# ESPN piece on Kleiza



## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

I know he's kuskid's favorite player, figured I'd post this here. A really good read.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-73/Linas-Kleiza-s-Big-Night-is-No-Fluke.html


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## nbanoitall (May 21, 2004)

exactly why i want to trade najera. he thinks linas would be a good running 4. I'd plug Melo in the 4 spot myself and play some small ball. Linas is a keeper, and I certainly wasn't high on him intially. But I wont let pride get in the way. He should be in denver a long time.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

nbanoitall said:


> exactly why i want to trade najera. he thinks linas would be a good running 4. I'd plug Melo in the 4 spot myself and play some small ball. Linas is a keeper, and I certainly wasn't high on him intially. But I wont let pride get in the way. He should be in denver a long time.


I don't know. I have my doubts about him playing alot of fours in the league.


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## nbanoitall (May 21, 2004)

Sliccat said:


> I don't know. I have my doubts about him playing alot of fours in the league.


you mean Melo? or Kleiza?


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## Kuskid (Aug 18, 2004)

Great read, thanks for sharing Slic. As far as Kleiza playing the 4, I'd like to see more of it just to see how he adjusts. He never even played the 3 until he came to the NBA. Obviously the international 4 is a lot different than the NBA 4, but he's certainly got the body for it. As much as guys like Duncan and Boozer would hurt us (that night even be an understatement), Kleiza could definitely spread the floor (think international style, 1 guy inside, 4 out) for Melo, giving him more room to operate. I'd love to see an offense like that, that took advantage of Melo's passing, as I've always thought the lack of movement and cutters under Karl underutilizes him as a passer. I realize I'm just dreaming now, but we've already got the personnel to make something like this happen, and it would help right now with the thinned out frontcourt.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

> you mean Melo? or Kleiza?


both, really.



> Great read, thanks for sharing Slic. As far as Kleiza playing the 4, I'd like to see more of it just to see how he adjusts. He never even played the 3 until he came to the NBA. Obviously the international 4 is a lot different than the NBA 4, but he's certainly got the body for it. As much as guys like Duncan and Boozer would hurt us (that night even be an understatement), Kleiza could definitely spread the floor (think international style, 1 guy inside, 4 out) for Melo, giving him more room to operate. I'd love to see an offense like that, that took advantage of Melo's passing, as I've always thought the lack of movement and cutters under Karl underutilizes him as a passer. I realize I'm just dreaming now, but we've already got the personnel to make something like this happen, and it would help right now with the thinned out frontcourt.


I'm less worried about melo or kleiza going one on one with 4's than the overall team defense. The nuggets get away with alot because of Camby's help defense. in order to effectively play small, the overall defense would have to get alot better, because camby, martin, or nene would have to focus on guarding the 4 unless the nuggets wanted to double a _lot_.


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## nbanoitall (May 21, 2004)

speaking of international fours... melo is the best in the world, actually based on the voting he's the best international player.
I think Melo is suited to make the move to the 4 (at least part time). Melo is really rebounding well this year. He's at 7 rpg this season.
If Diaw can fill in at the center for the suns, then Melo can handle the four. It will create mismatches for the Nuggets and force opposing teams to adjust.
Its not like Melo has to guard opposing 4s. The 5 can guard the teams opposing low post scorer (whoever that will be in the coming years).


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## RoddneyThaRippa (Jun 28, 2003)

Enter the great white hope? The guy still doesn't play defense and isn't a good three-point shooter. Tony Delk scored 50 too.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

RoddneyThaRippa said:


> Enter the great white hope? The guy still doesn't play defense and isn't a good three-point shooter. Tony Delk scored 50 too.


This is a bizarre statement. That's really most of what he does.


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## Kuskid (Aug 18, 2004)

I know he's not hitting an incredible percentage of his treys, but nights like the Utah game make teams take notice. Once you start burning teams percentages have a tendency to go out the window. There are a lot of guys you'd be nuts to leave alone in 3 point land who are career 35% shooters (Cassell's one that comes to mind). When you're talking about spreading the floor, having a reputation as a shooter can be just as effective as hitting them at a 45%. And he's been about as effective defensively as anyone on our team not named Marcus Camby.


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## aboveallodds24 (Sep 22, 2003)

watching him grow and play over the last couple of years has truly led him to become probably my favorite player in the league... He just plays the game the right way!


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## RoddneyThaRippa (Jun 28, 2003)

Sliccat said:


> This is a bizarre statement. That's really most of what he does.


Exactly, which is why this board needs to settle the hell down about him. 

