Vision for the
Original Centaurs
The Original CelticsThe great basketball team of the 1920s was the Original Celtics.
They were seen as the state of the art “Scientific Basketball” team. How do we know, well because one of the players,
Nat Holman would write a book called “
Scientific Basketball” in 1922 and it wasn’t seen as a joke in the slightest. Holman was a mere 26 years old at the time, so it’s really astonishing to think about a guy that age writing with the kind of assured authority Holman did back then.
“"Every activity in which man engages in sufficient numbers undergoes periodic evolutions. Baseball is a vastly different game today and is played in a decidedly superior manner than it was a generation and a half ago. Spectator of a football match a generation ago would hardly recognize in the gridiron game of today the same pastime which he had witnessed at the beginning of the twentieth century. So also has basketball changed with time though not perhaps in quite as large a measure.”
"Wherever basketball is played today, emphasis is laid principally upon cooperation and organization of team-play...Coaches aim to develop combinations which will work as smoothly as well-oiled machines. If a team is so fortunate as to possess a sensational shooter, the offensive of the machine is planned so as to enable that player to function to best advantage. Individual playing, rash, indiscreet dribbling, and aimless, indiscriminate shooting have yielded to organized concerted action."
A couple short key quotes that key in on what players are actually doing on offense:
"When a team has possession of the ball, its men should on the move continuously. Players in motion are unconsciously making openings for their team-mates."
"Each player ought to do his individual thinking. He ought not to depend on others to lead the attack. If there is a chance at any time of his receiving a pass, he ought to ask himself such questions as "What am I going to do with it when I get it?"
I think it’s interesting because this is basically the philosophy of the team that’s currently ranked #1 atop the 2021-22 standings: The Golden State Warriors. And this isn’t a coincidence. You can draw a line from the Original Celtics of the ‘20s, to the Rochester Royals of the ‘40s, to the New York Knicks of the ‘70s, to the Chicago Bulls of the ‘90s, to the present Golden State Warriors, but there’s a difference in that in the time that in 1922, this was a dominant paradigm, not just an approach a particular team uses.
Also different in the fact these teams don’t call what they do “Scientific”. The pretense of Holman’s time got dropped, and the focus that carries through pertains to motion and skilled improvisation.
Thing is, it got knocked off its perch, by the Original Celtics themselves developing a new technique that worked even better in 1925. Called the Pivot Play, Holman explains it in his 1932 book “
Winning Basketball”:
"A revolutionary change in any sport requires a long period of adaptation, in which time the entire game frequently undergoes a revision of style. Such an innovation was that of the forward pass in football...So too, when the pivot play was introduced to basketball seven years ago, it necessitated a drastic rearrangement of offensive play."
"The play was not an amazing overnight discovery, but came through a slow process of evolutionary change, though the final result was of itself both startling and original.
The Celtics made constant and important use of a play in which one man moved slowly across the foul-line territory near his own basket, received a pass, and made a quick return play. This might be termed a moving pivot play. However, the player moving across the court, either by accident, or through an economy of unnecessary movement, finally came to stop at the foul line, where he stationed himself firmly, received passes from his teammates, made himself the central point in the offensive orbit. Thus was introduced the pivot play. The Original Celtics with Dutch Dehnert in the pivot position developed this into the most damaging scoring play ever devised and did much to bring the play to its present state of comparative success."
"The pivot position must be handled by a player who can catch and hold a basketball expertly, who can pass sharply, adeptly, and accurately, and who is light on his feet. He must be fairly tall, though not necessarily the team's centre man, and possessed of long arms, so that the ball cannot easily be wrested from him. He must be cool and a good ball-handler, but paramount to all other attributes, he must have a keen passing sense. He must have excellent judgment in knowing when to pass a ball to a cutting teammate and when to hold it back...."The pivot man, in the midst of a whirling circle of players, must see at a moment's notice whether or not the cutting man is free and open for a pass. He must also be ready to reverse towards the goal himself if he thinks his own opponent has left him or is not guarding him closely enough."
I think the bolded gives us the best imagery for how it worked. The pivot is stationed by the free throw line, and his teammates are looking to make cuts to the basket, looking for passes to create easy buckets.
I think the italicized lined let’s us know something quite interesting. That this “pivot” position, was not necessarily your center. Height was an advantage in this position, but he didn’t have to be taller than everyone else on the team.
Here’s a picture of the 1927 Original Celtics:
In that photo, a five man lineup of the Original Celtics is pictured from tallest to shortest. It begins with
Joe Lapchick - the center, we get to the pivot
Dutch Dehnert as the middle height of the 5, and on the right end we have
Nat Holman, shortest of the bunch.
