Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="willtalk, post: 2754420, member: 1220"] My post was not meant so much as being critical of Parker as it was about the most consistently effective style of play for the Sparks. Parker had a great night because the things she does best were working. that along with LA hitting 80 % from 3pt range and 62% over all. Your perspective is based more on this one game. I was just stating that the team usually does not function more efficiently when Parker is as ball dominant. When players are hot and knocking down 8 for 10 from outside it is not that important to work the ball for the better shots. A lot also has to do with the opposing teams defense. The offense generally is more consistently effective running through Gray. Other teams recognize that and have recently game planned to take the ball out of her hands Angler knows that so he needs to find alternative options . Parker is the most important piece in that respect. Agler is still in the process of integrating all his pieces and that includes Parker who missed a lot of early games. It is about finding the right balance in utilizing her skills to the max. Once they get Vedeeva integrated into the rotation they will be really tough because she brings an aspect that was sorely lacking except for Nika who was the only player on the team who was an inside banger. Lavender likes to roam the 3 pt line along with Parker. But Parker is effective out side due to her vast skill set. In the game today Vedeeva got 4 rebounds in her limited 3 min on the floor. She really hits the boards and has a pretty good inside game as well. With her on the floor less pressure will be put on Nika. I stated in my earlier post the skills Parker possesses in respect to her relationship with her teammates on offense. What she does, she does very well. The thing is that ball movement requires more than just finding an open man, but quickly recognizing when it is time to get it to someone else who is in a better position. It is the quality of thinking moves ahead. Very few players have that ability.Gray does. She sees the floor as well as anyone who has ever played the game and along with having the ability to get them the ball at any point on the court. That is why at the end of the game the ball is usually in her hands. It is not so much Nika who has made Parker a better team player but Grays presence on the floor. Parker trusts her. I suspect it was never that Parker was not a team player but that she tended to do what she felt the team needed and jsut she just felt she was the best player on the team to run the offense. She is good at a lot of the facets of running the offense, but tends to want to do too much. She is still, however, because of her height, the best at running the two man iso play with Nika, Vedeeva ( once she gets integrated) or any other player who posts up or makes the right cuts to the basket. That was really working against the Mystics. People tend to notice Gray now because she has remolded her body which has improved her offensive and defensive abilitis. But the best part of her game was always her BBIQ and her ability to not only see the entire floor but deliver the ball. There have been players who have had BBIQ , the ability to recognize space and see the floor but it seems that it is seldom combined with the passing skill to deliver the ball. When you add the new improved athleticism Gray has attained through her remade body, you have a player who can now do it all. I remember Charles Barkely speaking about the different levels of BBIQ. He stated that what separates the good from the elite was the ability to not only recognize and hit the open man, but to also recognize which player on the floor is in a better position than they are to do that. It is about finding the player on the court who can make the next pass to get the assist. It's the difference between a chess player who can see multiple moves ahead as opposed to one who plays one move at a time. Since in a basketball game the board is constantly in flux and changing it makes that skill of recognizing moves ahead much more difficult and scarce. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach