http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/914 ... ir-offense
lamar posted this article in the ben gordon thread, but i thought there was enough here to warrant a new thread. what can we learn from this article as it applies to our team?
teams are packing the strong side sending weakside defenders to the paint, copying the bulls and celtics on defense. offenses are adjusting by using less post ups and isos and passing the ball more from the strong side to weak side etc.. to get defenses scrambling. we bobcats fans have seen this all season as dunlap has us packing the strong side and paint leaving us vulnerable to teams who swing the ball and shooters in the corners. we always seems to miss a rotation or get out slowly on the shooters and it has killed us.
on offense, we run a lot of isos for kemba and a lot of pick and rolls for kemba. our offense is very vanilla in that regard and its no wonder we struggle to score against these defenses.
the article suggests a premium is being placed on smart defenders, great shooters and great passes. the bobcats seem to lack in all three areas. we are a young team with a bunch of inexperienced defenders, we are a horrible passing team and we have little outside shooting.
why are we always a few steps behind the trends?
• Brains. Players have to understand a five-man team scheme on defense, and, if they manage to get that down, how to react almost instantly to dozens of different variables that govern how they should react at any given moment.
• Versatility. Ask coaches what the next logical step in the evolution of defense might be — the counter to the counter, so to speak — and many of them will suggest an uptick in switching, both on and off the ball.
• Shooting. The cat is out of the bag on this one. Players who can't shoot will find it harder and harder to get minutes, unless they bring an elite brand of defense or some other rarely found skill. There are lots of reasons that coaches place greater emphasis on shooting and spacing now, the simplest one being that three is greater than two. But those Thibodeau-style defenses are near the top of the list. Defenders can't stray quite as far off of knockdown shooters, or they might be afraid to do so, even when a team's defensive scheme suggests they should.
• Passing. This is the one that came up over and over in conversations with coaches and executives. Passing is obviously a good thing, and always has been. But the people running teams increasingly value above-average passing at every position, and express a deeper distaste for players — again, at any position — who are either unwilling passers or just don't show a sophisticated understanding of passing, timing, angles, and reading layers of defense. "Passing is just becoming so, so important," Boylan says. "If you want to be a good offensive team, you have to have good passers."
It's no longer accurate to reduce NBA offense to truisms like "Everybody runs the same stuff" and "The NBA is a pick-and-roll league." Offenses are more complex now than they were even at the start of last season.
"The bad teams in our league are the ones who don't pass the ball well," says Kelvin Sampson, the Rockets' lead assistant. "Teams that just play on one side of the floor are going to struggle against defenses that load up on that side."
our key players - kemba, hendo, MKG and biz - dont really seem to fit in this new style of playing. kemba is a 1v1 guard and not a great passer for his position, hendo is a below average 3pt shooter and a below average passer at best, MKG is a terrible shooter, and biz is a terrible shooter and passer and doesnt have the experience to have a great bball IQ, yet.
mclemore would seem to be a player that would flourish which these changes, less iso ball, more ball movement and more shooting. from what i have seen, mclemore is a very willing passer and is not a ball stopper. he is obviously a great shooter.
of course, once the cats catch up to the new changes, we will be two steps behind and other teams will already be adjusting.
