With the season Harden had last year most players probably can't even talk to Harden without setting up an appointment first.
Yeah, I don't think I favor that much slow-down. At this time we just don't have the offensively skilled players to really slow it down too much. I'd just like to see more uniform tempo amongst all 5 guys. Maybe James slow it down a notch unless he's got a breakaway. And maybe some of the rest of the guys pick up their pace. What I know about basketball is when you have all 5 guys running together (even if it's just a jog) it mushrooms into a lot of movement on the offensive end if the initial break is thwarted. And there's certainly nothing wrong and everything right about that. Even if there is not a break situation, after we give up a basket, if all 5 guys are in sync coming down the floor like water through the defenders, it catches the defense a little off-guard. And can lead right to quick Howard seals under the basket, or James trailing the bigs right down into the lane. Just leads to a lot of fascinating semi-break stuff/player movement stuff when all 5 guys run together down into the defense. The defense has to read and react instead of just standing there midway while our wing is already spotted up in the corner. The defense has to read and react to the unscripted player movement coming down on them and Harden gets to read both his teammates movement and the corresponding defense movement and then make a play. So much better than walking it up with 2 guys flat in the corners already and one of our bigs trailing into the play. What hurts is when we get a basket made on us and 3 guys fly back down on offense, Howard steps out of bounds and in-bounds to Harden, then Harden lolligags it up over half-court with Dwight loping down behind him trying to get into the play. Or when Harden runs down real fast with Howard bumbling along behind him. And then nothing happens and we throw it to Howard at the top of the key area for him to reverse the ball, then the play stops and we reset. Both of those scenarios turn into a lot of nothing with us cranking 6-10 seconds off the shot clock or Harden either jacking up a shot or passing to someone who jacks up a shot with Howard still out of the play. If I were coaching, I'd work on the guys big time after made buckets against us. You dig the ball out and look deep quickly to see if you can hit the home run. If that does not materialize (which it doesn't 97% of the time) then you set up the inbounds play, with all 5 guys back on the defensive side of half-court. This eliminates most defensive pressure for one thing as it's very easy to throw the ball ahead if the opponent point comes back down to try to force a turnover. So, we've got 5 guys coming down to greet the 5 defenders on the offensive side of half-court. Looks like a running play in football really with your ball handler coming down behind the bigs. That's a tough call for the defense and it opens up a myriad of options for the offense. Bigs can set picks early. They can flash to the rim. They can take defender down to the rim and seal. They can simply dive down to 8 feet and look for a short jumper/hook in the paint. Wings can cross and head out to the corner, or break it off and go back door. Harden can look at how the defense responds to all that action and make decisions....jack it, trail them to the rim, work off the screen, you name it....and then your bigs are in better rebounding position. I like a controlled break except when Harden clearly has man advantage. I do not like walking it up and dribbling down the clock...except when we're trying to go 2-for-1 or other end of quarter/end of game scenarios. I do not like throwing it to Harden or Brewer when they've got 2 defenders with or in front of them. I think this coaching staff could do a whole lot more to maximize our decision making and emphasize when to and when not to force the ball ahead to the rim.
Most teams are gonna win when they hold teams under 100. This isn't some secret formula, it's defense!
I actually think he might be a big difference since he knew how to play solid defense, set picks and pass the ball.
