Originally Posted by
Wheat/"/"/"
If last season was an example of the coaching staff stressing feeding the post, they did a horrible job.
Just getting him the ball, and getting him the ball in the low post are two different things.
If I was a Duke coach, Mason would be setting up shop at the charge line under the basket. Not outside the lane as he did all season. When he received an entry pass, he would be be benched if he put it on the floor. He'd turn and shoot quickly or kick it out, but he would not put it on the floor and he would work hard on getting good low position.
Last season, Mason rarely got the ball low enough where he could just turn and shoot. He would use his dribble, because he would receive the pass too far from the hoop, (where he was setting screens). He is plenty quick and strong enough to move along the baseline and seal his defender that would be trying to front him. I think most teams would even have to double team him. He just needs two moves, a drop step and a jump hook to go along with his excellent rebounding and transition game.
It is crazy that after three years, an athletic 6'10 250lb junior big has not got a single reliable low post scoring move, much less two.
I agree with CDu in that the team did stress getting the ball in the post early on, but obviously went away from that as the year progressed, rightly or wrongly.
I also agree with you that getting him the ball and getting him the ball in the key are two different things and I agree Mason (as well as Miles and Ryan) would do better if they could get the ball in deeper. That was never a strength or focus of the team. Since our perimeter players weren't great at feeding the ball into Mason when he was posting up with a man on his back, I think it would have been even less likely that they would be able to get the ball inside to our post players with the perfect timing required to get them the ball on the move in the key consistently.
I also agree that he is plenty quick and strong enough to seal his defender and that teams would have to double him. I thought VTech did a really nice job defending Duke in the ACC tournament, where they crowded all three point shooters, doubled Austin and Curry off high screens (as did FSU and Lehigh) and doubled Mason whenever he got the ball in the post. Smart strategy, IMO, as without Kelly and with our guards not looking for the screeners and little ball movement, this was an effective defensive st
rategy with the team the last few games.
Originally Posted by
jipops
And yet he does. And this is for a kid where it was well documented by scouts that he had no back to the basket game coming out of high school. Mason may be athletic in that he can jump high but his coordination with his feet is still pretty bad. He also has a difficult time finishing in traffic as his moves are still slow - mostly due to the feet. I actually don't think Mason is very quick at all. Despite this we are talking about a double figure scorer here with a bad ft percentage.
Without a true point, K tried to use the high post in pick and roll situations. Many times this worked well, many times it didn't. Simply setting up a big man on the low block over time stagnates the movement of shooters on the perimeter. And we had some really good shooters.
I would have liked to have seen more post ups as you suggest. But I also realize the makeup of this team and many others Duke has had for most of the past decade. Having a point guard around to keep the ball moving inside and out further opens up the lane for closer postups. Then there is UNC's offense without Kendall, which still had the benefit of an entire frontcourt with lottery talent, but stagnated. So before you criticize the offense realize this one that hasn't had an actual point guard distributor since 2004.
I agree that Mason has had some footwork issues, but I think he has improved on this a bunch in his time at Duke and certainly enough that I wanted the ball into him as much as possible. I also disagree a bit about Mason's quickness. I think he is quick for a center and still managed to usually get good shots and position when he got the ball outside and his defender knew he was not shooting so would not crowd him.
I think you make a good point about the number of good shooters on this team and the focus went away from post play to trying to get good looks for our shooters, which were probably the team's most efficient shots in the half-court.
I don't think the team needs a Kendall Marshall or Duhon to get the ball inside. I would definitely consider Nolan and Scheyer as distributors and think you could say that for Paulus early on as well. Scheyer and Paulus may not have been creators, but they were distributors who got the ball inside. I also feel that with a typical Duke motion offense (though the offense changes each year, there is usually better ball movement than there was at the end of this year) many players have opportunities to make good entry passes to the post and the team does not need a penetrating point guard, though that is of course a bonus.
I also agree very much with Troublemaker that Mason's skills are not the same as Zeller's. UNC has been fortunate that they have had some players that have been excellent at establishing great position, getting the ball and putting up a quick shot. I immediately think of Jamison, Hansbrough and Zeller, who all excelled at that. I haven't seen that from Mason yet, though hopefully we will next year.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”