Thunder already knocked off one team featuring this motion offense CF bandwagoners have been obsessing over. I have my fingers crossed that if the Thunder miraculously beat the Warriors too, it might curb this trend of griping about a #7 Rockets offense with only one capable offensive player.
Yeah it works if you have two legendary all time great players in their prime along with role players who do their job well. Neither of which the Rockets have.
The problem was that the Spurs were also kind of playing ISO by dumping it to Aldridge and Kawhi. When Aldridge finally started missing, everything fell apart.
Motion offenses are the rage because they are more efficiency on a per position basis than iso or PnR offenses. The Thunder succeeded against the Spurs because of historic offensive rebounding during the series. If you offense rebound like they have been, it does not matter how inefficient your offense might be because you get so many more possessions to make up for it. http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/oklahoma-city-thunder-san-antonio-spurs-nba-playoffs-russell-westbrook-kevin-durant-051116 http://newsok.com/article/5497564
The Spurs had a sneaky poor backcourt. Parker, Ginobili, Green and Mills isn't scaring anyone. My prediction is that the Spurs will be an even better team next year. They will have plenty of cap room to fix their backcourt and deepen their front court. For example, let's say they sign Conley and Gasol. Conley Green Kawhi Aldridge Gasol That's a terrifying group.
Kanter is the best offensive rebounder in the NBA, but he cannot do anything else. He fits OKC, because they have 2 players who can be unguardable, and who played like it for most of the Spurs series. The Rockets were #5 in Offensive rebounding. Not historic enough levels to really balance out an iso or PnR offense, but not bad. The problem is that there is only one Rockets player you have to worry to guard. In that situation, you have to have some sort of more advanced offensive system to be efficient.
So, having two great iso players on the floor at once is a benefit? That sounds like common sense. But when Lawson was here & struggling, I was mystified over how he could not help us offensively. I was never satisfied with the answers I got on this site: "There's only one ball. You can't have two players handle one ball. When you ISO one player, the rest can only spot up." If that's the case, how do Durant & Westbrook work it out? There's only one ball in their games too. I just never get satisfied with the explanations of why Lawson didn't help us at all - unless it really was just a historic fall in terms of ability. On paper, he should have done stuff for us.
Also, what evidence shows that motion offenses are more efficient? I just want to take a look. Thanks.
This was the case because the motion offense rarely works well in the playoffs when the defense gets much tighter. In the years of Duncan's prime, SAS relied on his individual offensive performance just as much as other teams do on their star players. The problem is that SAS do not have that many individually talented offensive players, and as much as Kawhi and LMA are decent on that end, they are just not on the same level as Durant and WB. Kawhi especially needs to get better in terms of explosiveness, when your go-to-guy can only score 21~22 points per game in an important series, it doesn't matter how efficient you are, your team is not going to win. This is the same problem that CP3 suffers with. You gotta be able to score 35~40 points on the big stage if you are a true superstar. As you can see, WB's iso was very effective (1.07 ppp, 87.5 percentile) and Durant was also above average. In contrast, Kawhi just couldn't score on his own and ranked at paltry 6.3 percentile on isolation. When SAS was forced to play the iso game becasue OKC's defense got much more tight, it was already ball game and OKC was bound to win the series. Another intersting fact is Harden's iso in this year's playoffs just blowed everyone else out of water in terms of efficiency (1.16 ppp, 96.9 percentile). Imagine if we actually paired Harden with another great offensive player who can create shots on his own? We will be going against GSW in the WCF by now instead of OKC.
Did this ignant so'ombitch just suggest that ISO basketball is better than motion where everyone touches the ball?!?! Top 3 worst things in life: 1. Mosquitos 2. The eternal wipe 3. Ridiculously uneducated Rockets/basketball fans
Motion offense tends to break down into an ISO offense if you can't find an opening. Not sure what there is to see here. Also, better offensive rebounding is a product of San antonio's defense. Every time you inject aspects of zone defense, your rebounding suffers.
No, this was by design by Donovan's defense. There is no silver spoon offensive system. They each have advantages and disadvantages. The big disadvantage of motion is you can make it do what you want -- and that is often making it pass to the weakest link. But what Donovan did was a clever version of that. LMA is by no means the weakest link, but Donovan thought he couldn't beat them 4 games by himself. Since motion reacts to what the defense gives it, well, you give it Aldridge all day long...and make him 4 games out of 7 with Parker. Donovan didn't send help defense like he normally would. That is what Pops exploits. He exploits help defense with his motion. If you don't help, he can't get the defense moving, and he apparently has no counter to that. Usually when you have no counter, and are supposed to be the better team, people say you got out-coached. Of course, you can't completely prevent Kawhi from getting the ball, but you can stop the motion plays, by keeping the help defense at bay and letting LMA and Parker run PnR all day. If they beat you, they do. But they didn't, because they couldn't 4 games out of 7.
I like your posts, and can't rep you again at this point. You mention the need for another offensive player who can create his own shot. Above in a post, I mention I thought Lawson would be that guy but people kept saying you can't play 2 creators off the dribble since there's just one ball. Can you give your thoughts on this? I've been asking about this for months and months. haha
I think having two offensive creators, or alpha dogs if you will - is not at all problematic and has worked very well in the past as in LAL (Kobe & Shaq), Miami (Lebron & Wade) and now in OKC (Durant & WB). Of course, you can't play the ISO game all day, and the ball needs to move around a bit in order to win many games, but in the playoffs when the defense gets suffocatingly intense and more disciplined, that one or two guys who can create points on his own comes in very handy and I would say is a crucial factor in winning a champtionship, which 2015-2016 SAS has lacked all year. Motion offense only gets you so far just as ISO game only gets you so far. As for Ty Lawson... it seems pretty clear at this point that he's just not the same player anymore. He's been just as bad, if not worse, since joining the Pacers. You gotta keep in mind that he was literally dumped by the Nuggests for free after having a solid season numbers wise (15-9). Why would any team do that if there weren't any major issues with Ty that were non-basketball related? I just think the whole alcoholic thing has gotten into his head, and his game is no longer there. Harden has played very well with other 2 superstars in OKC and to some extent with Dwight and Parsons in Houston. Getting Harden to play alongside other great offensive players is not a problem and in fact, one of the most urgent aspects of this team that needs to be addressed this offseason. If your second most used offensive player is Trevor Ariza (based on FGA) that's a problem, unless Beasley can fill that role, but I doubt it and he's better used as a spark off the bench.
It's funny how much credit you guys are giving to Kd & Wb, when the real mvps were Kanter and Adams..
Also noticed today, pops hand was really pressed...he isnt blind, he knew West was garbage this series and mismatched and needed to be benched....However, knowing the sacrifice West made, it wasnt fair not to play him, same with Aldridge. Maybe Duncan was the game changer with him and Boban. But pop wanted to honor his word to them.
