Marreese Minutes

[Skates]

Well, they were back to back games so its not like Speights could have impressed DiLeo in practice between the two games to earn his time back.  By not seeing a spot to use Speights, Dileo could have meant two things:

1.  He needed to optimize the matchups to win.
2.  He was worried Speights would be over matched and it would hurt his confidence. 

I won't try to read too much into one game where he was DNP, especially for a rookie who had some rebounding/defense troubles in previous games, but it bears watching in the future.

[rickortreat]

I think it was a stupid decision to not play him against Dallas.  He might have done a better job of defending Nowitzky than Thad. He also might have given the Sixers a post presence which they desperately needed.  I evaluate it as a mistake by the coaching staff, why they continue to err on the side of not playing what statistically is their best player is quite confusing. He managed 10 pts and six boards against SA in 18 minutes, shooting 4-7, they should be playing him 25-30 mpg by now based on his production.

I think it is very important for the Sixers to establish Speights as part of the rotation prior to Brand coming back.  Sam Dalembert might do better against 2nd string Centers.  We won't be able to know unless we see Marreese play.

[RickyPryor]

He might have done a better job of defending Nowitzky than Thad.

Wow.

You are comparing - what might be our WORST defensive big...to what might be among our best.

[rickortreat]

Yeah, Thad did such a great job that Nowitzky only managed to score 31 pts! 

In the first place Thad is not a PF and shouldn't be forced to play out of position.  He was giving up a lot of size to Nowitsky- there's no way he could block Dirk's shot or get in his face.   Oh yes, in the 40 min. he played against Dallas he only scored 8 pts.

Do you think it is possible that Speights might have played him better?  Do you think maybe Speights might have made Dirk and the other Dallas bigs work trying to stop him from scoring?  Dallas has no strong interior defenders, putting in a post player against them is hitting their weak-point.

Speights has a better chance of guarding Dirk because of his size and length.  For the sake of matchups, it's usually better to have pairings where your player has an advantage or at least minimizes the other teams.  Dirk is a great offensive player, but he's weak on D.  Teams that exploit that weakness get easy buckets or get Dirk into foul trouble.

That's just smart basketball.

[RickyPryor]

Do you think it is possible that Speights might have played him better? 

Not remotely.

[tk76-]

Speigts again top 10 in Thorpe ratings:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/players/rookies/rankings?season=2009&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fplayers%2frookies%2frankings%3fseason%3d2009

December 30, 2008
Speights is playing great on offense. No surprise there. But to be a better defensive force, he needs to learn to try to deny his opponents good post-up position. It's not possible to deny them the ball totally, but forcing them to catch the ball a step or three beyond where they want it is the first line of defense.

December 23, 2008
I first saw Speights a couple of years ago when he was a college freshman, and couldn't believe his touch around the basket. And now, despite being on the "playing time see-saw," he's hitting 49.3 percent of his shots. And as of today, he leads all rookies in player efficiency rating by a bigger margin than the No. 2 rook (Mayo) holds over the next 10 rookies. Speights is still a liability on defense, and his motor can stall from time to time, but his offensive talent is enormous.

He's like Thad 2.0

[RickyPryor]

Much as you all might not agree...Tony is entitled to say 'told you so' this morning, IMO.  After the Boston game...during which Speights played alot of minutes, Marreese - as you all know - put together a couple clunkers: 42 minutes...THREE rebounds total.  Just horrible.

And so the brief benching.

We've said here that rebounding is about technique and desire.  Apparently Marreese has some technique, because he CAN do better than three rebounds in 42 minutes.  He's shown us that.  And so my guess is that Tony was saying (by his actions), "we need more minutes out of you; but this is what will happen if you lose focus - take a seat".

In the last two games, Marreese has played another 41 minutes.  The result?  FOURTEEN rebounds.  Big, big difference.

And so Tony's actions are justified, IMO...and proven to have been effective.


For now.



Because focus will be hard to maintain in games 47...54...68...  And if he loses it, back to the bench he'll go.  Just ask Sam.

[Skates]

When Brand returns full time, do you start him at center and send Sam to the bench to take Reggie's role?  If we trade Sammy and get back a back-up big back I would strongly consider starting Brand and Speights together.  That would actually be a better shooting line-up than having WG starting at the 2.

[tk76-]

Did you hear Lou's post game interview yest?  Its funny how he is the 22 year old wise vet when he starts taking about the "young guys" like Speights.  He was reiterating how they stay on Speights to keep his intensity up.  How after they get Speights going with a dunk then Speights starts dominating all over the place.  Along the same line the 24 year old vet (Iguodala) talked about how they need Speight to become a great player instead of merely a good one. 

