The Seal

The seal might be the most important part of a players post game in my opinion.  You make a good seal, you create a passing lane for your teammate and get the ball in a position to score.  A weak seal, and you don’t get the basketball, or you get it too far to execute your move.

DeMarcus Cousins really uses his body well when he seals off his defender in the post.  The wide base is what makes this a beautiful seal.  With a defender trying to half front him, Cousins gets really wide and puts the defender on his front leg.  If Cousins doesn’t have a wide base, the defender would be able to get his hand in the passing lane.  Instead, there seems to be a clear lane for the passer to get the ball to Cousins when he stretches his hand out.  Now, the pass doesn’t get to him, but that isn’t Cousins fault.

Here is another one on a play where he actually gets the pass in.  Notice how he beat his defender (who was trying to front him) to the spot he wants to be at, and then he just lets his size take over.  He keeps his big frame in front of his defender, allowing for a nice passing lane to get the ball through.

The Catch

The catch is important, because most post players seem to get moved out of the way when the ball is entered to them.  This is because they lose usually give up their post up posture to make the catch, relaxing their body.  When that happens, the defender playing behind usually can get a good shove:

Notice where he catches the pass vs. where the seal was made (the second seal picture).  Not much of a difference.  This is because Cousins is so big that it is hard to push him out, even when he isn’t actively posting.

The Move

Up until now, Cousins has relied on his size in the post.  However, that doesn’t mean he is lacking skill, and that is on display when he makes his move.

Cousins takes one quick dribble while starting to turn over his left shoulder.  He keeps the ball lower than I would like to see a big man hold it, but he makes up for it by keeping it near his right hip.  This makes it harder for the double (coming from Wake Forest #42) to dig down and knock the basketball away.

Cousins completes the hook with his right hand, and he uses his left hand to prevent anyone from trying to block him (it isn’t a foul if he just holds it there – which he does – rather than swinging the arm through, clearing space).  He hits the shot, all net.  Here it is in real time:

Shooting Form

Wesley Johnson

I absolutely love Wesley Johnson’s shooting form.  He is a jump shooter rather than a set shooter, and his fundamentals are really on point, elbows are bent the right way, guide hand is on the side of the ball and it isn’t used during the shot.  My favorite thing about his shot though is how high he keeps the basketball up on his release.  Wesley Johnson is 6’6″ so he is already just as tall as most threes and probably taller than most shooting guards trying to defend him on the outside.  With the way that Johnson keeps the ball up, there is going to be no way his shot gets altered/blocked when shooting from the outside.

Evan Turner

Evan Turner too is a jump shooter rather than a set shooter.  Turner also has solid form when looking at his elbow and guide hand (you can’t see it from here, so you are going to have to take my word for it).  However, what I don’t like in Turner’s form is what I love in Johnson’s, where the basketball is.  Wesley Johnson kept the basketball up ridiculously high, but Evan Turner looks like he is almost resting the ball on his shoulder.  In my opinion, he keeps the basketball too low, but that has never been a problem in college because as M. Haubs of The Painted Area mentioned, he has been going up against smaller defenders most of his college career.

Off The Dribble

Both players here don’t really like to take jumpers off the dribble a ton, and when they do, they tend to turn their back to their defenders and rely on turn around jumpers.

Wesley Johnson

Evan Turner

The thing that sticks out to me when watching these two videos is the body position at the release point of the shot.  While Evan Turner is fading away, Wesley Johnson is sending his body towards the basket.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Wesley Johnson will be the better shooter in the pros.  His skillset will allow him to take the step back to the three point line, and the fact that he keeps the ball higher than Evan Turner really appeals to me.

Derrick Favors and How He Fits with the Nets:

Before the news that the Nets are leaning towards Wesley Johnson hit today, it seemed like the Nets were deciding between DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors.  I like Derrick Favors, because he fits better with the Nets:

If you were to think of one word that has been associated with Derrick Favors so far, that word would be “raw.”  That is all you hear from some scouts and draft experts.  While he might be raw when it comes to basketball skills (his shooting ability for example), there are two things that catch your eye when you watch Favors play.

The first is his work ethic on the basketball court.  Georgia Tech’s offense was very helter skelter during this past season, and that is putting it nicely.  There would be series of five to ten straight possessions where Derrick Favors wouldn’t even get a touch.  Despite all of that, every time down the court, Favors would get to his spot on the court and post up, just as hard and strong as the last time (even though he didn’t get the basketball).

