You’re the coach: how do you fix the offense?

#1

mtvols

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#1
Curious to everyone’s opinions on how to fix our offense. It’s clearly what is holding this team back.

To me the “shoot if you are open” philosophy needs to go. There are too many players launching 3s that can’t shoot them. Seems as though Vescovi, Powell, ON, and Chandler should have the green light, the rest not so much. We should be throwing the ball into the post and kicking out for the 3 instead of just passing around then launching a 3.

It’s probably best if JJJ plays the 4, even if it means Fulky comes off the bench. JJJ needs to play around the basket and not out on the perimeter.

Powell needs more minutes on the floor, Vescovi needs to shoot more, Chandler needs to drive to the goal with the option to dump it off if he doesn’t have a shot. And I know BHH is lost on defense but he can score so he needs 15 mpg.

You’re the coach, what do you do?
 
#2
#2
Curious to everyone’s opinions on how to fix our offense. It’s clearly what is holding this team back.

To me the “shoot if you are open” philosophy needs to go. There are too many players launching 3s that can’t shoot them. Seems as though Vescovi, Powell, ON, and Chandler should have the green light, the rest not so much. We should be throwing the ball into the post and kicking out for the 3 instead of just passing around then launching a 3.

It’s probably best if JJJ plays the 4, even if it means Fulky comes off the bench. JJJ needs to play around the basket and not out on the perimeter.

Powell needs more minutes on the floor, Vescovi needs to shoot more, Chandler needs to drive to the goal with the option to dump it off if he doesn’t have a shot. And I know BHH is lost on defense but he can score so he needs 15 mpg.

You’re the coach, what do you do?

Posted this in another thread which aligns very well with your comments:

The biggest issue I see thus far is that we allow other teams to decide who shoots the 3 ball vs. us being more intentional on who we want shooting. The announcer said last night said 49% of TN's 3-pointers are open looks which seems good at first glance until you realize who is shooting them: JJJ, Ziegler, & Bailey shot 10 of our 3-pointers or 42% of the total while making only 2 for 20% versus SV, Chandler, Powell who shot 11 of our 3-pointers making 4 for 36%. If we go back and look at the season, they are attempting right at 40% so this is a recurring theme.

Therefore, I would say that the best adjustment we would make would be to be much more selective on who shoots which starts with who is on the floor (Powell only had 1 3-pt attempt which he missed - gotta get him more looks which means much more PT period). Next, we need better spacing and more touches in the paint (via post-ups or drive and kick) to stress the opposing teams defense which is your point about the scheme and sets we run. Last but not least, simply being open should not be enough for certain players to let it fly since there is a reason teams are leaving them open (unless, of course, we are under 10 on the shot clock).
 
#3
#3
What's more important is what Barnes does about it. So far, I have to suspect he has no answers other than players playing harder/better. If he had answers, I think we'd have seen them by now.
 
#5
#5
If we shoot a respectable 45/38/75 last night we score almost 20 more points, sounds overly simplistic but I actually thought considering we were playing the #1 defense in the country our offense got pretty good looks, just once again not making enough.
If a pig had wings it would fly. How many games this season have we shot 38% or better from 3?
 
#6
#6
If a pig had wings it would fly. How many games this season have we shot 38% or better from 3?
5x…they average 32% from 3, even if they shot their average from 3 it would’ve resulted in more points. That’s the overall point though, they need to shoot better.
 
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#7
#7
I have come to the conclusion that we are not as good at any position as I thought we were going to be.In other words expectations were way too high(For Me).Uros is our hope inside,I never thought that! Vescovi is our best guard,I never thought that.And most of all shooting is bad,really bad.If our defense wasn't playing as hard as they do,we would be getting curb stomped! JMO
 
#10
#10
1. I think this offense is often very stagnant and many times puts players in bad positions to score, which leads to a late-shot-clock contested jumper. I would like to see more speed and tempo in order to create more mismatches and catch the defense sleeping. A more run and gun approach, given all of our talented guards.

2. Victor Bailey needs to be moved to the end of the bench.

3. Move Powell into starting line-up in place of JJJ, who should be just used as a defensive specialist to shut down the opponent's best player. He supposed to be a 3 & D guy, but until his shot starts falling, his minutes have to be cut.

4. BHH needs more minutes, most of them coming from Uros. I like Uros's toughness, but he is often clumsy with the ball and constantly gives up bad fouls.

5. Chandler needs set plays for him coming off a screen to pop a quick three or easy jumper, as we all saw how he started this season scorching from 3. Same should go with Powell. Many may not agree, but Chandler is a late 1st rounder in my opinion right now. He would significantly benefit from another year in S&C program and rounding out his game under Barnes.
 
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#11
#11
5x…they average 32% from 3, even if they shot their average from 3 it would’ve resulted in more points. That’s the overall point though, they need to shoot better.

