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Originally Posted by thehef
Not sure if y'all caught it, but Dak Prescott was asked about the Jerry Jones thing, and IMO he gave both a very thoughtful, intelligent, and respectful answer. LeBron could take note... (But would then ignore i, as those qualities are not in his toolkit...)
Back to basketball... here's my pet peeve:
Let's say there's less than 24 seconds left on the game clock, but more than just a few seconds left. IOW, plenty of time, doesn't have to be a rushed heave or catch-and-shoot... Doesn't really matter which quarter, but the scenario I'll be referring to is especially true - and therefore, IMO, especially stupid - when it's 4th quarter and the the game is on the line...
The play is typically to give the ball to the team's alpha-male top scorer, and let him go one-on-one until - all too often - he simply jacks up a difficult/contested jumper, usually in the vicinity of the three-point line.
My question is: If that's the best "play" (it clearly is not), why not run it every single time down the court (occasionally giving it to alpha-male #2 or #3, depending upon who's on the court at the time)? Seems to me that it would make much more sense to actually run a play. You know, some ball movement, maybe screen or two, getting into the paint to get to the line or kick it out for an open jumper... I'd think that in these days of advanced analytics, they would trump the irrational need for many of these players to show that "I am the man" in crunch time. IMO, not recognizing that = choking in crunch time!
I'm not saying the smart plays never happen: they do. But the dumb alpha-male plays are all too common, IMO. And don't get me wrong: When it's on the line I absolutely want the ball in Steph's or Tatum's or Durant's or Giannis' hands. And any of those guys going one-on-one is certainly one of the options as the play evolves. But having an actual play to maximize the opportunity is what I'd like to see every time.
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Um, that’s not how the NBA works anymore and hasn’t been for like 15 years. They still don’t run college style plays but everything nowadays is based on 2 man ball (pick and rolls, pick and pops, pick and fades), quick rotations, and, for some players, lots of movement off the ball. Gone are the days of spending 20 seconds trying to feed the ball into the post or to iso on one guy. If anything the Bulls - who I have season tickets to - run the iso to DDR as often as any team in the league and even then it’s only in very specific situations - the team needs a score, DeMar is having a good night, the other team isn’t going crazy double teaming him. More often, what happens in a play is something like this:
- the team (I’ll use the Bulls here) runs upcourt to try and catch a mismatch. If it breaks down, they go into their regular offense
- they toss it over to DeMar, who tries to make something happen for like *a* move. If he doesn’t actually get past his man, he guns it back out to, say, Ayo Dosunmu
- this year, Ayo has been taking that shot more often but still, usually he’ll pass it over to Zach or perhaps Vooch is sitting in the high post (which he’s been doing more often this year)
- those guys try *a* move and pass it out. You see this a lot - guy get the ball, drive a couple steps, and then pass it back out
- Much of the time, Vooch or Patrick will come over and set a screen for someone. If the defense doesn’t switch right, the shooter looks for the roller/pop man
- if DDR or Zach breaks past their guy, even then they’re looking at what space that created. Did a defender have to crash down off their man to defend them? They pass it back out and the team rotates the ball around the perimeter until they find the open man
- only with around 8 or fewer to shoot do they get it to DeMar or Zach and ask them to drive or shoot if they can’t get around their guy (DeRozan gets asked to do this a lot because he’s one of the best midrange shooters in 5e game - in fact, he’s basically old Kobe at this point - and he also, like Kobe, is really good at getting people to jump into him on his attempts)
It’s simply not the isoball that was played in the 90s and early 2000s. It’s also IMO way more exciting than the fist sets and so on that the league used in the 80s or for that matter the Phil Jackson triple post stuff. The current game rewards ball movement, good picks, and solid man to man defense at all levels.