The second thing you notice is Favors’ basketball IQ.  Despite being “raw,” Favors seems to know what he is doing with the basketball.  In the four or five games I was able to see, Derrick Favors never looked flustered.  He was comfortable with the basketball and always knew where he wanted to go with it.  He also does the little things.  We already talked about Favors putting his hands up when retreating to his man, but he also runs the floor very well, knows how to properly space out the court, and instinctively chins the basketball when grabbing a rebound, getting those elbows out and preventing defenders from reaching in and stealing it.

What The Nets Defense Will Look Like:  Against The Pick & Roll

Avery Johnson, the new Nets coach, mentioned that he is going to bring the same defensive philosophy he used in Dallas to New Jersey.  I took a look at what that might look like:

The Pick And Roll

From what I watched, it seemed that the Mavs had two ways to defend the screen and roll.  They play it one way when the ball handler is a shooting threat and another way when the ball handler isn’t a threat shooting the basketball.
Non-shooter

So Leandro Barbosa is handling the ball and gets a screen from Shawn Marion.  Here, the Mavs don’t consider Barbosa a shooting threat, so they are going to go under the screen.  It isn’t as simple as that though.  To make it easier to get under the screen and to the other side, preventing the penetration, Dirk needs to do some work here.  Dirk takes a few steps back, creating a lane for Devin Harris to bust through.

This frees up the lane for Devin, and he is able to cut off Barbosa’s penetration to the basket.

So check that stuff out, and look for a new post coming tomorrow.

I have only seen this really talked about at length in two places.  Kyle Weidie of TruthAboutIt.Net thinks they can play together.  Meanwhile, Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm thinks they can’t.  Me?  Well, I think they can play together and can be very successful doing it.

Before we get down to looking at some game tape, let’s look at some numbers.  82Games.com is a fantastic statistical site, and maybe my favorite aspect of the site is they give you the top 20 most used lineups for whatever team you want.  Looking at the lineups for the Wizards, one lineup in particular caught my eye.  That one was the most successful lineup (in terms of +/-) with Arenas in it:

It wasn’t when they paired Gilbert Arenas with a defensive minded two-guard in DeShawn Stevenson, or when Gilbert Arenas played along side a pure point guard in Randy Foye that the Wizards were most successful.  No, it is when the Wizards paired him with another combo guard in Nick Young when they seemed to play really well.

Now, let’s get to what in my opinion is the big question concerning John Wall and Gilbert Arenas playing together.  Who is going to be the primary ball handler.  Early on, I think it is going to be Gilbert Arenas.  The reason being is that Gilbert Arenas is at his best when he is coming off the screen and roll.  What makes Arenas so successful in the PNR situations is that he has the ability to both get to the rim, and hit the jumper if teams play off of him:

Where Arenas seems to run into trouble with the PNR is when teams pack in the defense on him and drop a number of defenders as he attacks the rim.

Here, as Arenas drives the Bucks put four defenders in the paint ready to defend, forcing Gilbert Arenas to force a pass.  Just the presence of John Wall on the wing off the ball resolves that issues.  Most defenders would be afraid to leave Wall to help on any Arenas penetration, and if they do John Wall makes the catch on the wing with the options of either taking the jumper or attacking the basket.

John Wall isn’t going to be the number one draft pick to have the Wizards exclusively use him on the wing.  I see the Wizards also using Wall to handle the basketball some of the time both when Arenas is out of the game, and even when they are playing together.  I think that when Arenas is off the ball, you are going to be seeing the Wizards do something that they didn’t do much off, or had much success with, and that is move Arenas off the ball with cuts and by setting screens for him (Arenas was 8-31 in those play types combined according to MySynergySports).

The reason I think putting Arenas on the move would be successful is because it forces the defense to know where he is at all times.  Let’s say Arenas cuts backdoor while John Wall is bringing the basketball up.  You know at least three defenders are going to have to focus on Arenas (if they don’t Wall has the ability to hit Arenas on the move), and that frees up the lane for John Wall.  Flip Saunders has a huge playbook with a ton of sets, I think Saunders can get real creative when moving Arenas off of the basketball.

—

In the end, I think that John Wall and Gilbert Arenas can be successful because they both do a lot of things very well.  This allows them to basically interchange guard responsibilities from possession to possession.   This is going to be hell for defenses to try to gameplan and stop, especially with a coach like Flip Saunders who has an ability to draw stuff up to take advantage of their skill-sets.