But as we know today, if someone is called his team’s “pivot”, that’s a synonym for center, so things don’t stay the way Holman narrates all that long, and this last quote below is great foreshadowing:
"Fundamentally it has altered the old five-man style of offense, since it has taken one player completely out of the cutting end of the offensive play. But it has had the all-important effect of encouraging cutting on the part of the moving players, since it has provided them with a definite target for passes made preparatory to breaks for the basket. It has placed an important premium on speed and deception. It has also made a potentially dangerous scoring man out of the pivot player, who is in a position to use his size and strength for quick pivots and tries at the goal, though it should be borne in mind that the pivot play is essentially a team offensive strategem, rather than a medium for individual scoring efforts."
So, back in 1922 when Holman was writing the first book, the game had evolved into a style of what we might call positionless basketball with increasingly tight symmetry in what was expected from each player. Then a new strategy comes in where one player becomes the fulcrum and the other players cut around him.
Then it becomes clear that if you have your tallest man in this position, and you let him focus on scoring, that seems to work really well. So the concept of the pivot and the center merge together as the center position gets taken over by giants like
George Mikan and
Bob Kurland.
Nevertheless, the true pivot style of play continued on the outskirts of the game. Most notably with the
Harlem Globetrotters. If you watch from the point I pause this video here, you see the essence of it:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/SISC186P0QA?t=62[/youtube]
For the Globetrotters, the Pivot was the head clown. He was the one deciding what would happen next and always playing a key role in each “reel”. Height was not necessary for this - because the Globetrotters brought with them an opponent paid to lose - but comedic timing and big hands were. Regardless, the basketball paradigm it was built on, was the pivot play of the Original Celtics.
Beyond the Globetrotters and their emulators, the most noteworthy practitioners I’m aware of were from the NBA.
The first I’ll point to was
Connie Hawkins,
who brought the technique with him from his time on the Globetrotters. He got to play it more in the ABA and rapidly fell off in the NBA, but it was a successful example, and an example where it’s not so clear that Hawkins was actually playing “center”. Hawkins had the length - and the hand size! - but not the strength to actually bang with the bigs.
The second is the example that everyone is familiar with in NBA lore without recognizing the roots that seem pretty clear:
Bill Walton in
Dr. Jack Ramsay’s motion scheme, with teammates cutting around him.
Ramsay is oftentimes described as a genius who came up with this idea out of nowhere, but Ramsay was 50 year old man who came of age as a basketball player prior to the Mikan-Kurland paradigm shift. He had surely seen the Pivot offense before, and what he recognized was what that a giant with great passing instincts would be a perfect Dehnert-style Pivot, and he came to the Blazers because he saw such a specimen in Portland.
And then finally, after literal decades of little hope on this front, we got blessed with the greatest Pivot talent we’ve ever seen in
Nikola Jokic.
In Jokic we have that rare talent who just comes into the NBA knowing how to improvise impact from Day 1. I’d draw a link there to
Larry Bird, who is perhaps the ultimate example of this capacity.
On the basis of Jokic’s talent, Denver implemented a Pivot scheme with players cutting around him and Jokic has become an MVP-level player with it, and hence the throughline from the Original Celtics to Jokic.
Jokic the Horse Lord
As many know, Nikola Jokic’s true passion is horses. He raises them to race in a stable, and he seems clearly to be a guy who will probably disappear from the NBA community after he retires as a result.
The Celtics and the CentaursThe Original Celtics were named after the Celts.
The Celts are associated specifically with the Irish, and many Irish immigrated to the US, so you started getting nicknames associated with that ethnic group - such as the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish or the
Original Celtics.
(It’s worth noting that none of the players I’ve highlighted from the team are Irish. Holman was of Russian Jewish descent, Joe Lapchick Czech, and Dutch Dehnert - you guessed it - Dutch.)
The Celts, in actuality existed in many places other than Ireland - they were one of the great antagonists of the Romans in continental Europe. They were also within the larger group called
Indo-Europeans based on their language.
The
Proto-Indo-European language is often said to be most noteworthy for it being the linguistic origin for horses.
Geographically, we’re talking about the
Euroasian Steppe.
The extended East-West grassland allowed for a horse-based people to expand and dominate. The myth of the centaur then is thought to come from non-horsed peoples encountering men on horse ranging into their territory. Formidable and dangerous.
With the Steppe extending into Jokic’s home of Serbia, his own Indo-European roots and his love of horses, the choice to substitute “Centaur” in for “Celtics” seemed fun.
