tj is still short and slender so he needs to get high if he wants to finish at the rim- he can do that because he has athleticism second to none, but he needs a lot of room and a running start to do it too. that makes it difficult for him. as a result, you won't see him finish amongst the trees very often. there's just not a lot of room for tj to get his legs under himself. if there is room, he's gold; if there's not, he's out of control and wild and subjects himself to injury because he's so small and weak. there's nothing he can do about that.
i guess it comes down to the team we're playing. that's always true but especially true in this case imo. if they've got a lot of juice and muscle inside, he'll find it very tough. if they don't have any juice (say, when he's playing the raptors
) he'll dominate.
i think a major symptom of what's wrong with this team can be seen by their inability to finish. tj's the exception because he's willing- he just can't. the rest of them (andrea, moon, rasho, hump, even calderon and bosh these days)
can, they just
won't. the approach is completely different and i don't mind if that's part of the reason tj ford is so frustrated ("man, if i had your body i'd be going up like there's no tomorrow!"). this team is absolutely terrified of going up strong and initiating contact in the lane. i can't explain it.
thankfully i feel parker has improved in this area- somewhat. but he won't do it in the clutch because he still appears scared to perform in the clutch at all. the rest of the team has not improved, though. i don't know what they think might happen to them if they go inside but there is a strange reluctance to do so that will not die. it's not the problem itself, it's just a sign of the problem. why are they so scared? hopefully it can be addressed asap.
peace