As a very young team we must work hard to create an identity.
We must also create a pecking order of offensive options. Who gets the ball first? What is option 2 and where do we throw the ball back for option 3? How do we space the floor and who fills what lanes when we run?
The Knicks certainly have a pecking order, don’t they?
To be honest, for us, we are not an experienced team as noted. The lock out did not allow for formal training in any way of young players and rookies. We had limited practice time when the lock out ended and two pre season games to try and craft a team that can run sets and a half court offense. That is quite difficult and demanding for young players. The players don’t know one another, haven’t had success with a specific system and fall back, time after time, into one on one play.
We are not an accomplished pick and roll kind of team. During the lock out, most of our players were running and gunning in summer leagues and at charity games. To go from running to a slow down, intricate NBA offense – in two weeks time – has been quite difficult as a transition. It isn’t a fun process in any way.
But we are young and fast and willing and we can play with passion. We can run and rebound and play defense man to man. We can have fun in an up tempo game. I am happy that our coaching staff is adapting quickly – on the fly – to craft a system that is more aligned with the young talent we have on the floor.
Last night’s game against the Knicks was fun for all. We didn’t get a win but it offered a glimpse of some better times ahead. Our fans enjoyed the game. It was great to see our Coach standing on the sidelines wind milling his arms as a sign to “RUN!”
We ran the floor and while we had too many turnovers, we changed the geometry on the floor by creating opportunities for many players to get points, lots of lay ups and dunks and open space was created. We played hard man to man defense. We played a deep rotation. I thought we played tough and I thought we were mentally tough as well. We had five players score in double figures and we had 18 assists as a team. We need to be over 20 per game to be very competitive. The Knicks had 22 last night.
The game came down to a few missed opportunities. A rookie, Chris Singleton, playing hard and productively and with passion makes a great steal and then a dunk is missed. JaVale McGee gets a wonderful block of a shot. He runs down court and gets an alley oop pass, gets fouled and misses two free throws. Four points missed. We lose by three points. I am only using these two missed opportunities as an example of how a few tiny missed opportunities change the outcome of a game. As we mature we will NOT miss these opportunities.
Both players played wonderful games for us last night. I am proud of them. They were productive and mature and they showed great upside and promise as an example.
As time goes by those foul shots are made, that dunk is buried. We win that game.
John Wall was a world class player last night. He scored. He made assists. He played very good defense. He led the team. He scored 22 points and had 9 assists.
In time we will gain the respect of the officials. They will make a call on our behalf against a star player who hits the big three point shot by freeing himself via en elbow to the face of our player. See article here for description. Trevor Booker ran the floor, rebounded, played hard and had fun all night.
I am hopeful that we will be a team that runs and plays hard and gives minutes to lots of players. Rebounding starts everything for us. Rebounding and running is a fun way to play. Our fans will love the effort and our players will blossom and enjoy the game and their development. I look forward to seeing Jan Vesely, too, as this is his kind of game.
A note on the attendance and crowd: We had a big crowd at the game last night. I want to remind everyone that when we bought the team, there were about 3,500 season ticket holders. We are now close to 8,000 season ticket holders. We sell about 3,000 tickets per game to group sales. And we sell about 1,000 to 2,000 walk up tickets per game to our fans. We then have suite holders and club seat holders.
Just in round numbers we can expect 14,000 to 15,000 of our fans per game. That means there are 5,000 or so unsold tickets than can be bought by other teams’ fans. So when we play a popular team such as the Knicks or Lakers or Celtics, we get a mixed crowd.
This is why selling more and more season tickets to our fans is so important for us and our franchise.
Just as we saw with the Washington Capitals, if we can sell season tickets to our fans, we end up with a more loyal building. The crowd can become a 6th man for us. The Capitals have almost 16,000 season ticket holder as an example. It is a sea of red night after night.
This is NOT in our economic interest to sell season tickets too when fans buy seats at walk up. They pay full price not a discounted season ticket holder price. We actually make more money when we sell tickets to a mixed crowd like we saw last night. But I don’t like it!
That isn’t what we want to do. We want every seat filled with our own fans. We want then to create demand for tickets and then a season ticket holder can decide whether he or she would like to resell their tickets at a profit. I do want to note that most of our VIP tickets down low are already sold out. Just as I said before, it will never be easier and cheaper than it is today to become a VIP season ticket holder. Once the seats are sold, I can’t help you with access. Sign up today.
We are making progress in selling season tickets. If we play exciting basketball, get some wins and show upside, I believe we will sell out the building to predominantly our fans in the coming years. I have faith in our community. The ball is in our court to improve and to execute.
Thank you.