I'm not worried about Speights getting too lazy from getting the starting gig.  Clearly the players and coaches will all push him to stay involved on the boards.  If he starts drifting, its just as easy to bench a starter as it is a rotation guy- just ask Sam.

[Skates]

Did you hear Lou's post game interview yest?  Its funny how he is the 22 year old wise vet when he starts taking about the "young guys" like Speights.  He was reiterating how they stay on Speights to keep his intensity up.  How after they get Speights going with a dunk then Speights starts dominating all over the place.  Along the same line the 24 year old vet (Iguodala) talked about how they need Speight to become a great player instead of merely a good one. 

I'm not worried about Speights getting too lazy from getting the starting gig.  Clearly the players and coaches will all push him to stay involved on the boards.  If he starts drifting, its just as easy to bench a starter as it is a rotation guy- just ask Sam.

If Reggie has any real value to this team, it is taht he is the most likely guy to really push Speights hard in practice.  Reggie squeezes all he can out of his minimal talent and plays every minute full out.  He and Brand apparently push each other in practice and I can't imagine Reggie letting the rookie get lackadaisical around him.

[RickyPryor]

If Reggie has any real value to this team, it is taht he is the most likely guy to really push Speights hard in practice.  Reggie squeezes all he can out of his minimal talent and plays every minute full out.  He and Brand apparently push each other in practice and I can't imagine Reggie letting the rookie get lackadaisical around him.

Good point.  He's got Evans there to "goose" him and Brand to instruct on actually playing.  Not a bad set of mentors.

[Skates]

If Reggie has any real value to this team, it is taht he is the most likely guy to really push Speights hard in practice.  Reggie squeezes all he can out of his minimal talent and plays every minute full out.  He and Brand apparently push each other in practice and I can't imagine Reggie letting the rookie get lackadaisical around him.

Good point.  He's got Evans there to "goose" him and Brand to instruct on actually playing.  Not a bad set of mentors.

If you watch Marreese closely you will occasionally see him pull some of the more cagey maneuvers that Reggie has tried to perfect.  They just look less awkward when Speights does it since he has actual athletic ability.  I also think Theo should get a shout out for showing the youngsters how to defend the paint.  Funny thing is that Theo is a much better on ball defender now then he was in his youth, when he simply tried to block every single shot.

[tk76-]

Speights came into the league with a better ability to get position to take a charge than the other vet bigs on the team (note the correct spelling.)  I agree, Theo, Evans and Brands have a great combined skill set to teach the kid, and it seems like he is coachable.  He seems to have a good combination of confidence/cockiness without the kind of arrogance that would make him uncoachable.  he sort of has a cross of Sam and Evans personality but with more of a nasty streak and a ton more offensive skill.

One thing Sam can do that Speights needs to improve upon is grabbing defensive rebounds in traffic.  Sam has better length/explosiveness, and I think Speights is to reliant on his athleticism on the boards.  This can be corrected, you can watch Theo, and see how his rebounding fundamentals have improved since he entered the league.  He really works to box out.

[Skates]

Speights came into the league with a better ability to get position to take a charge than the other vet bigs on the team (note the correct spelling.)  I agree, Theo, Evans and Brands have a great combined skill set to teach the kid, and it seems like he is coachable.  He seems to have a good combination of confidence/cockiness without the kind of arrogance that would make him uncoachable.  he sort of has a cross of Sam and Evans personality but with more of a nasty streak and a ton more offensive skill.

One thing Sam can do that Speights needs to improve upon is grabbing defensive rebounds in traffic.  Sam has better length/explosiveness, and I think Speights is to reliant on his athleticism on the boards.  This can be corrected, you can watch Theo, and see how his rebounding fundamentals have improved since he entered the league.  He really works to box out.

Brand is also an excellent defensive board man, he always puts a body on someone.  Speights gets all excited on the O boards and his athletic ability lets him do a lot of damage, D boarding is more dirty work with less payoff. 

Speights is excellent at taking charges, even sometimes when he gets called for a blocking foul I think it is just because he is a rookie.  He seemed to get some pretty good coaching down in Florida, plus playing and practicing with Horford, and to a lesser extent Noah and Chris Richard, also helped his devlopment along.

[tk76-]

Funny thing is he might end up the best big to come out of Florida.  Horford is better defender, but Speights has a chance to be a great offensive big- and those guys are rare in the NBA.