Alan Hahn blog about D'Antoni/Team USA Offense
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nyk4ever
Posts: 41010 Alba Posts: 12 Joined: 1/12/2005 Member: #848 USA |
8/25/2008 11:07 PM
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/blog/2008/08/thinking_small.html
Thinking small (and about other things) The formula you saw Coach K employ throughout the Olympics is mainly based on the philosophy Mike D'Antoni (and most of the rest of the world) believes is the best way to play this game. One thing the US always had on the court was an athletic big -- Dwight Howard or Chris Bosh, but rarely together, even against the huge Spainish front line -- and four versatile, interchangeable parts. Many times the "power forward" was someone such as Tayshaun Prince or Carmelo Anthony banging down low. So from now on, let's not refer to it as the "power forward," which we coined for the Charles Oakley and Karl Malone types, and instead just call it the "4-spot." Melo got some love for making an effort on defense (which is like rewarding your kid for washing his hands before dinner) in these Games, but you saw when he was overmatched he quickly got overheated. Melo has offensive skills (his outside shot started coming around later in the tournament) but if you had to rely on him as your four-spot defender all season he'd lose his mind by the all-star break. Prince is an outstanding defender and very smart. He can get away with things in spots down low but better off using his length and quickness on the wing. Sure there were times LBJ jumped down to pitch in, but we know you don't wear out your superstar by asking him to bang. Bottom line, Coach K preached defense and talked a lot about defense. But overall you could say that at times Team USA "sacrificed" on the defensive end for the good of the offense. Two bigs can make you too slow, which crushes Isiah Thomas' "power game" theory. So you take one away -- or at least exchange the "power" big for an "perimeter" big (see: Danilo Gallinari or, from D'Antoni's past, Shawn Marion) -- to be more effective on the offensive end and implore your players to play better "team" defense. Obviously with the tremendous amount of talent Coach K had, this system (make no mistake, this is Mike D's philosophy...Coach K loved it so much he's incorporated it at Duke) worked so fluidly for the U.S. How can it work for the Knicks? That is what D'Antoni had on his mind all day during his flight from Beijing to New York. If you take away salaries and the need to improve the stock price for certain big contracts you'd like to move (Z-Bo, for instance), I think D'Antoni would prefer to start with Duhon-Crawford-Chandler-Gallinari and Curry as a five. And if you want to avoid starting a rookie, you go with the experienced Richardson at the 3 and slide Chandler to the 4 spot (he's strong enough to handle himself) similar to how he used Marion in Phoenix. Here's how it has to work: Eddy is your low-post guy but he has to be more of a decoy to open up the perimeter for your shooters (Jamal, Q-Rich and Chandler for the most part). You have to position Eddy much like the U.S. positioned Dwight Howard, where he did a lot of flashing into the paint..."showing" as they say...to make the zone defense close up (trust me, teams will zone the spit outta the Knicks until they prove they can knock down shots) which then loosens up the perimeter. It's up to Curry to make this work with constant movement in the offensive "set". However, in transition you can allow Curry to be the last guy down, the "trailer" on the play. Let him get in the way of the guards as he works his way down the floor, set high screens and then roll and even spot up for the occassional elbow jumper (Curry has the ability to hit them in rhythm, I've seen it after practice). Whenever Lazy Eddy shows his ugly face, to the bench he goes. Simple enough. The critical part of the game that Team USA figured out quickly (they were only the best players in the world) was that the ball had to be in constant motion. Consider that at the worst of times for the US offense, players were caught either doing too much one-on-one or holding the ball too long. Michael Redd did this several times when he was out there throughout the tournament. And as the games got more critical, Redd saw less time. There were times the Americans desperately needed someone who could get hot from the outside in a hurry (Redd) but they couldn't afford his tendency to hold the ball and stall the offense. Therefore, this is why I don't think Stephon Marbury would work, from a strictly basketball point of view. Like Redd, you would think Steph's game is perfectly suited for this system. But if you learn anything from the Olympics (and the Renaldo Balkman trade) it's not like the Paul Westhead fun-n-gun at all. It's not just about get-it-and-go and get more shots off than your opponent and hope that leads to more makes. Stephon does play quickly, but more often than not he plays by himself or plays "off" his teammates rather than with them. Hey, he got pretty damn far playing that way, but I think it's been proven more often than not that you don't win that way in the NBA game that is more and more moving back to being a team game like it was when Clyde, Pearl, Dave, Dollar Bill and The Captain were playing. There is a great deal of quick thinking that comes with this style. A lot of read-and-react and discipline. This is what D'Antoni has to see come training camp and in time he'll have to make decisions on players not just based on talent, but intelligence. So you shouldn't focus so much on whether or not Q can hit shots, but whether Duhon can find him in the corner at the right time on the drive-and-kick. It's not about Eddy Curry posting up, but can Eddy catch it in the post, pivot and make that weakside pass to an open man? Can Jamal Crawford find catch-and-shoot rhythm coming off curls instead of needing the And-1 hitch to set up his pull-up? These guys all can chuck-and-duck. No question. But recall the Olympics again...whenever the U.S. got itself into trouble was when it pounded the ball on the floor instead of passing it. The most important thing to keep in mind when you play in this system is movement. Catch it and do something...NOW. If you watched Team USA, there was a lot of that going on. I'm really looking forward to training camp the most because -- as far as I understand it -- we're going to be allowed to watch practice. I am curious to see the adjustments Mike plans to make to develop his philosophy with the players he has on the roster. I want to see who gets it, who doesn't and who might be surprisingly more effective than we previously have seen (Jared Jeffries comes to mind). The system is quite basic with basic fundamentals. Where it gets crazy is when the infinite options that can come out of each basic set start to develop. There will be an evolution process throughout the season as guys start to grasp the system. That process should also weed out the guys who simply don't fit. [Edited by - nyk4ever on 08-25-2008 11:08 PM] "OMG - did we just go on a two-trade-wining-streak?" -SupremeCommander
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Paladin55
Posts: 24321 Alba Posts: 0 Joined: 7/6/2008 Member: #2098 |
8/25/2008 11:33 PM
Good article- We will see how intelligent the Knicks players are now.
Regarding the Memphis trade: Recent stuff from a Memphis site- mentions the Knicks and also mentions Milicic's achilles problem, which I was unaware of. http://post-gazette.screamingsports.com/awrapper.aspx?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.thememphisedge.com%2f2008%2f08%2f25%2fgriz-moves-on-the-horizon%2f I think that Walsh will sit with D'Antoni about this trade when he is back from China. No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities- C.N. Bovee
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Alan Hahn blog about D'Antoni/Team USA Offense