Backstory of the Original CentaursWith the expansion of the NBA to 32 teams, a group in Louisville, Kentucky lobby for one of the new franchises and have the brilliant idea to recruit Jokic into the process. Their pitch to Jokic:
Come to Louisville, the horse mad home of the Kentucky Derby, and we'll give you anything you want!
After some conversation of the Denver Nuggets ownership by Nikola Jokic's brothers, the franchise agrees to let Jokic come to the new franchise in Kentucky named the Original Centaurs. And Jokic then begins building his horse racing empire in a ranch on the outskirts of the city that eventually causes the entire area to be known as Little Sombor.
Building the
Original Centaurs Team
2. Evan Mobley
With the choice of Jokic, the question then becomes how best to support him. From a frontcourt-backcourt balance perspective, choosing a guard would make sense, but Jokic doesn’t actually need a guard the way bigs typically need guards. He certainly makes use of perimeter threats, but he’s weaker on defense and has really benefited with the addition of Aaron Gordon where he’s remarkably resilient when his perimeter partners disappear.
I had no idea who idea who would be available at the time of Jokic, but I did quickly think “Wouldn’t it be fun if I could get Mobley?”
Why? Well, I’m incredibly impressed when I see a rookie big who is truly elite as a defender from the jump. This hasn’t been the norm in the era where we have +/- data, and I’d imagine that the issue has a lot to do with guy coming out with so much less experience than they did back in the day, but what’s definitely the case is that it requires precocious awareness beyond what most hyped prospects have, especially among bigs.
You see the way he avoids fouling. You see him swoop in with great timing for a block. But you also see him successfully function in a Twin Towers situation. That is a BIG deal to me. Put two clueless bigs next to each other and they’re going to get in each other’s way. What’s so exciting about the Cavs is that the two bigs really seem to understand what the other guy is likely to do next.
And that makes both of them - Mobley and Jarrett Allen - candidates to play with Jokic defensively. Jokic won’t have the same mobility or vertical threat, but there’s no one savvier, and so he’ll figure out how to work with his defensive partner.
Of the two, Mobley was my preference. I think you can certainly make the argument that Allen is the more valuable player for the Cavs right now, but I’m more excited Mobley in part because of how quickly he’s figured things out so far. Defense is the main draw, but his awareness is also paying off as a passer. What then could he do learning first hand from Jokic? What could he do surrounded by a supporting cast trained to play around a Pivot?
Of course, Allen wasn’t available by the time I picked so that was moot. Felt very lucky Mobley was.
Other players considered: Myles Turner, Jaren Jackson Jr., Mikal Bridges
3. Darius Garland
Once I got Mobley, there was no question that the next pick would be a perimeter guy. Immediately I can’t help but think of players like Jamal Murray - even considered picking Murray with the injury downgrade. Quick player who can shoot, pass, drive, and click with other players, particularly bigs…
First guys who came to mind for me were Lonzo Ball, Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry & Mike Conley. Zo & FVV were gone by the time I picked, and I might have picked them, but since I was kinda stealing the Cavs approach, it really made a lot of sense to grab the other guy from the Cavs core: Garland.
And I’ll say, I had a bit of an outdated view of Garland before really considering this pick, but I think Garland’s playing like an all-star this year. Garland has become much more proactive with Sexton out, and we’re seeing amazing chemistry for him with both the Cav bigs. This is not someone who gets tunnel vision, but someone who can adapt to what’s going on as a play develops who also knows his teammates’ preferences.
Kinda sounds like Murray. Smaller though, and that really meant perimeter defense became a priority.
4. Dillon Brooks
The first guy who came to mind for me was Marcus Smart. I wanted someone with outstanding defense and intensity. I had also thought about Alex Caruso. Was not expecting him to be gone by this point. Matisse Thybulle is a terrifying defender, but like Smart that shooting is limited.
But I do think Brooks is really standing out as a difference maker on both sides of the ball despite the fact that his shot selection isn’t the best. To me that’s something that being with Jokic could really help. I also think the kinetic nature of Brooks game works with Jokic. The transition connection will be sweet.
5. Royce O’Neale
Quality 3 & D perimeter guy, ideally proven as a starting 5 level guy on a serious team. O’Neale has been this for the Jazz now consistently the last few years, and that’s no small thing.
Had been looking for roughly more of the same in this round so the other guys mentioned were still in play, but I really wanted someone who felt reliability to me having previously gotten the firestarter Brooks, and O’Neal fit the bill.
6. Nicolas Batum
Because I built my team around two bigs, it made it critical who could play with either of those bigs, because I could not have those two players together the whole time. I felt the best way to find that was in a smaller player whose agility would be important with Jokic.
