A modest suggestion for how to get Hawes more involved on offense
Last night's game was a good win, but it felt like our style of play would not be able to produce win after win after win, particularly on the offensive end. We are one of the best streak scoring teams in the country, but we need to develop a way to score when our high pick and role dribble game is not working. We did a good job of taking advantage of mistakes made by Oregon on D (like forgetting that Appleby will shoot three pointers), but as the season wears on, good teams make fewer mistakes. I don't think we could play a similar game on MacArthur court, when OU has Aaron Brooks, and expect to win.
In my mind the way to establish more consistency in the offense is to run the offense through Hawes more, which means we have to improve our ability to get him the ball. Last night we struggled mightily with this, as our offense was baffled by Oregon simply fronting Hawes (which they did ALL NIGHT).
For the front to work, a weakside defender has to be enough of a deterrent to the lob pass, without giving up an open shot to the man he is guarding. A typical way you see teams attack a post front is to clear out the lane, pull every other player to the perimeter, and then put your post feeder on the elbow of the same side of the court. This forces the weakside help to make a choice of what to guard. Help in the post and risk a quick ball rotation/skip pass from the center to your now open man who has been spotting up for some time. Or stay home, and watch as your opponents coordinated 7 footer gets a ton of easy finishes around the rim.
Right now, there are three things preventing UW from successfully dealing with the front:
1. UW primarily attacks from the weak side or the top of the key, and in general the ball handlers run the offense from too far out. This makes any entry pass into Hawes take too long, thus allowing the help defender to guard both the shooter and the lob pass.
2. UW does not vacate the post consistently. Too many times last night you saw Pondexter hanging out close to the rim with his defender near by. Quincy kept looking to receive an alley-oop pass that was never really available, and all he successfully did was screw over Hawes. If Q-Pon wants to get buckets for discount prices, he needs to wait at the three point line until Hawes gets the ball before he crashes the lane.
3. UW doesn't rotate the ball quickly. Too much dribbling allows the defenders to maintain decent position on the off the ball players. Pass the rock fast and get better angles, please. I don't think I saw one crisp two pass perimeter ball rotation from UW all game.
In my mind the way to establish more consistency in the offense is to run the offense through Hawes more, which means we have to improve our ability to get him the ball. Last night we struggled mightily with this, as our offense was baffled by Oregon simply fronting Hawes (which they did ALL NIGHT).
For the front to work, a weakside defender has to be enough of a deterrent to the lob pass, without giving up an open shot to the man he is guarding. A typical way you see teams attack a post front is to clear out the lane, pull every other player to the perimeter, and then put your post feeder on the elbow of the same side of the court. This forces the weakside help to make a choice of what to guard. Help in the post and risk a quick ball rotation/skip pass from the center to your now open man who has been spotting up for some time. Or stay home, and watch as your opponents coordinated 7 footer gets a ton of easy finishes around the rim.
Right now, there are three things preventing UW from successfully dealing with the front:
1. UW primarily attacks from the weak side or the top of the key, and in general the ball handlers run the offense from too far out. This makes any entry pass into Hawes take too long, thus allowing the help defender to guard both the shooter and the lob pass.
2. UW does not vacate the post consistently. Too many times last night you saw Pondexter hanging out close to the rim with his defender near by. Quincy kept looking to receive an alley-oop pass that was never really available, and all he successfully did was screw over Hawes. If Q-Pon wants to get buckets for discount prices, he needs to wait at the three point line until Hawes gets the ball before he crashes the lane.
3. UW doesn't rotate the ball quickly. Too much dribbling allows the defenders to maintain decent position on the off the ball players. Pass the rock fast and get better angles, please. I don't think I saw one crisp two pass perimeter ball rotation from UW all game.
Labels: Spencer Hawes
posted by Bobby Jones 2.0 at 11:36 AM
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