http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01...s-curse-words/
That’s kind of where we’re caught right now. We keep pressure on teams with our offence. But we’ve got to get a balance. You don’t want to take away with what’s been good for you, which has been our offence, to slow down to get our defence in tact. So we’re going to have to continue to work with it a bit, working in small areas defensively, whether it’s pick-and-roll defence or defensive rebounding or making sure you protect the paint, to compensate. But I don’t want to, by any means, take away from our offence.
I think it’s personnel driven. Our guys are not great passers. We’re more one-on-one scorers and … more catch, dribble and shoot than catch and shoot, which doesn’t lend itself to a lot of assists.
When we first started, you would say, ‘OK, there’s too much one-on-one.’ But it’s what they do. That’s what Lou Williams does. That’s what Kyle [Lowry] does. That’s what DeMar [DeRozan’s] going to do when he comes back. The only guy that’s really a catch and shooter is Terrence [Ross]. James Johnson is a back down, back down scorer. [Jonas Valanciunas is the same way] in the post. Pat [Patterson] can catch and shoot, but now teams are running him off the three-point line, and he has to take a dribble or two. As long as our turnover rate stays down, we can live with fewer assists.
Is that what we’re going to do? I don’t know if our personnel is going to allow us to be a defensive juggernaut, a stopping team. But we can be better defensively as far as our schemes are concerned, and our rotations and pick-and-roll defence.
I understand they’re going to have ups and downs as young guys. What gives me pride is watching those guys grow. You see glimpses of what they’re going to be. The reality is who they really are right now — you want JV to be every night, 25 [points] and 15 [rebounds], or 25 and 12. With a young player, it’s unrealistic to ask him to be that. Patience has got to be the key word for us.
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