Up until recently, I hadn’t thought about Batum in years. But his play as a Stretch 5 on the Clippers caught my attention, and then I was particularly impressed seeing him come back in the different team context of the Olympics - playing with a true 5 in Gobert - and putting his impressive length to work.
7. Seth Curry
As some may remember, I’m high on Seth specifically. I’ve been high on Seth longer than I’ve been high on Steph, because Steph got treated seriously as an NBA prospect and Seth did not. Really bugged me at the time specifically because at Duke, Seth played with Austin Rivers who was taken seriously as an NBA players, and there really wasn’t a question in my mind who had been more impressive to that point.
I am confident that Curry can be a starter on a championship team…however in this league, we’re hoping for more than that from our primary perimeter engine, so I never really considered him when I picked Garland. I did however think that he had a similar build to Garland, and so he was an option off the bench.
Additionally, I think Curry with Jokic is a dream come true, so I’ll be looking to pair Curry accordingly. No one is going to be better at finding Curry when he’s open than Jokic.
Curry was the pick if he was available, but I will mention Jordan Poole as someone who I may have picked otherwise. Was surprised Poole was still available.
8. Grayson Allen/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70046027/1235989953.0.jpg)
Was someone I was considering previously. Similar thought to O’Neale in that you’re talking about a role player who can shoot 3, is known for hard play, and who is getting big minutes on an elite team. Like his intensity.
9. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Once again, someone I was considering previously. Was a bit reluctant, honestly, because he’s such an afterthought this year. But to me he’s proven that he can be a big minute 3 & D guy on a champion team. In terms of accomplishment frankly more deserving than my previous pick, but still around for me at the end of the 9th round.
Also considered: De’Andre Hunter, Gary Harris, Juan Toscano-Anderson
10. Kevon Looney
So, I approached my final pick more from a perspective of culture than anything else. I don’t need anyone else based on minutes, so I was going for someone who I thought would add positive culture every day in practice and who wouldn’t go negative if he didn’t play. Looney feels like that guy to me.
RosterGrayson Allen, Wing, 6’4”, 198lb, Duke, Age: 26
Nicolas Batum, Wing/Big, 6’8”, 230lb, France, Age: 33
Dillon Brooks, Wing, 6’7”, 225lb, Oregon, Age: 25
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Wing, 6’5”, 204lb, Georgia, Age: 28
Seth Curry, Wing/Point, 6’2”, 185lb, Duke, Age: 31
Darius Garland, Point/Wing, 6’1”, 192lb, Vanderbilt, Age: 21
Nikola Jokic, Pivot/Big, 6’11”, 284lb, Serbia, Age: 26
Kevon Looney, Big, 6’9”, 222lb, UCLA, Age: 25
Evan Mobley, Big/Pivot, 7’0”, 215lb, USC, Age: 20
Royce O’Neale, Wing, 6’4”, 226lb, Baylor, Age: 28
RotationKey Lineups:Full Centaur: Garland/O’Neal/Brooks/Mobley/Jokic
Biblical Joker: Curry/Caldwell-Pope/Brooks/Batum/Jokic
Mob Land: Garland/Allen/O’Neale/Batum/Mobley
MinutesSimplest way to estimate is essentially based on 24 minutes of Full Centaur, and 12 minutes of each Biblical Joker & Mob Land. That would result in the following minutes distribution:
Jokic - 36
Mobley - 36
Garland - 36
Brooks - 36
O’Neal - 36
Batum - 24
Curry - 12
Allen - 12
Caldwell-Pope - 12
Looney - 0
I don’t get too granular here. I want all 48 minutes to be able to have either Jokic or Mobley out there, and so based on a 36 minute standard, that means that I play half the game with both in, and half the game with only one of them in.
So then I’ve got my preferred lineup, and then two secondary lineups meant to work well around each of my cornerstones well while honoring the 36 minute standard.
I am not suggesting that I’d expect my team numbers to be anywhere near this neat of course. I’d be trying to give playing time to all my guys each game, and things like foul trouble would likely ensure this even before the threat of injury.
I did however choose a 10th man for my roster that I thought would be able to function in this capacity. I’m impressed by how Looney’s been a team player working up from the fringes for the Warriors, and I’d be making clear to him that I want that for him here too, but that just as important is his role as a positive presence both culturally and in practice.
Offensive & Defensive PrinciplesOn CoachingI'm not qualified to be a coach. That might be an obvious statement, but I emphasize in particular at this point because of how incredibly adaptive the best modern coaching staffs are. Teams like Toronto or Golden State are constantly changing their specific lineups and schemes in the middle of live play based on what their opponent presents to them in that moment. I can't pretend to be able to operate on that level, and so my focus is more on how roughly how I can think this vision can work.
