3 point line trying to win with speed against a smaller and faster player. This is why I’ve been wanting KAT to develop a 1 dribble pullup game and shoot over smaller players, but he continues to struggle with both the rhythm and the execution of it.

5) Now look with Naz on the court – Okongwu has respect the spacing. I think KAT still missed the shot though 🙁

6) And the defensive issue – KAT instinctually clogging the center of the floor like a center would, doesn’t have the footspeed to get back to Hunter. Made 3.

7) Ant in an actual coma. Murray positions himself on the other side of Conley. Conley can either guard the pop out to the arc, or the dive to the rim. Not both. Easy inbounds, layup.

8) McDaniels loafing. Jogged the whole way up the court not picking up anybody, finally sees Hunter under the rim and starts sprinting when it’s already too late. Lazy transition D.

9) McDaniels is up way too close to Trae and gets smoked off the dribble.

10) This happened multiple times – guys giving the ball to Rudy out at the arc like he’s going to do something. Nobody broke free (Ant again in a coma on the sideline) and Rudy panicked and tried to drive to the rim, at which point we can only assume that he finished with a majestic 360 dunk.

These were just the highlights (lowlights). In between were some truly terrible passes and bricks. Ant especially was astonishingly bad. I saw somebody wondering why we aren’t running more spread pick and roll with Rudy. The only person that can competently run that is SloMo. Ant NEVER looks for Rudy. He looks at screens exclusively as a tool to free up his own shot. If he doesn’t get the look he wants, Rudy is never in position to do anything, because he’s trailing behind Ant, and the whole sequence falls apart because Rudy is useless anywhere outside of dunking range. Conley in theory is good at it, but his 3 point shooting is struggling to crack 30%, and his floaters aren’t falling yet. So take away KAT’s ability to punish size mismatches, Ant 2 man game, Conley 2 man game, and we’re not left with much.

by buchanbasanee