Ironically, the default offense of Otz’s first few teams was “simple” motion—others who know more than me may know a technical term for it—literally just moving the ball side to side along the perimeter a few times before trying to drive, shoot, or pass inside. Big 12 opponents attacked this by pressuring the heck out of the ball and the guys on the perimeter, and because those teams didn’t have dominant bigs or super-skilled ball handlers, it became really difficult to get the ball inside, even to take long 2s.
For probably multiple reasons, way too many of this team’s offensive possessions have been stagnant. This allows defenses to almost do the opposite of what they did to less-skilled Otz teams—keep two or three guys next to the hoop at all times, and while Iowa State can usually get the ball to the wings or inside the paint, it’s almost impossible to get to the rim, and it makes for really difficult, contested shots.
Unless you’re Darryn Peterson, ball movement is often what creates open driving lanes, open passing lanes, and leads to someone being open who has good position on a single defender. That’s part of why Lipsey and Toure look so aimless on a lot of drives—the shot clock is running down, there’ve only been two or three passes, and they’re trying to blow by their guy who’s in a great guarding position because he’s hardly had to rotate. Jefferson can go iso, but as
@cyfan92 and countless others have pointed out, the team can’t just casually pass it once or twice before Jefferson takes virtually the whole shot clock trying to back a guy down, when there’s going to be help even if he manages to get close to the basket. The coaches have to figure out how to stress defenses
before they work the ball to Jefferson on the wings. Then his defender may actually be off balance or out of position, and he’ll have something to attack