He's an awful defender. I know you watch a lot of games so I don't understand why you aren't aware of that. He always wanders and comes off his man. He's slow footed on defense and takes horrible fouls. On offense, he's a marginal three-point shooter - he's 32.6 percent on the season (at almost four attempts a game) not counting his 1-4 performance tonight. What he thrives at is driving to the hoop and running the floor. He does little else.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

RoddneyThaRippa said:


> Exactly, which is why this board needs to settle the hell down about him.
> 
> He's an awful defender. I know you watch a lot of games so I don't understand why you aren't aware of that. He always wanders and comes off his man. He's slow footed on defense and takes horrible fouls. On offense, he's a marginal three-point shooter - he's 32.6 percent on the season (at almost four attempts a game) not counting his 1-4 performance tonight. What he thrives at is driving to the hoop and running the floor. He does little else.


He is not an awful defender. He's an above average man defender on small fowards, and below average on guards and power fowards. as for team defense, he generally rotates well, but gets confused on alot of switches.

Three point shooting, he's good enough that the defense tries not to lose him, which is more valuable than the actual shots going in.

And he's getting better and better at driving and running. 

Nobody expects him to get 20 ppg, other were just saying that they like the guy alot, and that he could be a 15 ppg guy if given more minutes. Seeing as he's averaging 11 in 22 minutes, I don't think that's very unreasonable.


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## RoddneyThaRippa (Jun 28, 2003)

Sliccat said:


> He is not an awful defender. He's an above average man defender on small fowards, and below average on guards and power fowards. as for team defense, he generally rotates well, but gets confused on alot of switches.
> 
> Three point shooting, he's good enough that the defense tries not to lose him, which is more valuable than the actual shots going in.
> 
> ...


He gets beat off the dribble all the time because he is slow-footed on defense. He goes for fakes constantly and doesn't block enough shots given his jumping ability. He might be the worst team defender on the roster because he refuses to stay with his man, yet doesn't get involved in the play. His double teams are horrible because he doesn't commmit - he just stays in between. 

He is incredibly overrated from the three. In fact, teams don't pay attention to him which is why he gets all those open looks, many of which he misses. I don't have a problem with the guy throwing up two a game, but 4? I suppose I can't complain too much because most of this is a product of the worst coaching in the league.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

> He gets beat off the dribble all the time because he is slow-footed on defense. He goes for fakes constantly and doesn't block enough shots given his jumping ability. He might be the worst team defender on the roster because he refuses to stay with his man, yet doesn't get involved in the play. His double teams are horrible because he doesn't commmit - he just stays in between.


He gets beat off the dribble because he's constantly playing guards, and anthony and iverson are much worse individual and team defenders.



> He is incredibly overrated from the three. In fact, teams don't pay attention to him which is why he gets all those open looks, many of which he misses. I don't have a problem with the guy throwing up two a game, but 4? I suppose I can't complain too much because most of this is a product of the worst coaching in the league.


It's not like he's taking bad shots. The nuggets' offense lends itself to alot of drive and kicks, which is why they made the atkins signing.

Ironically, Steve Blake was shooting something like 45% from three last time I checked.


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## RoddneyThaRippa (Jun 28, 2003)

Sliccat said:


> He gets beat off the dribble because he's constantly playing guards, and anthony and iverson are much worse individual and team defenders.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Anthony and Iverson aren't worse team defenders. Carmelo is better man on man when he feels like it. And Kleiza does take bad shots. He thinks he's a superstar now, so he'll throw up any three he gets. Karl just needs to do a better job designing the offense. I'm glad we didn't resign Blake but had I known Iverson was going to get moved to shooting guard, Blake probably would've been the better option.


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## nbanoitall (May 21, 2004)

iverson and melo are better defenders than kleiza. team or individual. kleiza can get stuck out of position and thats why he can get beat. Its just how this roster got put together. 
kleiza has stepped up his game and thats why he should get credit here. I wasn't sure he'd make it in the league as a rotation player when he was in college. ( I knew Hodge wouldnt but thats another story). 
A some point the Nuggets need rebuilt so Kleiza can see more time at the 3 and 4. Najera is the obvious one to trade.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

> iverson and melo are better defenders than kleiza. team or individual. kleiza can get stuck out of position and thats why he can get beat. Its just how this roster got put together.


They are not. Iverson constantly loses his man for no reason, just watching other people so he can gamble for steals. He can play good 1 on 1 D, but he doesn't until the last play of the 4th quarter. The rest of the game, he doesn't even bother to get into a stance, anybody in the league can just get right past him.

Carmelo overswitches constantly becasue he's too lazy to go through screens or just run across the court. He also get lost all the time. And when he tries to play defense, he's completely over agressive, either fouling or giving up the drive.

Kleiza can play solid defense on people who play his position, and is willing to do so consistently. He also makes the effort to get to the person he loses, something neither carmelo or ai do.


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