[chimera]

We got caught up in the Utah pace, which is sluggish and plodding.  I keep hoping the passing in this offense will work better but so far the offense does not generate assists.  I understand that a ball screen offense will result in drives, and therefore no assists on even some good plays.  Gotta think it needs more passing for open shots mixed in there, and not only passes to open three point shooters.  We need to hit cutters and drive and dish inside too.  I don't know if the execution is not there yet.  I assume that has to be the case.  I still have mixed feelings about the notion that we can't use the posts to do more than rebound and hit putbacks, which is what we heard in the chalk talk.  A good offense with sharp passing should get some shots for post that they don't have to be Chiney to hit.  That said they generally did not make much case this weekend to get more shots.  Ultimately I think it is a mixture of our posts needing to improve their footwork and finishing (which is on the coaches to help them do) and the offense getting them some better chances.  If we do not want teams to just lurk with two bigs in or near the paint to stop drives, which the coaches say we do not, we have to make them guard people in there.  Even moving to a stretch 4 won't keep teams from clogging driving lanes.  Driving and dishing to posts would make them have to guard those bigs, no? 

I would love to disagree that the team has regressed since early on but I can't.  We do seem worse.  CO is middling and Utah is just plain bad.  Teams have figured out how to defend us and it doesn't seem all that hard to do, frankly.  Any team that can bang inside and play reasonable defense on the perimeter has a chance to shut us down.  I sense a frustrated team out there.  I'm not close to enough of a basketball mind to know if we could fix the offense with experience and better execution or if there is some fundamental issue with the schemes. 

[chimera]

We got caught up in the Utah pace, which is sluggish and plodding.  I keep hoping the passing in this offense will work better but so far the offense does not generate assists.  I understand that a ball screen offense will result in drives, and therefore no assists on even some good plays.  Gotta think it needs more passing for open shots mixed in there, and not only passes to open three point shooters.  We need to hit cutters and drive and dish inside too.  I don't know if the execution is not there yet.  I assume that has to be the case.  I still have mixed feelings about the notion that we can't use the posts to do more than rebound and hit putbacks, which is what we heard in the chalk talk.  A good offense with sharp passing should get some shots for post that they don't have to be Chiney to hit.  That said they generally did not make much case this weekend to get more shots.  Ultimately I think it is a mixture of our posts needing to improve their footwork and finishing (which is on the coaches to help them do) and the offense getting them some better chances.  If we do not want teams to just lurk with two bigs in or near the paint to stop drives, which the coaches say we do not, we have to make them guard people in there.  Even moving to a stretch 4 won't keep teams from clogging driving lanes.  Driving and dishing to posts would make them have to guard those bigs, no? 

I would love to disagree that the team has regressed since early on but I can't.  We do seem worse.  CO is middling and Utah is just plain bad.  Teams have figured out how to defend us and it doesn't seem all that hard to do, frankly.  Any team that can bang inside and play reasonable defense on the perimeter has a chance to shut us down.  I sense a frustrated team out there.  I'm not close to enough of a basketball mind to know if we could fix the offense with experience and better execution or if there is some fundamental issue with the schemes.