I'm sorry, not a single coach in any league in the world is going to tell players to stop doing their actual practice so they can shoot 4000 FTs a day.
We'd be the first team in NBA history to shoot 95% from the stripe and 20% from everywhere else.
CJ is trash. I don’t know why he’s still in at the end of games, and I don’t know how people can seriously defend the decision to keep him in.
i don't overreact to the result. but i will say the body language from the sidelines and the player coach interactions in the 4th were terrible. willie and company look confused far too often and it doesn't appear like the players (zion especially) really listen to them.
I didn't say hundreds, I said THOUSANDS. TENS of thousands. Until just by muscle memory alone the ball goes in. You say there are bigger problems on this team than FTs. But we'd be 21-10 and the 3rd seed if we just made a normal amount of FTs. We're 31 games in and we've already lost FOUR games directly due to poor FT shooting. Players ENJOY practicing jumpshots and threes. They don't DESERVE to enjoy practice.
You can say it was directly due to FTs if you want, but you can point to a hundred things.
Sure, we lost this game due to FTs.
Or, did we lose it because we shot 32% from 3? After all, one more made 3 would've been a win. Wouldn't have even gone to OT. Maybe everyone should just shoot THOUSANDS of 3s in practice and never do anything else?
Or was it because we got outrebounded 50 to 46? One more board might have cost them a point. Maybe we should just do solely boxing out next practice.
Turns out that excellence is a lot of small things done well, and this team does none of them well. Focusing on one to the exclusion of all the other paths to success is called missing the forest for the trees.
There is a disconnect. That much is clear. You have to have shooting. Getting into the paint and diversifying your game is important. But we just got Trey freakin Murphy back and we aren’t taking any advantage of him to space the floor. We have Jordan Hawkins who was a very promising young shooter with great movement off the ball that has been completely frozen out. There is something up.
That's just RIDICULOUS , Why don't you tell me where Hou. and Mem. are ranked defensively?. We shot for CRAP tonight it was not their defense. You think it's great defense when a guy missed a wide open shot or blows a layup when it's NOT SMH. We lost tonight because we didn't have what you need SHOOTING SHOOTING SHOOTING from the field AND at the FT line SMH
Fellas we have the hands down worst coach in the league. Nobody even close to it.
I like CJ and think he doesnt get the credit he deserves, but even I dont like him in at the end of games. If we can go small with Herb at the 5, that gives us room to play BI, Z, Trey, and 1 other guy... I dont know who that would be tho. Dyson? Naji?
Memphis shot 43% from the field, 24% from 3. We PLAYED DEFENSE. We lost it on the one thing you CANT play defense on, free throws.
It really should be
FREE THROWS! - FREE THROWS! - FREE THROWS!
because thats whats costing us games.
Almost 30% of our losses are DIRECTLY the result of poor FT Shooting.
It’s all about execution in close games. Execution lacks badly which is directly attributable to the Head Coach. He’s still learning in the job. This team really needs an experienced coach not an intern.
If only Zion had more than one offensive move, hard drive to his left. In crunch time guys just overplay that and we get turnovers and charges.
Just noticed in the Box Score that Memphis registered SEVENTEEN blocks tonight, including 5 by Xavier Tillman and 3 by Vince Williams Jr. That's ridiculous.
The only thing that's not on WG is the poor FT shooting and STILL there is something he can do about it. Make them focus MORE on it
Willie trending on twitter
Media might be taking notice now
What the heck was Jonas doing on the last play of regulation? The only shot Grizzlies could get was a lob to the basket. As the play starts, Jonas takes a step out toward the FT line letting Jackson go right by him to the rim. Actually would have caught the lob and dunked had Jonas not fouled him as he tried to catch back up. The only play Memphis had time for was a lob, didn’t Willie prepare Jonas for that. Had Jonas just used his feet and kept Jackson from running free down the lane Pels win. As a matter of fact, if the Pels have a quicker big man with better ups than Jonas, he should have been in.