There's an interview out there where they asked him about this and he says he doesn't believe in it. I'm not sure exactly when the interview was from but it was some time this playoffs. He says something along the lines of "timeouts don't stop momentum" and thinks that it is only sometimes worth it when you are on the road, maybe something to do with the crowd, but it doesn't do anything when you are at home. So this isn't something he views as a mistake, it's just not something he believes in. Very frustrating to watch as a fan.
This seems like something that is testable. Would love to see the numbers on it. I suspect D’antoni may be correct.
Phil Jackson didn't believe in that Philosophy either. He told a broadcaster "Let them figure it out" when he was with the Bulls Regular Season. Playoffs he did call timeouts to break momentum many times. Lakers vs Sacramento run and Gun offense Rick Adelman
The Bulls Players were so awesome to watch Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper they always brought Calmness when bringing the ball up the court in stressful situations.
Don't worry because if everything falls into place this off-season we won't even need timeouts next season.
I don't think this is a huge thing. It probably depends more on the particular team and players and situation than an overall philosophy. It should also be noted that in the event of a comeback, timeouts are needed, but hard to balance that vs. stopping the bleeding, likely-hood of a comeback, etc. In this particular case, I don't think calling an earlier or more timeouts would have mattered much... If I was going to complain about timeouts, it would be less about calling them, and more about what was happening coming out of them. Against crappier teams in the regular season they'd call a timeout and come out and run an elevator or Spain PnR or something type play. Often they'd run a play to get EG an open three out of a timeout. We saw this a few times, but not much against GSW. They knew what was coming. Even with them knowing though, the team way too often out of a timeout ran offense that was the exact same **** they were running pre timeout. Coming out of a timeout to have a play that breaksdown, uses the whole shot clock and results in a difficult heave is just embarrasing.
I think Rockets have the best Coach right now, but 7 man rotation does tire out, injure players. Daryl not acquiring a real Backup Point Guard for Chris when he gets proper rest. Not having a Scoring Small Forward made Kevin Durant relax on defense. Trevor Ariza really is useless on offense, defense he is slow laterally. Can't we find an upgrade Paul George.
And what about putting and letting Anderson on the court in that moment of the game? MDA was probably in panic mode, he needed a timeout more than his players.
Well, Mikey has 0 Finals Appearances to show for it..... with luck Phoenix Suns would make 1, and Houston would make 1 but with LUCK and Refs! Well, he did not design the Defense, Jeff did, and when something happens on the defensive side, Jeff probably isn't saying much, until the moment is over.
he was so lackadaisical the entire series. before, during, after every game. not sure if it's some kind of defense mechanism to hide his real stress, or he really is that happy go lucky, or maybe just already knew the fix was in anyways. but those postgame interviews, always like literally 10min after the games finished, and his attitude was like "if we don't get this right next game, then there's always next year uh-ha ha ha ha ha"