What a complete beating we took last night, I think the slump is due to us not really having an offensive playstyle in the halfcourt and we rotate so many different players that the playstyle always changes. For road to the finals I think going small seems to be the way to go. After the game I checked the boxscore and that team had 4 guards, they had 1 6'3 PG and all of the other guys were 6'7" shooting guards, Homicide Gang has 3 PGs and that other top 100 team we played had 3 as well.
I do think last night we started running into mental fatigue, I think some of the things happening were just our minds not being sharp, but I totally agree that a lot of the reasons we got our asses whooped isn't far from why we lose other games.
On defense, we just gave up way too many open threes. I think some people are trying to hunt down steals and are doubling too much. We gotta stick to our man better and just play disciplined and play the passing lanes. I think a better focus would be on making our matchups uncomfortable and not letting them catch the ball in a comfortable spot. There's way too many instances where there's 5 defenders on one side of the court trying to get a steal and the opposition has 2 open guys on the other side.
And then our shitty offense kind of contributed to those looks. Our point guard last night is usually good (We don't play with him as much) but I think he might have just checked out mentally, and as I mentioned a lot of the stuff he was doing that lead to turnovers is why our offense stalls at times (I don't want to sound like I'm playing the blame game here, I do this too). I kept saying last night that we gotta slow the hell down, and what I mean by that we play with wings who really like to get up and down, and that's fine, but it doesn't mean we should always feed them the ball in semi-transition. I think them running fast to the basket all the time encourages the ball handler to want to feed them. We have too many passes where somebody throws the ball to someone who has a man in front of them, and then when they catch the ball it's an easy steal (I am as guilty of this as anyone) And last night we were kind of zipping the ball around which is usually a good thing but it was because nobody had any idea where it should go and there was too much motion. Our drive-kick game gets too predictable.
And as for the turnovers, so many of ours happens because we'll cross half court and just run straight inside the 3 point line and then improvise, and it sometimes results in one of those dribble-into-people turnovers. We gotta initiate our offense with better space, I think. This didn't happen as much last night but sometimes our double/triple screens are not good plays. We gotta let people get to their spots and then go to work as a team. I know when I played point guard there were times it felt like I was standing still and pounding the ball, but there was too much happening for me to understand where the ball should go next.
This sounds selfish but I think we need to play in the post waaaaaaaay more, whoever is manning the middle. Grbac can play and pass down there and so can you. There are times where I'll get a touch down there once early in a game and sometimes I don't get a clean post up ever again. What I mean by "clean" is that I get the ball on the block, and the passer isn't 3 feet away from me (Those are turnovers most of the time) and then I would say 100% of the time I catch the ball and somebody will always cut immediately upon me receiving it. Cutting is totally fine and I'll always pass to the open guy if he's there but I always feel like I'm forced into passing it instead of working on him.
I do think we should actually run more isolation-style plays, with off-ball action providing second and third options.
Anyways those are just a bunch of thoughts I've accumulated while observing over a period of time. You're always great at whatever position you play, but I think you and I being the primary ball handlers (Though I'm usually C nowadays) can think of these things to help out the other positions that are changing frequently. I'm sure you've heard people saying "Why didn't you shoot that!" But I wish more of us were as unselfish.
Also I don't know why I just typed all of this. I think you and I are the only ones who read this thread lol. But let me know what you think about what I wrote, and we can maybe start hashing out a more methodical plan.
also just an extra thought---not saying we should turn into a post-centric offense, but I think it's a really good option for when we need to settle down and get ourselves back together, or if it's late in the shot clock and whoever is the C can just drop a paint fade or a hook shot