But that's the greater issue here, as that requires proper movement and spacing. There's a reason I suggested looking at those clips as a motion offense, or really any good offense, is not predicated on passing for passing's sake. So for argument's sake, let's say you'd rather Rudy swing the ball to Ben up top, then what? Where's the back-screen for Rudy cutting to the block/rim? Where's the spacing for that to happen with both bigs up high? Where's the shooters in the corners to pull out defenders to allow the spacing for it to happen in the first place? When Ben is holding the rock up top, is there weak-side action too? Do we actually have a shooter like Nik running off screens on the weak-side to command attention? Are our bigs diving? Cuz did yesterday, none of the others did. Does Malone have our bigs screening both on the ball and off? Exactly how are we supposed to free up guys with screens if Omri/Landry/DWill are impersonating as 4's and 5's?
There's so much which goes into this aside from Rudy needs to pass more. When there's no system in place, whether it's Rudy or anyone else, there's few options, which results in forced shots, poor shots and more guys going 1v1, which is what we saw yesterday.
Rudy is best in two positions, posting up about 15 ft out or in a spread P&R up top. We pretty much have done neither all preseason or last night. Why not get Rudy in the post, space the floor and run some flares/dives off him with some basic movement? He does command attention when posting. Why, after it being successful last year, have we not seen the Rudy/Cuz two-man game, P&R or P&P with the floor spread?
My theory to why we don't see any of this is because of the message coming down from higher up about positionless, up tempo basketball. For Malone to slow it down and really hammer out a motion based, halfcourt offense, he'd being going against his bosses public wishes. There's no defined roles nor is there any kind of maturity/patience in the halfcourt setting, as it's not a priority. Is anyone really surprised that we keep hearing about positionless, up and down basketball, then our halfcourt sets don't look good? If people think Rudy and Cuz really can't understand or fit into a system, look at USA basketball. Much shorter period of time together yet they followed the system. Until the gold medal game, Cuz was largely a screen setter and freed up the shooters through movement. Was also a willing passer with movement/cutters off him. Rudy wasn't a ball stopper, he was a floor spreader and ball mover. Do people think these two don't want to win, after how excited they look in Spain? The underlying issue would be why don't they trust their teammates or our system and branching off that, do we have a system worth trusting and do they ahve teammates worth trusting? If I'm Rudy, I'm not sure why I'd be expected to trust a Ben or DWill or Omri or Evans or JT to do something positive with the rock over myself.