LongTimeFan wrote:I lived through the dynasty teams. Chamberlain, West and Baylor (three of the best in the league) in their prime could not beat a bunch of washed up wannabes. It is absolutely clear to me after last night's game and DA's recent comments that we are pursuing a dynasty type team.
First the win. We broke their will in the fourth. Heinsohn pointed it out. They gave up and the ball started to always bounce our way. It was late in the game and they are a weak team, but nonetheless we did break their will. Our young team wrote this story and saw it for themselves. It has begun. As our players' experience with this team attack increases, we'll see this happen earlier and earlier in the game against stronger and stronger teams. Everyone will hate us for this. So be it.
great post LTF,
I noticed that the Twolves 'broke' in the 4th last night as well.
Granted, they are the Twolves, but the strategy was as you described: come at them in waves, run, push tempo, and eventually they will run out of gas. fatigue is the enemy of courage
Gotta walk before you run, so i will not 'discount' this game just because it was against the twolves. The more chances the Cs get to positively reinforce this new strategy, the better regardless of the quality of the opponent. And as they get more confident and buy into the strategy the better they will get and the as you state it will work against stronger and stronger teams. This is something to be excited about, not just the growth of the players but the growth of the team as a cohesive unit buying into the new philosophy.
Speaking more generally about the events of the last 48 hours, I have to admit at first i thought it was just another case of DA establishing value. But it soon (very soon given how quickly this escalated) acquired a different feel. by the time reports that Rondo would be 'open' to resigning with a Texas team this began to feel like a very different situation. I began to prepare myself for Rondo's departure.
I have very mixed feelings.
I am sad and nostalgic over the end of the era, the last tie to the magnificent 2008 team. Rondo was one of my favorite players, not just for his transcendent play when the chips were on the table, but also for his contrarian nature and sheer toughness.
I will miss Rondo, a player who excelled at what I've always thought was the most beautiful aspect of basketball, passing. That is what I always felt set Bird and Magic above players like an MJ or Duncan, players who may be just as valuable to their team but not the catalysts the former two were.
Although I count myself as a Rondo 'supporter' who was excited to see what he could do when this was 'his team' I have to confess that i agree it just has not worked out. Even prior to his injury, when he was clearly the leader of the 'big 4' the team was just too inconsistent. For a long time I felt this was partially due to Doc's inability to evolve and adjust, to tension between he 'old guard' and the 'new guard'
Those factors may well still have contributed, but i have already come to the conclusion that Rondo also shouldered a large part of the responsibility for this as well. Part of it is his apparent unwillingness to score as well as the perceived consistency of his effort from night to night, but the key part may well be his instincts with regard to how the game 'should' be played (more on that below)
While Rondo's skill set is supremely adapted to the kind of team ball that Heinsohn has always advocated and that Stevens and Ainge have now seem to have adopted (and Ainge's comments earlier in the week about a winning team regardless of 'stars' is a key indicator in this regard) Rondo's approach to the game would seem to actually work against him realizing his talents in such a system.
Rondo seems instinctually wedded to the 'star' approach to basketball - limiting pace, conserving energy, working the clock for the 'best' shot - a valid approach, one that the 2008 team perfected, but one that is philosophically at odds at what we are now trying to do. This is not to say that Rondo did not try to adapt, but watching him play under Stevens was at times (usually the 4th quarter) like reading a classic piece of foreign literature in a journeyman translation. The effort was there but the flow was not, the old instincts die hard. (whoever compared this to the first Antoine trade may have captured a large part of the truth, moving a talented player whose personality and playing style had too much of a 'grip' on the team, whether consciously or not...)
And finally there was the issue of the regression regarding free throws and trips to the line. Personally, for me, I don't care what your position, this is something that is an intrinsic flaw. I won't go any further into it other than to mention it in passing as a source of disappointment.
So, to sum up, I view this as a win for Rondo, a win for Dallas and potentially a win for the Celts as well. As Ainge has said only the future can tell (for both the Mavs and the Celts) but I do not anticipate that we are about to see a philly-style tear down.
I expect they will continue to try and compete to win and possibly make the playoffs. This does not mean they won't be future trades (uncle Jeff is a prime candidate) but I don't expect them to be made with the aim of limiting our ability to compete, but rather to enhance our ability to compete as a team withing what LTF is calling the 'dynasty' concept: building a deep, talented team of players who may be underrated (and hence available) and who excel in multiple aspects of the game. The results should exceed the sum of the parts.
So I am sad to lose one of the supreme competitors in the game, a player who could be electrifying, disruptive, creative and dynamic, outplaying LBJ in multiple key contests. But i am excited to see what this team can do now that they seem to have committed to recreating the philosophy and style of play that was responsible for our team's most convincing decade of dominance. As in any venture a dose of luck would not be amiss (and Ainge is nothing if not opportunistic), but i do believe that there is more going on than may immediately meet the eye. It may not have been LBF's 'plan A' or possibly even 'B', but there is a plan and a method at work.
I am also excited to continue to watch Olynyk, Sully, Bradley, Smart (who may not look it, but could be the closest thing to DJ we have seen in quite a while, clutch gene and all) and eventually Young develop. But most of all I am excited to see them develop within a system that promises to be both a bit of a 'throw back' and an extreme outlier in today's 'star-centric' NBA
