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Originally Posted by KGREG  Dang Lee nobody said we were pitching shut outs, but we are indeed improving. Nazr's rotations have gotten alot better as of late, still not where he should be, but progress none the less. Boy Lee when you got it out for a guy you really dig in deep. |
No they are not. We were beat 14-3 on offensive boards tonight at one point. What evidence is that of Mohammed getting any better at being where he is suppose to be. I also read Merc's response. Nope, it ain't just lack of quicks. Due to his ineptness, slowness, or whatever, Mohammed simply makes no attempt at all to get over. A particularly glaring example of this was in the Cleveland game, where Gooden beat Sheed and was going for the layup, pretty much uncontested. Mohammed pretended nothing was happening, kept on boxing out Ilgauskas like it would matter. No way was Gooden going to miss that shot. Boxing out was pointless. Getting over to bother the shot, or maybe forcing a pass which could possibly be knocked away or fumbled is what Mohammed should have done. Basically, Mohammed is religiously staying with his own man, right on him, rather than ever trying to help out on drives to the basket.
What this is creating is real simple. Every time Mohammed enters the game, the other team simply calls a layup drill. They know from the scouting reports that Mohammed will never challenge. Not a thing to worry about. All they do is sucker Mohammed to leave the basket area and poof, its wide open. Mohammed never manages to watch his own guy and still keep an eye on penetration. Or at this point, he stays blind to it to avoid picking up fouls.
Sure, a lot of this is Mohammed just being to slow, knowing how slow he is, and therefor just not trying to playing any helpout D. But some of it, a lot of it, is just plain laziness in my opinion. Its one thing to stick with your guy if there is a possibility that the ball might get passed that way. Its quite another when the play is obviously to the basket and you do nothing.
PS, I got off track from the rebounding aspect, but its the same thing. They take Mohammed away from the basket before they shoot the ball, all too easily. Mohammed, in my opinion, should be replaced in the rotation by Amir Johnson. In any case, whether you agree or not with that, it certainly would not hurt to let Amir play. Let him compete for minutes. Then let the better players play, and the worse sit.