I'll disagree with this strongly. They ran very good zone busting offense. Players flashing to the high post, guards attacking the seems, it was very good. There was much better movement off the ball. Now, they missed a dozen easy shots, making it look ugly as hell. But for the first time all year they ran good offense most of the game. With a lead late they played like crud.
I think they are running better offense, too! The ball movement and penetration has been worlds better against the zone, which they seem to play against more often than not these days. They are making better decisions with the ball, every time Purvis or Adams resists the urge to go hurtling into a crowd or second guesses a bad pass I know the coaching staff is getting through to them over the last 30 days. But we still don't have a consistent scorer. I only meant that despite the improvements, we still have serious offensive flaws, and those continue to be exposed each game.
Our two scorers right now are Adams and Purvis. Neither one has been able to show up and put the ball through the hoop consistently. Adams looked like a stud channeling Kemba in Maui when we were down by 20 and the games were out of reach, but he still has a ways to go before he is the guy that can lead a team like Kemba or Shabazz for a whole season. Probably 1-2 years. So he needs a lot of help right now.
We all know Purvis is flawed. He can't be the leading scorer on a team that wins big games against great competition. He can't create offense consistently enough. He just doesn't have the tools to be the ball handler he needs to be to run the offense through him. He can knock down threes, and make the occasional drive. But that's what he should be focused on. He's not Ray Allen, and he won't ever be. So we have two solid guards that can score in bunches, but usually don't. Both have drawbacks, but if they can work together well, it may start clicking. That's a decent start. And as the seasons goes on, Vital will continue to become a nice third piece of the back court puzzle that could be really effective. But even when that's all working, that's not enough to win big games... unless Adams becomes a Kemba like god for the last 12 or so games. But that's a year or two off still.
So that leads us to the big hole in our offense that needs to be closed for this to work. The front court and wings. Someone there needs to grow up offensively. It won't be Brimah. But he can get more lobs as the ball movement improves more. It might be Facey or Enoch. But it doesn't seem too likely. They could both get 6ish a night and that would be a good role for them. But Durham. That could be the guy that makes this a team to into a real contender if he can figure out how to score 10-15 PPG by the end of the year as a 3 or 4. Or even a 5.
But until those pieces come together. We're still 8 guys that are very much figuring out how to play offense. Getting better. But still pretty bad right now. Getting pretty good at defense though!
