WHEN INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS BECOME A TEAM

[Gray Mule]

Education:  This is part of the learning process, especially young players.  Yet, it applies to all new players on the team and to the old returning players.  They must learn how to play together.  They learn their mates strengths and their weaknesses.  They learn to rely on each other.

With new players, the coaches must learn all this also as they fit them together.

Something that stands out right now - This Hawk team doesn't know how to close out games.  This is part of the education for both the players and their coaches.  

The PG directs the offense.  The defense is usually directed by the center.  Capela and Young must learn their team mates and how they play.  With so many different players, they haven't had time to figure this out yet.

When do individual players become a team?  When they learn to work together as one unit.  When they care for one another and are willing to fight to defend each other.  When they learn to play to the strength of each individual and are willing and able to work to cover up any and all weaknesses in all the other players.

Education takes time.  Building a team takes time.  We all know the prayer, "Lord, give me patience and give it to me now!"  We want success.  We want it now.  Patience, grasshopper.  It's coming......

 

[Diesel]

You have some mighty fine Click Bait here mule.. but let me bring to life some of what you alluded to...

Trae is like our Magic Johnson. 

The problem is like you said... he has to learn on the job.   Magic played more years at MSU and learned the craft of being a leader and a PG.   Trae didn't spend as long at OU and when he was there, he did some of the same stuff he did now.  Magic came to a team with vets.   Trae came to a team with other rookies and young players.   Only now he's getting some vet experience around him.   So I agree with you... it's going to take some time and also, we have to be calculated as to who we pair Trae with.   He has a great PNR game with JC.  However, what else has he learned?.  Did he learn that here?  I think Rondo is a great guy to teach Trae how to win...

Learning to win isn't enough.  Trae has to learn to lead and the nuances of being a PG for a championship team.   Rondo can give him some of that but I suggest that we invest in a PG's coach like Jason Kidd who can give him the game. 

 

[thecampster]

To be fair, if Gallinari, Rondo and Dunn are healthy thru the first 7 games....we're either 6-1 or even 7-0. We were in all 3 games with a chance to win.

Some of this is just maturing and learning to play together. So many plays this year (especially from BB) have showed a lack of unity on the floor. Way too many hands are low or not ready for a pass turnovers. Lots of slow react in the lane turnovers.

[AHF]

22 minutes ago, thecampster said:

To be fair, if Gallinari, Rondo and Dunn are healthy thru the first 7 games....we're either 6-1 or even 7-0. We were in all 3 games with a chance to win.

Some of this is just maturing and learning to play together. So many plays this year (especially from BB) have showed a lack of unity on the floor. Way too many hands are low or not ready for a pass turnovers. Lots of slow react in the lane turnovers.

Yeah, I anticipated a very real likelihood that we would struggle out of the gate while going through that process of learning to play together.  We've been ahead of schedule as far as I'm concerned.  

[bleachkit]

Trae is a playmaker and a shotmaker, he is special in that regard. But if the expectation he comes a maestro like all time great guards like Nash and Stockton, I just don't know. Go back and look at the numbers of those guys, ridiculously efficiency and absurd assist/TO ratios. I don't see that happening.  

[JayBirdHawk]

4 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Trae is a playmaker and a shotmaker, he is special in that regard. But if the expectation he comes a maestro like all time great guards like Nash and Stockton, I just don't know. Go back and look at the numbers of those guys, ridiculously efficiency and absurd assist/TO ratios. I don't see that happening.  

What were those guys numbers their 1st 2 years?

[bleachkit]

8 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

What were those guys numbers their 1st 2 years?

Time is on Trae's side, no question.

[AHF]

17 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Trae is a playmaker and a shotmaker, he is special in that regard. But if the expectation he comes a maestro like all time great guards like Nash and Stockton, I just don't know. Go back and look at the numbers of those guys, ridiculously efficiency and absurd assist/TO ratios. I don't see that happening.  

The A/TO ratio will never be a good measuring stick with Nash and Stockton.  Nash averaged 10.6 FGA/gm while Stockton averaged just over 9 FGA/gm.  Their TO numbers were partly as low as they were because neither was ever the primary scorer for his team.  Stockton was typically the 3rd highest in PPG for the Jazz while Nash fluctuated a bit more but was usually in a similar role for his teams (for example, when he won his first MVP in 2004-05 he was the 4th highest on the team behind Amare, Marion and Joe Johnson).

Trae has averaged just under 18 FGA/gm and is the team's top scoring option.  As a top scoring option, he is always going to have a higher TO number even if his playmaking was identical in control and efficiency relative to those two all-timers.

[Diesel]

4 hours ago, thecampster said:

To be fair, if Gallinari, Rondo and Dunn are healthy thru the first 7 games....we're either 6-1 or even 7-0. We were in all 3 games with a chance to win.

Some of this is just maturing and learning to play together. So many plays this year (especially from BB) have showed a lack of unity on the floor. Way too many hands are low or not ready for a pass turnovers. Lots of slow react in the lane turnovers.

I agree with this but there's a whole lot of better play we can have if Trae matures into a Floor General.

I cringe when I see him come down and do a heat check from one step beyond half court.   I know we're in the Steph Curry Generation but Trae, you don't have to be Steph Curry 2.0. 

He does PNR very nicely but he needs to add more to his game.  He needs to be able to work a two man game with more than just PNR.   And most important, he needs to know when to play a team game and when to take over... and how to take over.   Right now, he takes over and afterwards, nobody else is positioned to help him pull  the load.   This is not necessarily a Rondo, Dunn thing.. this is really a him thing.  We can win with Matt Maloney as our Back Up PG if Trae would just learn how to manage the game. 

[Diesel]

3 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Trae is a playmaker and a shotmaker, he is special in that regard. But if the expectation he comes a maestro like all time great guards like Nash and Stockton, I just don't know. Go back and look at the numbers of those guys, ridiculously efficiency and absurd assist/TO ratios. I don't see that happening.  

Unfortunately, that's the expectation.  The thing is that he can get there.   Those are things that a PG is not born with those are things that time and experience teaches.  Hell you watched Jeff Teague do it.   When Teague first got here, his A/TO was 1.  By the time he left here, he was a solid 2.5 or so.  And Teague wasn't a great passer and didn't run PNR nearly as well as Trae does.  But he became efficient.  Trae can do it. 

 

 

[Thomas]

4 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

What were those guys numbers their 1st 2 years?

Yeah Nash who is now a coach just didn't get the minutes he wanted in his first two or three years. Trae in the fire.