Happy Labor Day!

Lots of good questions.

Blatche & McGee: I think the concerns have changed. Can Blatche play at the same level he did when he was the default go-to guy? Can McGee show any signs of maturity in his game?

Gilbert & Blatche: This one’s changed, too, because of Wall. But I can’t draw any conclusions from Arenas’ performance last year, it was too brief.

Two-guard offense: Maybe I’m misinterpreting, but isn’t that exactly what we’re headed for? Two guards who both bring the ball up the court, a la Arenas & Hughes. How workable that will be is another issue.

Al Thornton’s role: Rebound, hustle, defense. On defense, Thornton will Thornton seems like one of those players who could really benefit from having a good distributor at the PG spot. I think all these guys could benefit.

The benefits of Kirk Hinrich: he’s big enough to swing between PG-SF, depending on match-ups. His defense is quite good. And looking at the current roster and the depletion of guards, you can be sure that every guard on this team is going to see playing time. They can make the Hinrich experiment work.

Arenas apology: he should’ve addressed it ages ago, and by waiting this long, he may have made things worse. For such a vocal player, Gil has remarkable poor grasp of public relations. If I were Arenas, I’d write about it in a blog piece, and then allow a few interviews a couple weeks later. He needs to start writing the script again, literally and figuratively.

Will Saunders coach the same way he has before: yes, probably. And that’s not a good sign. How well Saunders will adjust his offensive playbook to accommodate Wall is perhaps the most important question for this upcoming season.

-I couldn’t care less whether or not Gilbert apologizes, that issue is not at all important in my life, I’m more concerned about him switching numbers.

-“What’s Al Thornton’s role going to be this year?”. Great question. He may be the least talked about player on the squad, no one mentions him. He played great in spurts last year, never really saw in him score ‘in rhythm’ though . He going to start right?

My question: What is going to happen with Nick Young? During the 2nd half of the 2nd half of the season he tore it up (Averaged 17 ppg in April). He still doesn’t contribute in any other way though. His season plans?

Problem is, McGee would prefer to play like Blatche, that is, as a face-up finesse forward initiating offense away from the basket. But somebody has to do the dirty work under the boards: rebound, set screens, slam home putbacks, be generally the forgotten man.

JaVale is still playing for oohs and aahs nowadays. He’s still trying to go out there and ‘do my thing’ as he said at the USA camp. If he gets a few highlights per game is doesn’t matter so much if he gives up lay-ups or the team loses. He’s never played on a winning squad, but has been told his whole life he’s bound for stardom, so long as he perfects his Nick-Young mimic outside game.

Dray has been putting in solid work in the KG role in Flip’s playbook, chiefly because he actually has a midrange game, occasional three point range, and enjoys making a smart pass. It makes him a good fit to play the hub of the wheel in Flip’s offense, setting the pick then taking the first pass while the guards run in motion. He makes quick reads and generally plays well offensively.

Defensively he’s an average player at the PF spot, somewhat overmatched at Center. He’s long enough, and as he adds muscle mass he’ll be better able to stand his ground, clear space underneath, and even finish after contact. But until then he’s still a slightly footslow if long defender in that PF role. I suspect with a little weight he won’t mind playing under the boards on defense. And that’s when he and McGee can actually work well together on defense. A stronger Dray could make up for McGee’s bad habits, and could minimize his slow lateral step liability.

McGee still roams freely outside the scheme. Leaving the paint wide open while he chases down perimeter players trying to block a shot on the outside. It’s a worthless gamble and leaves too much room underneath to work. But in Flip’s zone offense McGee’s length and shot-blocking potential could be indomitable. So long as McGee rarely used the skill.

Flip’s zone works like this for the Bigs:

Bigs front the post, one cheats to the ball side with his hands up, preventing interior passes and discouraging a slashing attack if the outside man gets beat. The other Big fills the paint, ready to box out and snatch boards from outside shots.

Outside players challenge the three point shot, switch everything, play man defense until your man leaves the area, collapse and cheat to the ball side to discourage interior passes and cut off driving lanes. If you get beat one-on-one that’s okay your Bigs will challenge to try to make your man pull up for a jumper.

Since they give up long two-pt jumpers for free there are a good many long bounces off the rim. You want to make sure you don’t give up second effort points there. That means the weakside player has to stay at home under the bucket, ready to clear the board and send it to his PG or upcourt on transition. Sorta boring to be fundamentally sound, no flashy blocks, no glory. Which seems to be a key reason why attention-hound McGee doesn’t really want to play center.

I have a ton of hopes for our newest acquisition Kevin Seraphin though. He has sufficient length and strength to hold his ground underneath, (though right now he plays on his toes a little too much, and will get shoved off position until he learns to set a stance). He doesn’t need to learn very complex iterations in the defense in order to be helpful, and on offense has the ideal game to supplement and support the mid-range attacking bigs and the drive and dump slashing guards.

I suspect unless McGee makes a quick turnaround on some of his fundamental flaws, he’s in danger of losing a few minutes to Big Kev. By all rights he (McGee) shouldn’t (lose minutes), his physical talent is undeniable, but he’s got some truly bad habits long ingrained into his game. And I don’t know that he has sufficient humility to change quickly. His momma loves him no matter what you say. She said he’s gonna be an evolutionary star, if you don’t know, you just got it backwards. You’ll see.

Blatche was right. It’s a key feature of Flip’s offense. He never loads up on a Big Man down low, he likes space under the basket for his guards to run crossing patterns past baseline screens etc. The skilled Big is often above the free throw line setting picks and acting as relay man on passes to a catch and shoot player running a curl pattern.

If that Big has a jumper or can play the pick and roll game, great. That’s what 7-Dray’s role will be. The KG/Sheed role.

The real question is if Arenas can transition to the Rip Hamilton role, since he looked less comfortable in the Chauncey Billups role. IN the past Gil has been most dangerous with the ball in his hands. Running off-ball? I dunno.

Is still in full effect.

Sammy told Summerleague players the team was going to try to run this year. This team is stocked to run, but without stalwart defensive rebounders and with questionable defense the squad is likely to run on makes and misses both. That’s our chief mismatch in any given game, the ability to get out and go.

Doesn’t matter who gets the ball, Gilbert or John Wall, whomever is nearest. The other sprints ahead as the relay point to receive the outlet and get in deep past the defense. You can’t load up to deny the ball to one since the other is happy to get it and go.

The team has transition finishers at every other position, deep into the bench. The primary difference between John Wall and Sean Livingston in the twin guard wrinkle is that Livi gets his low-post points in slow developing post-ups over smaller guards, where John Wall gets his interior points on the receiving end of the alley oop, and on the blow-by or in transition.

Granted we’ll be a far better uptempo team if we can collect a rebound after making stops, but we’re gonna run regardless. The twin guard alignment just makes it easier.

Is our starting SF to start the year. Josh Howard is in a rehab year, working to regain his quicks off ACL surgery.

I suspect he will find nice chemistry with John Wall on garbage points when teams clog the lane to stop his dribble drive. Al Thornton on the backdoor will be a nice dump-off option. Behind him we have Nick Young trying to bulk up and Trevor Booker trying to transition to SF and possibly Yi trying to prove he has useful NBA talents.

Whichever of these players sets a nice pick or makes JWall look nice by finishing for the assist will be the player earning bulk minutes at the 3. All have talents, in different directions. Oddly Al Thornton is almost a blend of Nick and Booker, in size, build and playstyle.