Ball Movement

Movement makes basketball players and teams succeed: move yourself, move the ball, and help teammates do likewise. As a result of this movement, the ball will get inside with quality shots and possessions abounding.

Phil Jackson and Tex Winter believe that the Triangle Offence is not effective without penetration. Obviously neither are screen and roll plays, motion sets, nor zone offences which is why San Antonio blew Utah away in the fourth quarter of Game 4 Monday night.

Jackson believes in a 60-40 split between possessions devoted to guards and posts. According to the Lakers’ coach, offences are more productive when bigs take sixty percent of the shots in the first half and littles take sixty percent in the second half. Depending on the pace of each squad, this equates to a difference of 9.0 to 10.2 possessions each half between the two groups.

Ideally, the Spurs and the Jazz will respectively establish Tim Duncan and Carlos Boozer early in tonight’s game before relying and Manu Ginobli and Deron Williams down the stretch. Teams should practice post moves, lay-ups against contact, and one dribble pull-up jumpshots in order to establish a rhythm of high percentage scoring plays for posts. When defences become extended as the game progresses, players should be prepared to find quicker ways to score.

The benefits of establishing a post presence in the first and second quarter include:

• Posting and re-posting (after a kick out the best look is often right back inside)
• Passing out of double-teams (tall players can pivot and have excellent passing lanes to find open cutters and shooters)
• Screening and rolling (all team members should learn how to read the play and execute the appropriate counter)
• Team building (anyone can learn post moves and gain confidence from scoring early and often)
• Forcing the opponent to adjust (defensive moves may open up the perimeter)

Keep feeding the posts when they succeed but keep moving. Now that the a double-team is demanded inside, there are more opportunities for guards to get their sixty percent: curl shooters, cut backdoor, post big guards, throw skip passes, penetrate and kick, set dribble picks, get to the line, fill the high post (wouldn’t LeBron be an awesome threat in the high post?), hand off the rock, get to the hole…

Phil Jackson - despite what Kobe may say - wasn’t advocating that a coach ignore their wings but by focusing on the posts first, everyone has an equal opportunity for high percentage shots when they really matter. As Gregg Popovich and the Spurs demonstrate nearly every game: movement and feeding the ball inside lead to quality shots, excellent possessions, and wins. If the Jazz figure this out they have a good team too.

2005 Redux

Both opening games of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals demonstrated the importance of mental training. I’m disinclined to blindly use the term “experience” but feel that a large component of the differences between the respective winners and losers can be described as the “mental training that comes from being there before and making use of that experience appropriately.” Self-confidence, team chemistry, pre-game planning, and court-sense are among other elements constituting the mental training.

Utah was totally taken to the cleaners by San Antonio; like the 1998 Lakers, the Jazz were unprepared as to what to expect when playing a seasoned playoff opponent. Gregg Popovich employed a post rotation to contain Carlos Boozer and sicced Bruce Bowen on Deron Williams. It’s unfortunate that the role players on Jerry Sloan’s team were unable to execute the coach’s and take advantage of a tired open.

Cleveland’s cavalier attitude in the fourth quarter was contrasted by Detroit’s intensity when the game was on the line. LeBron James and company seemed to treat winning the game as a bonus whereas the Pistons thought it was a necessity. The Cavaliers - with the exception of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, nobody wanted to get to the line or the rack - lacked determination at both ends of the court. An unwillingness to drive to the basket lowered the quality of the shots they took down the stretch.

LeBron James is the most talented player on the court, faces the largest expectations, and has been promoted as the future of basketball. He must take the ball to the basket. It seemed as if LeBron was looking to pass the ball in the last few minutes.

The pass to Donyell Marshall was not the worst decision: LeBron passed out a triple team to an open teammate in his highest shooting percentage zone. Michael Jordan would have taken the ball to the rim, made the shot, and drawn the foul, but LeBron’s decision to pass was not atrocious.

The previous play, when LeBron received the ball in the post, waited until the double-team arrived and kicked the ball to Ilgauskas for a twenty-foot jumper that they could have taken at any time. It was an utter abdication of leadership.

Firstly, Dwyane Wade showed last year how much the referees would reward the superstar and send him to the line, whether the rules called for it or now. Secondly, Magic Johnson and other elite players possessed an array of post moves that could be used with the back to the basket or facing the hoop. Thirdly, the entire play was designed to get LeBron the ball, which took about fourteen seconds -- Lebron exhausted another eight ticks jab stepping repeatedly. A rocker step would have been wholly appropriate.

A final comparison between LeBron and the superstars of the 1980s was the missed corner three point shot with 1:34 remaining. It may have been an awkward shot following a loose ball, falling out of bounds, and from behind the backboard but Larry Bird would have drilled it while LeBron merely threw it off the side of the backboard.