Anthony Macri:
Happy Monday everybody!  Sorry for the 30 min delay – got caught up in something at the office, but I’ll stay a half hour past the normal time to make sure I get to your Qs.  Please keep putting them in, I promise to stick around to 4:30p to answer them.  NFL lockout over, NBA lockout and stalemate over the debt ceiling remain.  Which negotiations do you think are more tense?  Ha… let’s get to your questions.

God I hope JR Smith is not the best they can do.  He is talented but I don’t like him as a fit next to Derrick Rose.  They shouldn’t want a guy who is ball-dominant.  I’d look for a guy that can give you selective, efficient offense (especially as a catch and shoot stationary shooter) and has the ability to handle the ball a little, giving Derrick Rose a chance to go into attack mode on the wing.  I have said it before, but guys like Courtney Lee are who I am looking at.  Make a list of guys like that, rank ‘em, then see what you have to do to get ‘em.  That’s what I do if I’m Chicago.
 

Anthony Macri:
A few thoughts and principles:

• Low man wins.  Since you already start shorter than your opponents, that gives you a leverage advantage.  Always work to keep your hips lower than their hips and use your legs to keep them where you want them to be as much as possible.  You are harder to move when you are lower than their center of gravity.
• Release contact when behind.  If they manage to get position on you in the post, you should release contact after they catch the ball.  Just back off about 8 inches.  This cushion prevents the defender from locating you with his body and makes it harder on him to "feel" your weight, so he can’t determin the best way to attack.
• It’s not arm wrestling.  Don’t get caught up trying to beat the guy up high with shoulders and arms.  That’s a losing proposition. Instead, work to get your foot on top of his (higher up the floor), and work to keep your hips lower (see point one).  That wins a lot more battles than being stronger in the shoulders.

Good luck! Hope that helps.
 

Anthony Macri:
Markets in my mind have a lot more to do with the size of the NBA-interested population than simply the size of the city overall.  Toronto has not necessarily supported its team the way that some of the big market cities have.  Philadelphia might be a large metro area but it could do better than it has in recent years of supporting its team.  The same kind of idea applies up to Toronto.
 

Anthony Macri:
The easiest answer in the world is – if you want to get better at jumping, jump a lot.  That sounds like a trite answer, but it’s the truth.  Jumping is like any other skill.  If max vert is your goal, practice maxing out your vert.  You can also do things using steps, and plyo boxes, etc., but if you jump a lot and jump to your max each time, you will see results.  I like our guys focused on effective jumping for basketball (not just max vert), so we spend a lot of time jumping in workouts to practice their abiliy to jump on the court.  As for moves for a point guard, the most important thing is not crossovers or behind the backs, but the abiliy to change speeds.  Going from fast to slow and knowing when to change it up is much more important than having the lightning fast crossover.  Work on having 5 different speeds that you can use on the court, and then work on being able to go from Gear 1 to Gear 4 to Gear 2 to Gear 5 to Gear 3, and randomize it.
 

Anthony Macri:
They might as well go uptempo and be exciting, cause that roster is going to have a tough time winning games for a while.  Did I hear correctly that they are interviewing Larry Brown?  He does not fit the uptempo goal, does he?

As for Jimmer, I really think he will be a better lead guard that people give him credit for.  He can handle the ball and his ability to see and anticipate scoring angles and lanes will translate into an ability to pass as well.  Defending might be an issue but no one can really defend the ultra quickest NBA guards anyway – not even each other.  Tyreke should be better – but I think Jimmer adapts to the NBA quicker than Tyreke did / is.

 

Anthony Macri:
There’s no place like home.
 

Anthony Macri:
When I was in college (back in like ’99 or so) at Loyola (MD), there was a kid who was coming in as a freshman (Donovan Thomas I think was his name) who dunked on Grant Hill at a summer basketball camp.  He never ended up doing much at Loyola in terms of production, and was not an NBA player.  I’m sure you can figure out the moral of that story.
 

Anthony Macri:
I’m not a doctor, and I never worked with Yao, so I hesitate to give definitive answers about things to do to strengthen / protect his feet.  I think all players would benefit from doing Yoga, because it gives good total body strength and flexibility, and I do think it helps to keep injury away to some degree – but I have no idea what special benefit if any it would have given Yao.
 

