Paul Pierce has been a beast his entire career. Even during the Antoine Walker days. Rondo played only a small role in his legacy.
Um I'm no expert in the field, I have tested using I think it's called "Sony Vegas" and it's allright, but if you want to know from an expert inbox my fellow countriman panda23, he knows his stuff in that field a lot better than myself.
No, I said that the Rockets do not use set plays. The Rockets use R&R (an offensive system) and do integrate various offensive sets like Horns. The system is the same. Offensive sets are ephemeral, and called plays are nonexistent.
MIA: the two biggest proponents of the idea that the Rockets actually call set plays. ????????M and ??d where are you??
You are entitled to your opinion that Rajon Rondo is the Second Coming of Christ, but to Pierce, Allen and Garnett are all Hall of Famers likely elected on the first ballot.
Among the stuffs you mentioned, you do not need basketball knowledge to do: 1. Organize practices 2. Keep the players hapy 3. give rah-rah speeches in huddles 4. Command respect You know what, now I know why Morey hired McHale. The coach is not that important.
Who said you don't need basketball knowledge? You obviously need to know the game, but many guys know the game and that is why most coaches neither add nor subtract from the teams win total. Leadership, handling personalities, fielding media questions, keeping the coaches and players on the same page all is important.
Exactly. Except for one major issue. The coach has to get buy in from the players. Without that franchises disintegrate into the LAL of last season and the NYK this season. Player buy in may even be more important than roster selection. Without it a season is doomed. Could you or I get the Rockets roster to buy into the teams goals? In all probability no. We would not have the respect of the players that McHale demands. We do not have a HOF pedigree and the rings. We connot relate to players as their peer. Does McHale do his job flawlessly? Yes.
Okay, so the Rockets get in the Horns set. Then what? Are you telling me they don't call plays out of the Horns set?
Please reread Morey's opinion. Set plays are less efficient than letting the players R&R. So no, definitely not.
Okay, look at this and tell me what's going on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMOGKbK_9XE&list=PLXWsHGeAyQD7A5Vk8zLEA-j3oLlJ-4OYHThis is run out of Horns. The 1 passes to the 4, then the 1 cuts through the lane and sets a screen for the 3, and then the 1 continues his curl and the 5 screens his man and the 4 with the ball passes to him for the open shot. You can see the 4 just waiting for the play to develop so he can get the 1 the ball for the shot. That is a play. It isn't just random basketball.
The biggest impact for the head coach is who he starts and his substitution patters, given that basketball is a matchup game. It's the coach's responsibility to identify matchup strengths and exploit them. More than anything, it's important for the coach to identify his best players and give them playing time. McHale is average at best at that.
Codman, If you respect the assistant coaches' abilities, then is McHale holding back some of their awesomeness?
Who runs the Rockets offensive strategy? Obviously Morey. This is obvious from the proliferation of 3 point shots, the league historical lack of the mid-range shot, and the number of shots taken at the rim. That is not McHale's doing, it is Morey's. I am a fan. My eye test may tell me something, but a fan's perspective is by definition amateurish. I personally discard my eye test and use stats and Morey's published opinion. I assume that if Morey is publicly stating something about strategy it has already been implemented by the Rockets. I see no reason to assume differently about his indictment of play calling.
What are you saying? You said the Rockets don't run plays. I posted a video of a play. And you replied with that. What exactly are you saying? That the video is lying?
The video is what it is. Your interpretation must therefore be wrong. What you call a play I view as good sound basketball, freed of play calling to allow the players the freedom to pursue the best available way to exploit the defense. Of course patterns emerge. The basketball court is a finite space with a finite number of players occupying that space. Given thousands of iterations patterns will emerge. Players will learn from those patterns, and when they work they will repeat that pattern until the defense adjusts. That is just good basketball intelligence on the court. But to call those patterns plays is ludicrous. OK. Repeatable patterns and player mentality. What does the R&R offense try to do? To enable the on court players to read where the defense is and react to it. Players, through years of hard work develop an understanding of the game. They understand that a completely chaotic action on the court probably brings no positive result. It is pattern memory. P&R. Big man stand there with a hard pick and then after the wing is passed, roll to the basket. Do not run up the tailpipe of the ball handler. Take a wider path to the basket. Basketball, like any sport, is filled with repeatable patterns. Hard work, sweat and tears enable NBA players to function efficiently within those patterns. The Rockets do not call plays. They let the players react.
Adelman? Isn't that the guy who's offense, the one he ran since the 90s, was described as "read and react"? The guy who was criticized for sitting on the bench during the game, rather than running around the sidelines wildly gesticulating? Strangely it seems he would be perfect for this "new", cutting edge philosophy on coaching. If only we could have a guy like that coaching this team.
But perhaps bmd, you and I are not so far apart in our view of basketball. It may be that our approaches to analyzing the game are very different. What you view as a play I view as a natural player reaction to the opportunities presented on the court. It certainly is a possibility. We could be violently agreeing with in the overall scope of basketball analysis.
