Dwane Casey was prompted about Jonas Valanciunas not getting into the game during the run when the Pelicans took the lead for good in the Raptors loss in New Orleans.
He and Amir both were gassed. We needed length, we needed size, we needed some length in there with those guys. JV did a heck of a job, I thought, in the stretch he was in, I just though he ran out of gas.
Well, he ran out of gas because his rest wasn’t managed at all. The guy played the entire third quarter and the first six minutes of the fourth. Wouldn’t a normal pattern of a late-third timeout, resting the key player, using the quarter break, and getting a full 8-10 minute rest be a saner option?
And maybe he’s gassed because his conditioning isn’t upto snuff since the guy hasn’t played full games this year. That’s a whole other story, though.
Asked if the coaching staff contemplated putting their best player on the night back in the game, he said:
We did, we did down the stretch, but again we were trying to do a different defensive scheme to get Evans under control down the stretch, that’s why we kept Amir in there.
Again, I don’t get why we needed to put Amir Johnson in there to deal with Evans on the perimeter/elbow area, instead of letting JV protect the rim which he was having a great game doing, especially when a guard got into the lane trying to make hesitation moves.
I like Amir Johnson, but this infatuation with him as being a be all and end all defender is unfounded. The guy is magnificent in stretches (like he was today), and equally poor in others (like he was today). You go with the guy having a good game, and JV was having a brilliant one. Simple as.
It’s also probably a good idea to have your best rebounder out there in case you need to get an offensive board off of the million jumpers your guards are shooting. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me but I’m a sucker for possessions in close games.
Props to Eric Koreen for posing the question.