OffenseSo as I went through in absurd detail, my offense is based on the Original Celtics’ Pivot Offense, with Jokic as the Pivot. That’s not to say we’ll be chained to that. The original Pivot Offense was focused simply on getting good shots closer to the basket. In the modern game we’re looking at cuts into the basket sure, but we’re also looking for cuts back out and around the arc.
Above all, Jokic is about improvising and making the best attack possible. In Holman’s analysis, he essentially described the ability for the Pivot to actually be the scorer as a threat to this ideal offense, but clearly you need to keep the defense honest. Jokic has proven to be able to be an incredibly effective volume scorer, and that’s just what he’ll do if the defense focuses on stopping his passing.
With Jokic out there, the other players will operate primarily as cutters in the half court, though that won’t mean that they all play the same role. While everyone out there is a threat from deep, I am particularly excited about using Mobley as a cutter to the rim. Meanwhile, I expect to see specific pick & roll action with Garland or Curry.
When Jokic isn’t out there, the offense will focus more on Garland’s playmaking and chemistry with Mobley, but I do think that Mobley can learn to operate in the Pivot role as well. That may seem like wishful thinking, but note on Ramsay’s Blazers that the offense proved quite resilient to losing Walton. It was the defense that they really couldn’t recover from.
My sense in general is that since this is not a common basketball technique in the modern game, you really need an outlier talent to justify adopting it and training up players to play like this - cutters gotta cut - but that it actually works pretty well even without a genius at the hub after that.
I’d note also that Jokic hasn’t been the kind of on/off monster he is this year previously. He’s looked great don’t get me wrong, but it’s a new thing this year, and I do think it has something to do with how depleted the roster is.
I’m not saying Jokic isn’t one of a kind, but I do think this strategy has more potential than people realize, and seeing the feel Mobley has for the game, using him a bit in this role in a secondary lineup seems like it’ll be just fine.
With Jokic we’ll be wanting to take advantage of transition opportunities in general, and I think my guys will get used to easy buckets like this. Here I’m think most about Dillon Brooks as well as my two small scorers (Garland & Curry).
I expect my team to be capable of seriously crashing the boards - with two bigs like I’ve got, seems like it may end up being a decided advantage - but I’m not intending to go whole hog on this. In the NBA right now it does seem like getting back on defense is the greater priority, and Denver & Cleveland play like this too, so when in doubt, we’ll play conservative here too.
One thing I want to especially note just to make it clear:
All 9 of the guys in my main planned rotation shoot at least one 3PA per game, and other than Mobley, the smallest number that any of them takes is 3.8. I doubt you'll find that with any actual NBA team in history, and I did this without relying on ball dominant chuckers. I did it largely filling out my roster with role players being asked to do what they already do well, I just differed from the real NBA in that I hoarded players who could take 3's into depth.
This is a team that can probably operate as a 5-out offense more effectively than any team we've ever seen, if that's what the defense gives, and it should be very scary to face imho.
DefenseI have less creative inspiration here. I’m inclined to take what’s working for Denver and especially Cleveland right now.
In Denver, what I see is that they are looking to protect Jokic specifically with Aaron Gordon's backside rotation. This allows Jokic to be more aggressive in general with his man, and specifically more aggressive in the pick & roll (hedge rather than pure drop) - allowing his intelligence and his size to disrupt whatever the attack was meant to be.
In Cleveland, we see something similar with Allen in Jokic's place and Mobley in Gordon's. It's not that simple of course - the Allen & Mobley duo is a uniquely talent twin towers in the modern game - but from a perspective of emulating what's working for Denver, to me Mobley makes it a clear upgrade.
So then Mobley takes the toughest front court matchup, and then continues to make great decisions on how to help as a "goalie" as the play develops.
Jokic obviously will be assigned to the most appropriate offensive player based on his size unless that player is assigned to Mobley, and the two work together as described to defend against the pick & roll attacks that the offense is likely to throw Jokic's way.
I’m going to be asking my 4 perimeter role players (Brooks, O’Neale, Allen & KCP) to be focused on defense, and looking to fight through screens. We’ll be looking to protect the two perimeter engines (Garland & Curry), but also protecting my bigs so they don’t end up out on an island.
Additionally, when Mobley is on the floor, I expect we'll be able to be particularly aggressive going for steals which when successful will lead to easy transition opportunities, and even when they fail will tend to result in great outlet passes from the tall trees on the interior.
I do also think that my defense can operate quite effectively in a zone formation when operating against teams whose outside shooting isn't elite, though in this league, I expect the shooting to be quite strong so we'll see if that's relevant in a matchup.
