http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2000.html

I bring this team up because they are the opposite of the current day New York Knicks.

Just look at their starting lineup- John Amaechi, Bo Outlaw, Ben Wallace, Darrell Armstrong, Tariq Abdul-Wahad.

Guys off the bench like Ron Mercer, Pat Garrity, Michael Doleac, Anthony Johnson and a very young Corey Maggete.

That frontcourt they were starting didn't have one offensive move between them and probably were a collective 50% from the line. This was one of the least talented teams in recent memory yet they went 41-41? How was this possible? They were all high effort players committed to playing team ball with no egoes (save for maybe Mercer and Maggette- who were mostly asked to score here). Ben Wallace emerged during this season, but before was a virtual unknown.

Was it good coaching? Well, Doc Rivers wasn't exactly lauded for his performance in virtually every year after this one.

The Knicks were built the opposite- talented individual players with huge egoes committed to getting theirs. Probably 5 times the talent of that Orlando team yet not even close to .500.

I think the lesson here is that you need to start with players who play hard and understand how to play in the team concept and a lot takes care of itself from there...even moreso than the talent, maybe even moreso than the coaching. Interestingly the moment Orlando brought in Hill and McGrady they barely got better- they added egoes and took away two of the bigger effort guys (Wallace, Atkins), and the talent didn't make the difference that most thought it would.

Isiah took players who didn't fit any team concept and compounded that by not creating any concept for them to fit in.

Interesting post.

I was just thinking that while watching the New and Improved Knicks against Orlando.

It seems like Isiah will always have to compromise between players like Jeffries who have very little in the way of an offensive game, or go with the more "talented" players who focus mostly on offense and either

a) exert litte to no EFFORT on defense (Curry)

or

b) are just so used to not having to play defense to get run that even when they try, they look clueless (almost everyone else)

Posted by VDesai:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2000.html

I bring this team up because they are the opposite of the current day New York Knicks.

Just look at their starting lineup- John Amaechi, Bo Outlaw, Ben Wallace, Darrell Armstrong, Tariq Abdul-Wahad.

Guys off the bench like Ron Mercer, Pat Garrity, Michael Doleac, Anthony Johnson and a very young Corey Maggete.

That frontcourt they were starting didn't have one offensive move between them and probably were a collective 50% from the line. This was one of the least talented teams in recent memory yet they went 41-41? How was this possible? They were all high effort players committed to playing team ball with no egoes (save for maybe Mercer and Maggette- who were mostly asked to score here). Ben Wallace emerged during this season, but before was a virtual unknown.

Was it good coaching? Well, Doc Rivers wasn't exactly lauded for his performance in virtually every year after this one.

The Knicks were built the opposite- talented individual players with huge egoes committed to getting theirs. Probably 5 times the talent of that Orlando team yet not even close to .500.

I think the lesson here is that you need to start with players who play hard and understand how to play in the team concept and a lot takes care of itself from there...even moreso than the talent, maybe even moreso than the coaching. Interestingly the moment Orlando brought in Hill and McGrady they barely got better- they added egoes and took away two of the bigger effort guys (Wallace, Atkins), and the talent didn't make the difference that most thought it would.

Isiah took players who didn't fit any team concept and compounded that by not creating any concept for them to fit in.

Yeah i remember that team, iirc .500 wasnt even good for the 8th seed that year. That team was in cap space clearing mode, they hoped to get T-Mac, Hill and Duncan but had to settle for 2/3 and later when Hill went gimp 1/3.