Lets take an honest look at our starters and rate them either top third, middle third, or bottom third:
Point guard: Nolen, bottom third. Poor shooter, decent driver but makes poor decisions with his passes, takes a lot of chances on defense, sometimes it pays off but many times he loses his man.
Shooting guard: Westbrook, bottom third. At times is effective on offense but bigger athletic players give him the fits, poor ball handler, poor passer, weak on defense, but scrappy and isn't afraid to attack the basket, however he doesn't have the vertical jump to get a lot of his shots off.
Center: Sampson, bottom third, only a freshman, will be be upper third someday but not yet
Power forward: Iverson, bottom third, same as Sampson
Shooting forward: Johnson, maybe middle third because of defense, can't create his own shot on defense, limited shooting range, seems to have become very lackadaisical on offense as of late, brilliant on defense sometimes but as of late has had too many dumb fouls.
Team defense: middle third, great at times, but still doesn't cover 3-point shots very well
Team offense: bottom third, no idea what they are doing
So it seems obvious to me that our current slide is not just a "slump" but more than likely an apt description of what we really are - a bottom third team.
Point guard: Nolen, bottom third. Poor shooter, decent driver but makes poor decisions with his passes, takes a lot of chances on defense, sometimes it pays off but many times he loses his man.
Shooting guard: Westbrook, bottom third. At times is effective on offense but bigger athletic players give him the fits, poor ball handler, poor passer, weak on defense, but scrappy and isn't afraid to attack the basket, however he doesn't have the vertical jump to get a lot of his shots off.
Center: Sampson, bottom third, only a freshman, will be be upper third someday but not yet
Power forward: Iverson, bottom third, same as Sampson
Shooting forward: Johnson, maybe middle third because of defense, can't create his own shot on defense, limited shooting range, seems to have become very lackadaisical on offense as of late, brilliant on defense sometimes but as of late has had too many dumb fouls.
Team defense: middle third, great at times, but still doesn't cover 3-point shots very well
Team offense: bottom third, no idea what they are doing
So it seems obvious to me that our current slide is not just a "slump" but more than likely an apt description of what we really are - a bottom third team.