Anthony Macri:
Smallish threes is one reason.  It’s hard to be super athletic, skilled, and 6’6 or bigger.  There aren’t a ton of those guys out there.
 

Anthony Macri:
Annandale – you aren’t too far from where I am living and working!  As for advice for weekend warriors, the best thing I can say is to attack middle, counter baseline no matter where you are attacking from.  You want to make moves going to the middle of the floor.  Don’t drive baseline and get yourself in a bad situation.  Good things happen when you go to the middle, and the baseline is death.  This week we’ll look at some stuff for shooting guards, which may help.  Next week – small forwards.  I know a lot of weekend warriors fancy themselves playing in those positions, so be sure to check out those articles.  Thanks for the kind words!
 

Anthony Macri:
I’m sure they could find a package involving Bynum that Orlando might raise an eyebrow to.  Do the Magic really want to become known through history as the team that delivered the league’s best center to the Lakers every 15 years?
 

Anthony Macri:
Mr.?  Please say Coach or Anthony.

As for getting by a defender, you can develop a first step and make it quicker, but a lot has to do with how unprepared you can catch the defender.  Being super quick helps, but if you can use jabs and fakes in a way to get the defender off-balance, you can get by most defenders effectively.  The Better Basketball DVD series has a good section on first step in the One-on-One Moves DVD – check it out.

 

Anthony Macri:
He needs to continue to improve at playing in curves instead of just straight lines (he started the process in the postseason but needs to get better at it).  I’d also like to see him improve anticipate and vision of passing angles as he comes off of ball screens to the middle of the floor.  He tends to be a little tunnel-visioned in these situations, and if he can broaden his understanding of the locations his teammates occupy he’d be better off (and so would his team).
 

Anthony Macri:
This seems possible, though I don’t like Derrick as a full-time three as much as I like him as a matchup-nightmare four.  Beasley strikes me as the kind of guy who would do well when he has mature leaders around him – but left to his own devices, immaturity reigns.  I like many of the things he did for the Wolves last year, to be honest (maybe one of the few).
 

Anthony Macri:
I hope they wouldn’t want to.  I wouldn’t mind them getting one of that three, with Rip being my first choice if only because I like Luol Deng and I don’t think Vince Carter helps them altogether that much.  Rip is kind of the wrong type to be next to Rose beacuse he thrives in situations where he can come off screens, not necessarily as a stand-alone catch and shoot guy, but I’m sure it could be made to work.
 

Anthony Macri:
I’m one of those folks who says to let Haslem play the five.  I go LeBron, Wade, Miller, Bosh, Haslem, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may with youth and athleticism coming off the bench.  That’s me.
 

Anthony Macri:
I don’t think anyone would ever say that should be a straight up deal – but Bynum is one of the few pieces in the league that could fill Dwight’s shoes if you get other pieces of value along with him, especially if Dwight is going to leave with no other compensation if you screw it up.
 

Anthony Macri:
I guess my answer should be nuanced to include that small market vs. big market deals with a lot more than pure population / city size.  Fan base size, demographics, long term interest, other professional sports teams, etc. – a lot of factors need to be weighed in to get it figured out.
 

Anthony Macri:
As high as an elephant’s eye.

Roughly 3-4 time all star is probably his ceiling.  That doesn’t mean he will ever get to that point, and in fact, he probably won’t.  More likely is a guy who constantly flirts with all-star status but never quite gets there, and a bunch of fans that wonder "what if…"

 

Anthony Macri:
I like the deal for Philly at first glance.  I like athletes and that gives Philly two young ones.  LA I’m not sure about – is Iguodala a good enough shooter to relieve lane pressure for Blake Griffin?  I do like how those two could complement each other on the defensive end though.  Good food for thought!

Alright folks, my time is up.  I’ll be back next week to answer your questions.  In the meantime, be on the lookout for my next Coach’s Notebook on offseason development for shooting guards, coming out this Thursday.  Thanks for checking in and see you soon!