Inside Scoop

I know this may sound funny, but I think teaming Alex and Berand might give you this. Berand has a decent stroke and can get open on the perimeter and make a 15 footer. He seems to like to play facing the basket and with Len there to clean up, it might work.

1. Len needs to develop a post game. I know he's really raw, but he had a foot on his defender and didn't try to back him in once. I know it's not a big part of the Euro game, but you would have that with half a season of practice behind him, he'd have the confidence to try posting up a 6 foot ivy league defender. I guess that's why Spinelli was so excited when he pulled a post move leading to a dunk in his first game.

2. PG controversy. This isn't going to be a popular opinion, but I felt like our offense was incredible for the 5 minute stretch when Stogs ran the offense with the first team. He had like 3 assists in a row in our half court set. I know he's too selfish right now, but if Turge can get him to buy into becoming a true point, which means his priority is first getting his teammates involved, his ceiling as at the point is 10x higher than Pe's and I think he showed that during that 5 minute stretch (this also speaks to amen's point #5).

3. Our best team by far was the Len, Padge, Mosley, Stogs and Pe. Not to criticize Turge for his rotation because it's early in the season and he may just be seeing how guys respond, where chemistry is etc. but I see no reason why Pankey should have gotten 21 minutes with Padge only getting 16. Also, Fausts' 26 minutes seems a little high, I just don't think he's quite there yet.

4. Faust. I'm cool with him shooting 3's when he's wide open. His wide open 3's actually weren't that bad tonight. There were two or three that just barely skimmed the front or back of the rim and anyone who played ball knows that as long as you're on line and only an inch off the front or back, you're taking good shots. My problem with him is twofold. One is he is just much more effective when he is driving. And two is he needs to stop taking off balance jumpers. I feel like he got into this habit early in the season when he dropped a couple fadeaways, but his already shakey shot is terrible when he's drifting to either side or fading away.

This is really the most glaring issue. It's inconceivable to me how we could not get the ball to Len down low despite him having probably a full foot advantage over his defender when you factor in wingspan. We really miss Hawk for numerous reasons but last year at many times he seemed like the only player on our team capable of completing an entry pass. I know Stoglin and Howard are way shorter than Vasquez and Hayes who were both excellent at the entry pass but I can't understand how we could not utilize Len's absurd height advantge. It seemed like we never even tried to lob it up to him in a crowd. He has very good hands and I would have a lot of confidence in him snatching a lob.

If I'm Turgeon - this is priority #1 at my next practice.

I agree with most of this. Len, Mosley and others kept going for the pump fake last night. For Len, he really shouldn't ever leave his feet unless it's transition defense. But that's one of those things that I'm sure the staff will take care of over time, similar to your point about keeping the ball high. I don't know what to make of Pankey. Sometimes he looks great on D, others not so much. That combined with his benching makes me wonder if he's just immature. I think the tools are there for him to be pretty good. Parker always seems to be on the verge of being out of control. That said, he's made some buckets the last few games. Faust just needs to play within himself a little more. I don't mind him taking the 3s when he's open even though his shot isn't pure. But damn he forces more than Stoglin lately.

Pankey, Padgett, and Stoglin are all sub-par defenders.

Pe' doesn't look good. He's forcing too many passes. I have confidence he'll turn it around - unlike Len he hasn't had the benefit of practice time while he was out with a broken foot.