AMAZING running team? Take a look at their output that post-season: 95 73 97 72 78 100 77 90 79 93 86 92 78 101 90 77 67 89 89 77 That's 9 games out of 20 where they failed to reach 80 points. Not exactly Phi Slamma Jamma territory. Keep in mind this was 5 years ago, and scoring wasn't as bad then as it is now. If that's 'amazing', I'd hate to see what a bad running team looked like.
To be fair, though, you could have a terrific running team, an atrocious half-court offense, and still half a very low scoring output. Your argument isn't correct. I'd actually tend to agree with you that they weren't an amazing running team (though they weren't bad at it, particularly Spreewell)...
So they didn't score alot, what's your point? You can be a low scoring team but still maximize your running opportunities. That's what the New York Knicks did.
And that's exactly what JVG's philosophy has always been. Slow the game down by minimizing posessions but running the break when the opportunity presents itself. Unfortunately for us, Steve Francis usually either screwed up the break or opted to skip down the court when those few opportunities arose.
Lord have mercy, Now you're arguing that these guys took quick shots in the half court offense. That's rich.
That's what I saw, and I watched far too many games on League Pass, which wasn't good for my health, I can tell you! Screaming at the TV gets old after awhile if it's not accompanied by warm and fuzzy feelings from seeing your team play like a team.
The Pistons don't score a lot of points this year but their fast breaks are pretty good. The Knicks fast breaks were good because Latrell Sprewell was and still one of the best open court players in the league.
Sometimes, yes. They took shots too early, they did too late. The complaint is that they did not utilize possession of the ball well, not that they always went to one particular extreme. Come on, give it to me for a record: tell me that Francis actually ran a good fast break, generally. I know you're hinting, but I want you to say it, just so I'll have some good sig material.
To be clear, when that happened, Van Gundy was not gesturing madly for them to take off down the court on a 3 on 2 or a 2 on 1. Instead, those gestures were for the Rox to get into their half court offense earlier in the shotclock. When a coach has time to gesture madly, it's already too late to run a true fast break, and he certainly doesn't want them to run down and jack up a quick shot; he in fact wanted the opposite of a quick shot -- time to work the shotclock if nothing was available.
I already wrote in another post that I'm not arguing that Francis was a great or even good fast break point guard. I'm just arguing that the team ran.
Actually, it makes MORE sense for defense-oriented, low-possession teams to run the break when it can. Because you have lesser possessions, points are at a premium. EASY points are therefore at a higher premium. It would make sense for JVG to want to run when the opportunity arises. Running fast breaks really have little to do with playing an up-tempo game. It's all about making good decisions. Know when to push it, and when to slow things down. That's why it's so important for the Rockets to get a smart PG.
Anyone who remebers watching any of those Knick teams know they were one of the most boring teams to watch in the NBA, and when they got together with Miami, it was probably the worst match-up to watch in the NBA, yet NBC kept ramming it down our throats. Arguing that Van Gundy's Knicks had any resemblance of an up tempo offense is beyond ludicrous.
Okay, you win. The Rockets haven't be able to run a fastbreak for many years with, or without SF. But he didn't play every game, neither did he played 48 minutes in every game. So it's his fault too that the Rockets sucks as a fast break team because SF was on the bench?
You don't need to when you make a statement such as "They haven't properly run a fastbreak since Clyde retired." The point is that you cannot get it both way. If the problem is SF, then the team should have done better when he had his migrating(sp?) problem, I don't seem to recall that.
