Sloan Sports Analytics Conference 2016

Morey agrees with me that last season's success was luck!

I don't get how playing transition defense is so complicated. I wish Morey would elaborate more. What makes it NOT simple to fix?

Is he serious or joking?

 

^^^ he's serious..thats how you get the stars.. .but Les had other plans.

 

That's why we put the ball in his hands all the time

 

Gotta love JVG. He's basically telling Morey to hold himself more accountable, for him to hold the coach, the coach the players etc. Morey's still delusional as **** though.

 

He did mention both defense and transition defense. So, I suppose he meant defense, in general, sometimes is not something easy to fix. That can be due to who you have to play on offense, since one effects the other.

As for transition defense only, I do agree with you that I'm having trouble understanding why a prolific 3pt-shooting team can't maintain the numbers on transition by having the advantage of set shooters around the arc eady to release on defense. I also think the "long rebound" argument is weak.

To me, transition defense when you don't have the advantage of numbers is probably the hardest defense there is -- and that goes for all sports that have transitions from Off to Def. That is to say, 3-3 and 4-4 favors the offense. (I'm including the entire time of the shot clock before the regular defense can set and get to their assignments.) It's just easier to beat a defense when it isn't set. And that is part of our offensive strategy, along with GSW, of course, and many others.

JVG teams primarily stopped transition by first limiting turnovers and secondly maintaining numbers. It works great when you have a inside presence on offense like Ewing and Yao to run a more deliberate set offense.

 

They're bad at transition defense because Harden is the worst transition defender I have ever seen (I really cant think of anyone worse) and everyone else on the team has the green light to crash the offensive boards. There has been 0 effort to fix the problem. I've heard both Morey & JB say they encourage players to attack the offensive glass.

When JVG was here he had McGrady backpedal the MOMENT a shot went up, regardless of the situation. The 2nd player farthest from the ball would also sprint back immediately. He'd also have Yao just wait on the other end during FT's occasionally.

You have the Spurs forfeiting offensive rebounds completely.

It is an easy problem to fix. We just haven't tried. It's like they're running a RGV experiment out there.

 

this just makes me want battier to be our next coach.

 

Okay, maybe the "not simple to fix" comment was about the defense as a whole, not just transition defense.

I know the structure of the offense affects transition defense. And since we are a 3pt shooting team, there is no excuse not to have at least two guys ready to run back after the ball is released.

 

Pretty much how I see it, and they got rid of Padget to force JVG to play Novak - and folks wonder if Morey is too controlling.....He is certainly committed to his philosophy - I am just not convinced it works as he thinks it does.

And, I think Les is the main problem over any flawed philosophy.

DD

 

JVG needs to admit his faults too. He wanted Childs, Ward, Oakley, Baker, Weatherspoon, R. Bowen. Morey delivered.

JVG leaves, Morey's autonomy increases a few ticks, and you replace guys like Head and J. Howard with Scola and Lowry.

Morey wanted to see what Novak had, the coach didn't want to defer to youth or squander a game. Fair enough - that's a common dynamic in sports. Rick Adelman didn't want to play an emerging Gerald Wallace. Rick Carlisle wasn't playing J. Crawford. And on and on and on...

It happens. Nothing new. There's a middle ground. Morey would make JVG a coach. JVG would make Morey a better GM.

Ultimately I remember Novak for 1 thing. Helping us win 22 games in a row. Scott Padgett? Yeah, I remember him... as a Utah Jazz player.

Maybe it's the 99'er in me... but I hate Utah Jazz players.

 

I'm pretty sure JVG was joking. There was no Novak v Boozer game after Padgett got cut, which JVG mentioned. He was likely talking about why he played a Juwan Howard/Hayes PF rotation vs playing Padgett much anymore, like previous years.

Padgett was cut because his NBA career was over, and JVG wanted to play Hayes more, who was in his 2nd year. JVG loved that Alston, TMac, Battier, Hayes, Yao lineup, but he knew Juwan needed 30+ minutes for scoring, too. After getting cut for more Hayes PT, Padgett only played 7 more NBA games and retired at the end of the year. He was cut in Feb of that year. Novak had been playing since Day 1 his rookie year, just as many minutes as Padgett, which was not many. JVG was already playing Novak. Yes, Novak played from the start of the season, as many minutes as Adelman ever gave him, too.

JVG was joking.

 

Sloan 2016: 50 NBA notes, quotes and anecdotes from analytics conference

 

Sounds like Jackie MacMullan doesn't really get the point of the conference or how to be a moderator for a panel. She's trying to get headline news for ESPN.

 

That's a good pull.

-Players didn't handle their success.
-Was more concerned about being healthy, than improving. Players & Coach?
-Bad defense, that takes the right players (GM), right system (coach) and right commitment (players).

 

Here's my two:
1) Will the SSC ever rival the OTC for sheer number of working girls?
2) Would Shane Battier consider coaching The Rockets?

 

I truly hate our transition defense. It doesn't make sense to me since we are a team that launches so many 3 pointers and have players outside of the arch.

They don't communicate on transition defense and they pick up the wrong players while in transition. On transition I've seen Harden on multiple occasions pick up the wrong player in transition. The player he decides to pick up has already been "picked up" by another Rocket and then he'll point to someone that needs to be covered. But by the time that Rocket tries to cover the player that Harden points to it is too late. So it bugs me to the max that Harden sees that open player that needs to be picked up but instead of hustling back he points to the open man asking for someone to pick that player up.

 

Analytics are NOT the answer. Communism is!!! Well at least a small sub-set of communism including the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

We can define sports communism as a sporting ideology, that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian and superstar-less sports organization.

We can define sports dictatorship as team in which the players, working class, are ruled by dictator GM/Coach.

My post is a bit tongue in cheek but it's apparent that sports do share a lot of values with socialism and communism. Look at the most successful sports franchises and the way they operate. Spurs, Pats, ManU(w/Fergie), Barca, etc...

 

well damn, I'm late on this, had no idea this was going on when I was in Boston last week for the game....