[dude1394]

Originally Posted by jthig32

I actually thought Brand looked really good during his run in the third quarter. He looked far more aggressive offensively and was good defensively. His overall play for the season is concerning, as is his quick drop in minutes. But as with everything else, we have to see what happens when Dirk gets back. I think he still has a chance to make an impact as a C next to Dirk. I also think he might fit better at PF with the second unit, with Carter stretching the floor and Sarge not taking the number of touches Kaman takes in the post.

Collison has been disturbingly bad for a concerning stretch, but he probably stands to benefit more from Dirk being on the floor than any other player. Teams are overplaying him on the PnR, and the lane is packed quite a bit right now, making it hard for him to penetrate. I think this lack of floor spacing is why Rick stuck with Murphy so long, hoping his stroke would arrive (and maybe it has, which would be nice).

The frustrating thing from last night was the rebounding. It's been a problem all season, but last night was an outlier in that their best rebounder (by a mile) didn't collect a single defensive rebound. I mean...that's your loss right there. What a strange anomaly.

I'm surprised to see people lamenting Kaman's defense after last night. I've been beating that drum pretty hard, but I thought he was pretty solidly defensively, at least during the second half, and it's really hard to quibble with the kind of game he turned in.

One thing that's really annoying me right now is the carte blance Vince Carter is being given, both offensively and defensively. He takes horrible shot on the offensive end, and he float and freelances WAY too much defensively, giving up wide open threes multiple times a game because of it. I get that he's a valued offensive shot creator while Dirk is out, and he hasn't been terrible by any stretch. But I'm just not a fan of giving him that kind of leeway, especially defensively, where he really hurt us last night.

Despite the frustrating losses, I think everyone is overreacting a bit at this point. Playing .500 ball without Dirk (and without Marion for a few games) is not the end of the world. We've had some serious bright spots (Mayo, Sarge, Kaman at times, DoJo at times?!?!).

I also don't like seeing Vince hoist it up every time he gets the ball. Unfortunately because collison has been so meh, we just don't have any wings that can score. He's trying to do too much, but IMO some of it is justified because of so few other options.