11/24 3’s came from JJJ/Bailey/Fulk/ON…the reason we didn’t shoot our average is because we didn’t get 3’s from guys we want. We are not designing good looks for our good shooters. Teams are scouting us with more film and forcing 3’s from our weak shooters
 
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#12
#12
11/24 3’s came from JJJ/Bailey/Fulk/ON…the reason we didn’t shoot our average is because we didn’t get 3’s from guys we want. We are not designing good looks for our good shooters. Teams are scouting us with more film and forcing 3’s from our weak shooters
I would be curious to know if JJJ/Bailey how many came with 15+ seconds on the clock? I’m fine with ON’s looks he took, but those first 2 don’t need to be taking “the first open look”, that should be Chandler/Santi/Powell.
 
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#13
#13
In short term, I’m putting JJJ and Fulk as first two off the bench and replacing with Powell and Uros.

I think Uros is in a warm spell right now and I feel comfy riding it until it goes away. I also want to see Powell get minutes and shots up. You can’t tell me Powell will be worse than the 5-7 open shots JJJ is getting each game. I want to see Powell when he’s getting 7-12 shots per game.
 
#14
#14
I'm not a coach or knowledgeable about basketball from x and o standpoint at all.

But I would like to see more passes to our post guy and back out. Too many times they fumble the ball or don't finish.

If a guy is cold, we dont need to let them try and shoot themselves back into it. Design an easy play to get them a high percentage bucket. Get them involved in other ways.

Also, I'm all for KC driving to the basket as much as possible. We need our post guys to do better at creating a lane and/or outlet option for him.

Overall, it's hard to nail down on one thing. I feel Barnes used to hold the hand of his team's the first few years here, but now has a more hands off approach.
 
#15
#15
Tell anyone not named Chandler/Vescovi/Powell if they launch a three with more than 15 seconds on the shot clock theyre done for the rest of the game.
Move JJ to the 4 and ORN to the 5. Bring Fulk off the bench until he has his energy back.
Tell Chandler and ZZ to push the pace in transition, if you can avoid the halfcourt do it.
 
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#16
#16
1. I think this offense is often very stagnant and many times puts players in bad positions to score, which leads to a late-shot-clock contested jumper. I would like to see more speed and tempo in order to create more mismatches and catch the defense sleeping. A more run and gun approach, given all of our talented guards.

2. Victor Bailey needs to be moved to the end of the bench.

3. Move Powell into starting line-up in place of JJJ, who should be just used as a defensive specialist to shut down the opponent's best player. He supposed to be a 3 & D guy, but until his shot starts falling, his minutes have to be cut.

4. BHH needs more minutes, most of them coming from Uros. I like Uros's toughness, but he is often clumsy with the ball and constantly gives up bad fouls.

5. Chandler needs set plays for him coming off a screen to pop a quick three or easy jumper, as we all saw how he started this season scorching from 3. Same should go with Powell. Many may not agree, but Chandler is a late 1st rounder in my opinion right now. He would significantly benefit from another year in S&C program and rounding out his game under Barnes.
Did you even watch the game against LSU? Plavsic was our only bright spot lol.. Chandler also was getting screens and plays for him. He just kept getting stuffed.
 
#19
#19
I could understand this is not a good 3 pt shooting team and change my O philosophy instead of going out there every night thinking its going to change and miraculously become a 3 pt shooting machine
 
#20
#20
Biggest issues can't be addressed quickly. We are getting no true player development the last couple of years. We seem to be as likely to get regression as advancement. The frustrating logjam of upper classmen who seem to not get better are clogging up minutes for younger post players who may actually have an upside. JJJ needs to watch Draymond Green play, or even Dennis Rodman and realize that he can dominate a game without launching multiple 3 point shots.

We had to become an outside shooting team because we never have skilled post players. We unfortunately lack shooters to be an outside team. So it's purgatory. We are not as good as expected this year. KC's seeming regression is due in part to teams knowing they don't have to play defense to the three point line with most of our lineup out there. So they can focus more on keeping him out of the lane. That's shook him up and his hot streak from 3 ended too, so here we are.
 
#21
#21
I noticed one of the announcers last night commented that JJJ was one of few TN players getting open for 3's. Well yeah, they are leaving him open for the 3 because they don't have worry about his shooting. They are doubling someone else.
 
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#24
#24
Continue to work on maintaining proper spacing on the floor and focus on rotations. Too many times we give the other teams a power play with some of our personnel groupings on the floor.

Unfortunately I don't think you can quit shooting the 3 ball. For Barnes's first several years he would yank someone that took a quick or poor shot, to many posters' dismay on VN. Now we have apparently given the players the "Jerry Green Light" to pull the trigger and we're all up in arms and want to slow it down. Typical bipolar nature of this place.

If you look at the teams we struggle against on a regular basis (LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas), why is it that this is the case? Is it an in-game floor coaching issue, do those teams recruit different types of players than we do, or a combo of both?
 

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