Post by aztecfury on Mar 27, 2015 22:50:03 GMT -8
Mar 27, 2015 15:05:18 GMT -8 @tecpride00 said:
If Malik was underutilized then a lot of that is on him. Fisher's offense is designed to favor players that assert themselves offensively and feel comfortable isolating against their defender.
Malik never truly got his legs under him this past year, he scored most of his points from behind the arc or in transition.
I was honestly the most excited when I saw him score two point buckets, from a set offense, in the paint. That's going to determine whether or not he's one of the best players in the country next year.
What do players say about Coach Fisher and staff time and time again? If you make a mistake, he's not going to pull you immediately, he's going to let you play. If Malik wanted to assert himself then he could have, he just didn't quit feel comfortable enough this year to take his opponents off the dribble, or back his man down. (again, with a few exceptions)
We're never going to be a team that runs players through a series of 2,3,4 picks to get them an open shot. We have a few set plays designed to get him open looks, but for the most part, Malik is going to decide how many shots he wants to put up a game.
This offense is why players like Billy White would score 25 points one game and then not even attempt a shot the next game. In large part it's up to them how much or how little they want to shoot.
I'm sure we will run more plays away from the ball to get Malik matchups that favor him more so he can dribble drive or post up, but that won't be very difficult considering there may only be one person in the conference that can legitimately match up with him defensively-- Christian Wood.
And if you want to say he deserved more minutes then I would point to the fact that he was a bad defender.