Granted it was playing Moses that helped develop Dream, not just any pickup game. But I agree, you have to put those skills to test. Most importantly these games develop chemistry. Anytime you can get several teammates playing together in off-season is good. Imagine if a team was so tight knit and determined that they spent an entire offseason voluntarily together practicing. Not that I’m saying players don’t care if they’re not doing this in off-season. They need breaks both mentally and physically. But hypothetically would be interesting to see if a teams practice time together correlated with much higher win percentage. During the season they spend so much time on the road, they don’t get the benefit of a lot of full practices.
But if a team only worked out with each other, it would get boring and players would get complacent because you would learn to anticipate moves or rely too much on a move that worked against one person. In other words, going against the same people all the time is a good way to develop bad habits mentally and physically. We have a saying in wildland fire: If you have 10 years of experience in the same place, you have one year's worth of experience 10 times. Let the kids play! Beside, if you're not playing with other NBA guys during the summer, how are you going to develop those relationships to be an effective free agent recruiter? Tilfer should pay the players a little extra under the table to host NBA pickup games in Houston so the best can see what it's like to live in Houston and work on their game at the world class Rockets practice facility. Oh, wait. Disregard that last sentence.
Fair point. But they can still run together against other teams of, preferably, professionals. Develop that chemistry even if it’s just 3 playing together often. Develop different group chemistry for 2nd unit or injuries.
