I don’t trust usher with the ball in his hands as inbounds guy either
pastner clearly learned that too bc the last ~3 minutes ush was not inbounding. not one single possession. any coach watching film can see it. EVEN when successfully inbounding it vs press this season, ush has not looked comfortable/experienced in that role all year. today it was mostly khalid inbounding, but then random switches. once it was mike. once it was moses. then the final two possessions under 30 secs left, it was ush. of those final two possessions... first one mike was so open inbound was no issue. then the final play that jose saved, take a look at the replay. look at the options. kyle was open for a safe bounce pass, bubba was open for lob downcourt with his man fully sealed. jose had his man sealed and needed a lob pass to space, not a bullet chest pass.
to be clear, i'm not tryin to knock ush at all. we all love ush. he played great tonight. to me this is on pastner. there is sufficient film to warrant a different inbounder. which - again - it MUST have been seen by pastner on film recently bc ush wasnt in that spot tonight until the final 2 possessions. its befuddling that pastner used 4 different inbounders in the final 3 minutes. (and at other times this year he has occasionally put jose there too). that position is tough and requires a lot of practice, coaching, and experience. cant just rotate guys in and out.
i'll add this: the way that final play turned out after the jose save was ush downcourt attacking and elevating for easy bucket. obviously no defenders, but imagine a typical rotating player trying to recover and meet him at the rim. if usher isnt inbounding, he becomes a downcourt player and when we beat pressure, we make opponents pay for it with dunks instead of pulling out to hold as frequently. (not as easy in real time at full speed as i make it sound, but you get the point - more easy scoring opps with usher downcourt.)
happy with the win. not trying to be a complainer after a win to move into semis. but feels like an x/o issue that needs to be rectified asap. it doesnt fall into the category of "off night" or "bad performance" - its an x/o issue.
ETA: anyone that has read my comments all year knows i am big fan of pastner x/o strategy. just not this particular issue. its perplexing.