A discussion on nellie's tactics against the lakers - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

dude1394 · 12-06-2003, 12:43 PM

I would like to start a discussion on what exactly we feel nellie was trying to do against the lakers in particular with respect to the fortson/bradley playing time. I really don't want this to degenerate into a nellie always does this/that/stinks etc. But really what was the thought-process going in. With little whistle not much changed, i.e. no fortson, no bradley.

Obviously nellie started out with fortson playing shaq. I thought he was "leaning" on him like you expect. But the backside cutters were getting layup after layup on him. Ergo he was pulled really quickly. Then bradley was inserted and the layup drill sort of stopped. But then he also was pulled and nellie on the sidelines was screaming at him for something. I couldn't figure it out.

Then najera and pretty much small ball the rest of the way. Did anyone else have an idea about what was up with this?

Walkerforthree · 12-06-2003, 12:47 PM

IMO Najera got too many minutes and should never be guarding shaq.

dude1394 · 12-06-2003, 12:51 PM

Well I agree but what in the world was little whistle and don thinking then? Was it only to make shaq have to move around, was fortson/bradley not active enough?

LRB · 12-06-2003, 01:07 PM

Dud I can't answer you what they were thinking other than it seems that Fortson and Bradley are now both in the doghouse. Bradley should recieve his mail there because he's in the doghouse more than he's in his own home. Fortson's flagrant foul probably earned him a trip there. Why a big player gets into Nellie's doghouse is a perplexing mystery to me that I havenot been able to solve. So all I can do is guess.

I would guess that Fortson was not played because of the layup drills and because he was a total non factor on D and allowed Shaq to camp in the lane on defense. Bradley probably left for similar reasons. Although Shawn has the jumper to go to, it wasn't enough of a factor to draw Shaq out of the lane. With the team shooting like Sh!# the whistles, Big and Little, were probably desperate to improve our chance of scoring anyway they could and wanted to try and force LA into a mad scramble type of game. This is only my guess.

The real problem was getting down so far to the Fakers to begin with. My biggest complaint on this is the starting of Tony Delk. There are at least 5 players that I would have started over Delk and which would have given us more height and size and even more scoring ability in some cases. All could have let Fin move to the 2 where he is more comfortable. In fact the only player on the Mavs bench that was available for the game that I wouldn't have started over Tony Delk is Travis Best, coincidentally the only player on the entire team shorter than Delk.

ReDIRKulous · 12-06-2003, 01:11 PM

They didn't feel that Fortson was ready to play again after his 3 game suspension. Especially against the Lakers. In the opening minutes Fortson totally blew a defensive rotation and Payton walked right to the basket for a layup. He was gone right after that. Why didn't he play Bradley more? The officials won't let Bradley play. He got a clean block on Shaq and the officials said it was a foul. Maybe they didn't want Bradley getting hurt out there with Malone AND Shaq on the floor too.

dude1394 · 12-06-2003, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: ReDIRKulous
They didn't feel that Fortson was ready to play again after his 3 game suspension. Especially against the Lakers. In the opening minutes Fortson totally blew a defensive rotation and Payton walked right to the basket for a layup. He was gone right after that. Why didn't he play Bradley more? The officials won't let Bradley play. He got a clean block on Shaq and the officials said it was a foul. Maybe they didn't want Bradley getting hurt out there with Malone AND Shaq on the floor too.

I AGREE with your assessment of bradley getting royaled by the refs. But I certainly hope that nellie wasn't intimidated by the refs, I find that hard to believe as nellie seen too much for that. I don't understand the bradley case at all, I've always wished some sports commentator would get off their lazy duff and get inside the strategic mind of coaches. However they probably will not let them I guess.