Two Bruin Problems

by BanjoBenny on Jan 25, 2012 9:39 AM PST

In my opinion the Bruins have two main problems this year:

1. There are certain types of teams that kill the Bruins and shoot around 60% or higher (MTSU, Cal, OSU)

2. Lazerick Jones thinking he is Kobe Bryant and not passing the ball.

With regard to problem #1, I'm wondering how much of the problem might be related to only having one player taller than 6'3" and shorter than 6'10" - Tyler Lamb. I haven't watched the games, I just devour the statistic afterwards. I'm curious, of the teams that have lit up the Bruins this year, do they have an unusual concentration of good 6'4" to 6'8" players? Just curious. If so, it strikes me as a good argument for playing Norman Powell 30 minutes a game, and playing Anthony Stover quite a lot more, maybe even trying him at Forward a bit (though it would take away some shot blocking).

With regard to problem #2, the Wears and Josh Smith are now shooting well over 50% lately. If the Bruins are lacking on defense maybe they could make up for it a bit on offense. But Jones seems to have a split personality since moving to off guard: the "Good Lazerick" has great games with 8 or 9 assists and one turnover, feeding the Wears (who are the best outside shooters on the team by far), feeding Josh or Anthony for dunks, etc. The "Bad Lazerick" seems to think he is Kobe Bryant and needs to "take over the game" - depriving higher percentage shooters of opportunities, just as we sometimes see Kobe shoot 12 for 35 while Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are shooting 80%.

From my point of view, to solve the defensive problem, Norman Powell and Anthony Stover have to play much more, end of story. To solve the offensive problem, when "Bad Lazerick" shows up, Howland has to sit him down and whisper in his ear "take over the game the way Jon Stockton would, not Kobe."

Other than that, I see various slow improvements taking place. Jerime Anderson is a lot more steady than in previous years, as his A/TO ratio would attest. The Wears shooting percentage was awful at the beginning of the year but has gone way up. Their rebounding was horrible but has progressed to "mediocre" and could keep going. The defense does well against most teams but seems like it cannot handle certain kinds of teams, but the solution seems pretty obvious at this point: more NP and AS. Offense has been like a yoyo lately, mostly because LJ is controlling the strings instead of Ben Howland.

I will never understand why CBW didn't put Russell Westbrook on Derick Rose. Simiarly, I may never understand why NP isn't playing 30 minutes because if I have to choose, I would much rather watch Norman Powell shoot 3/9 than Lazeric Jones shoot 3/9.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Comments

I agree with playing Powell more and Jones (and Anderson to a certain extent) less

but I think you are a bit off the mark to say “feeding the Wears (who are the best outside shooters on the team by far)”. The Wears shoot a high percentage inside and have a good midrange game. But, CBH shouldn’t be encouraging more outside shots from them, this puts them even more out of position for rebounds, which we cannot allow. Sure, they shoot a great 3 point percentage, but that doesn’t mean much when they attempt so few (neither Wear has close to one attempt a game, Travis hasn’t had an attempt in at least the last 5 games). Manute Bol shot 60% from 3 point range in his final season, stats can be deceiving.

by JimmyBurke on Jan 25, 2012 10:37 AM PST reply actions

agree about the rebounds

I wasn’t thinking of them shooting more threes though. I was thinking pick and rolls and pick and pops with Jones having the ball and the Wears doing the screening, say around the foul line. At one point Travis had hit 20 free throws in a row!

On a related note, why doesn’t Josh ever get ANY assists?

by BanjoBenny on Jan 25, 2012 10:59 AM PST reply actions

I agree

high picks and rolls would be a good wrinkle. Although I would venture to say that I would rather have Anderson running those plays than Jones. I would rather see NP get minutes so that he can improve as opposed to see Jones get minutes. Jones tries to turn college games into personal NBA tryouts. Except there are no scouts watching this team…

by TNbruin52 on Jan 25, 2012 11:35 AM PST up reply actions

We're on the same page with the pick and roll

but I can’t remember a CBH team ever running pick and rolls consistently, even when we had the personnel that would seem perfect for it.

The Wears are definitely great at the line, more aggressiveness and making the defense rotate with something like a pick and roll will help them get to the line more often.

by JimmyBurke on Jan 25, 2012 1:48 PM PST up reply actions