dice wrote:i would consider 7 seconds or less to be not only pretty arbitrary but also conducive to forcing up bad shots. i didn't like westhead's lack of emphasis on defense either, but at least he was working on general principles rather than arbitrary limitations
playing at a high pace as far as the stat is concerned requires allowing the opponent to get quality shots early in the shot clock. it's a nonsensical standard to aim for
I disagree. It put the Suns in position to play in such a way that their opponents weren't good at. They simply were more practiced at better at playing in this style. Part of the system was to force opponents to look for those early opportunities so they could get them moving constantly and into a style they weren't comfortable with.
That's a general strategism that I think allows you to beat teams that are better than you. Getting them to play your style instead of the otherway around. Sort of like the phrase, never argue with an idiot, he'll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Beyond that seven seconds was just a guiding principle. It wasn't like the Suns actually followed it to the T on every possession. Their principle was to always look for early offense and aggressively push the ball and pace at all times and were one of the first teams to really be extremely three point heavy, focus on "3 and D" players, and look for corner threes. A lot of the principles of D'Antoni's Suns offense are now staples of the NBA used by all teams.
i'm not sure what use d'antoni has to the rockets at all given harden's game, frankly
Not sure any other coach in the league was going to create a system of iso ball around Harden where he launches step back threes. Part of D'Antoni's brilliance is his willingness to depart so far from what other people are doing if his team can do it well. One interview I found with him that I thought was interesting was him saying how he didn't take it far enough with the Suns and should have forced Nash to shoot way more threes than he did.
I'm not saying that D'Antoni is necessarily an all time great coach, but he stands out to me as a guy who has been willing to take big successful risks strategy wise, go against the grain, and find good levels of success in doing so. I actually attribute the Suns/Rockets success more to his willingness to utterly sell out to his players strengths far more so than most coaches would be willing to do so.