Paul Millsap is wonderful basketball player. He hustles, boards and scores, even if he has been going through a slump lately. What he does not do is post people up or play well with his back to the basket, and it's starting to become a problem.
Last night's game was a debacle and the blowout loss shouldn't be blamed simply on sore legs. The Warriors are not a good basketball team. With Biedrins out they have ZERO size and all they do is shoot jumpers all night. Their defense is terrible. Monta Ellis is frail and playing on one leg and CJ Watson is a rookie -- D Will couldn't ask for better matchups.
Yet the Warriors killed us, mostly because Memo and Millsap couldn't get the job done inside. Why? Because Turiaf, Maggette, Randolph and Jackson mandhandled them (see below: Randolph weighs about 155 pounds and has no biceps). As soft as Boozer is -- and he is soft against bigger, stronger players -- we would have won that game by ten last night had he played. No way does Don Nelson dare to put any of those guys besides Turiaf on Boozer for more than two trips down the floor.
The Jazz have no real choice but to rid themselves of Carlos in the near future. But without him we will struggle. No one besides Williams can create his own shot or consistently score on people one on one. Memo, AK, and Millsap are very good players and I have certainly been one to consistently sing Paul's praises in the past. But I fear a bit for the future. . .
5 comments:
Millsap has improved every year in the league and I beleive he is capable of developing his post game and becoming a more complete player. At present, however, we are stuck with an offense that is built to run through the post and we don't have an effective low post player. It's a tough spot to be in and forces Williams to carry a heavy load.
Who is that dude in the photo?
Now that's a damn thing.
The dude in the photo is Anthony Randolph, who I watched successfully defend Millsap and Memo on Sunday night. Memo was shooting turnaround, fall away jumpers over him. Millsap was taking it inside and getting it blocked every time. Really hard to stomach.
Randolph is actually good, if anorexic.
Here's the other problem with Millsap over Boozer. Boozer+Memo+Deron is a deadly triple-headed scoring monster and allows the Jazz to run guys at the 2 and 3 who are offensively deficient: Brewer, Harpring, Kirilenko, CJ Miles. When Millsap plays, however, the lack of scoring punch from our wings is painfully apparent.
Randolph is fine. Under no circumstances should he be able to consistently D up your 4 AND 5 in the paint, however.
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