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Summer Quandaries - Basketball Is A Game Of Balance
by bobheckler Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:54 am
http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2014/08/sq14-18-basketball-is-game-of-balance.html
Balance is a common theme running throughout almost every aspect of NBA basketball. The front office tries to provide the coach with a balanced roster--something noticeably lacking in last year’s team, but then again it was hardly a priority at the start of a rebuild. The coach tries to balance the distribution of players on the court, hence the frequent references to spreading the court. He also tries to balance the mix of attributes available on the court--scoring with rebounding, offense with defense, and height with speed and ball handling. Individual players try to achieve balance in almost every facet of their games--shooting, feinting, defending, running, even standing. One could even argue that all persons involved are struggling to maintain a balance of their emotions. It is, literally, everywhere.
Last year Ainge just flat didn’t care that most of his team were shooting guards and power forwards. His business was all about accruing and improving assets once the Brooklyn deal went down. Rondo was out or working his way back most of the year. The Celtics weren’t going to be competitive last year; the question was could they make the down cycle as short as possible? Grow the rookies and the youngsters, make a determination about keeping the few players in their primes, move any surplus assets if possible for future returns. Made for a long season, but year two of post-Window era looks much better than the first. There is still a lot of dead wood but the youth/potential infusion is well underway and you can see how the less useful parts will slough off the newly established sapling as the contracts expire, if not before. And, incidentally, since this is not a contending year either, the balance is better. Of the guaranteed contracts, three are point guards, four are power forwards, two are centers and the remainder are wing players. Not perfect, but coming along.
Brad Stevens was in a distinctly awkward position last season. Danny had given him a mismatched roster to work with, he had exactly zero established point guards to start the season and no center, most of his team played two positions, and the roster was in flux the entire season (even on teams in transition the roster usually settles down after the trading deadline). In the midst of this mayhem, the coach was supposed to teach, groom, prune, and quarantine any cancers. And he didn’t even get hazardous duty pay. Yet, Stevens did all these things, and by most accounts, did them pretty well. About those balances on the floor, actually not too bad considering the handicaps.
As far as the individual players, last year we saw Rondo put up some pretty off-balance shots as his rehabbing body left him in some unrecoverable unbalances, and his success rate plummeted because of it. We saw Crawford throw up all sorts of contortionist shots, and I was frankly amazed at how many of them found the net. Still, the only team for which he played an entire year was Washington and they dumped him for expiring contracts that were either disabled or not playing; and he remains unsigned to date. Amazing that Ainge got the Philly pick(s) for his Celtics’ Fall ‘13 revival and Brooks who is now laboring overseas. Although some players pull off some unlikely shots, one of the hallmarks of good shooters is that they reach their release position in balance and with shoulders square to the basket.
Balance is the basis, as in base, literally, for a good fake, a good jump, a good push off to run or change direction, or even a defensive stance to be ready to move. For an offensive player, it is a tremendous advantage if he can get his defender to leave his feet, or even just to lean, with a fake, and if he can get him to cross his feet (the beginning of off-balance), the guy is toast.
As for that balance of emotions, once Garnett got inside their heads, many players went to pieces. Basketball is a game of emotion, but either too high or too low and the performance becomes erratic, or just plain off. There is probably some yin/yang oriental philosophy that fits here, but that’s not my area of expertise.
Only 46 more days until training camp begins.
bob
MY NOTE: A nice little soliloquy here. Once again, the author (Lee Lauderdale) shows that he "gets it", even if "it" is obvious. Its biggest single weakness, I think, is that what he's saying is abundantly obvious to the high BBIQ members of this board, but would be divine revelation at BDC. It also speaks to the need for patience, grasshoppers. Rome was not built in a day and neither will #18. I was pretty harsh on Brad Stevens last year because I saw weak ATO calls, weak clock management and questionable substitution patterns but it would be unfair if I didn't also recognize that what Lauderdale is saying has more than a grain of truth to it. Stevens was dealt a crappy hand by Danny, whose event horizon wasn't next game but 3-5 years down the road. We got a better Sully (an animal on the boards, even if he did take too many 3s), we got Kelly straightened out (the game slowed way down for him) and we got to see Pressey run (and I do mean RUN) an offense. All this without a legit starting PG and no center.
I lost track of him but I am surprised that Jordan Crawford hasn't been picked up by somebody. Mr. Herky-Jerky surprised a lot of people with how well he was able to run point last year and Lord Knows he will shoot but he's not feeling any love from GMs. I'm not sure anybody can figure him out. I hope he likes chinese food. One thing I read about him last year is that before every game, both at home and on the road, he'd sit out in the stands and just take in the court from the perspective of a fan and bliss out at his extraordinary good fortune to be able to play in the NBA for a living. His style of play made my head explode, but that's having your head screwed on right. Good luck, Jordan.
.
Balance is a common theme running throughout almost every aspect of NBA basketball. The front office tries to provide the coach with a balanced roster--something noticeably lacking in last year’s team, but then again it was hardly a priority at the start of a rebuild. The coach tries to balance the distribution of players on the court, hence the frequent references to spreading the court. He also tries to balance the mix of attributes available on the court--scoring with rebounding, offense with defense, and height with speed and ball handling. Individual players try to achieve balance in almost every facet of their games--shooting, feinting, defending, running, even standing. One could even argue that all persons involved are struggling to maintain a balance of their emotions. It is, literally, everywhere.
Last year Ainge just flat didn’t care that most of his team were shooting guards and power forwards. His business was all about accruing and improving assets once the Brooklyn deal went down. Rondo was out or working his way back most of the year. The Celtics weren’t going to be competitive last year; the question was could they make the down cycle as short as possible? Grow the rookies and the youngsters, make a determination about keeping the few players in their primes, move any surplus assets if possible for future returns. Made for a long season, but year two of post-Window era looks much better than the first. There is still a lot of dead wood but the youth/potential infusion is well underway and you can see how the less useful parts will slough off the newly established sapling as the contracts expire, if not before. And, incidentally, since this is not a contending year either, the balance is better. Of the guaranteed contracts, three are point guards, four are power forwards, two are centers and the remainder are wing players. Not perfect, but coming along.
Brad Stevens was in a distinctly awkward position last season. Danny had given him a mismatched roster to work with, he had exactly zero established point guards to start the season and no center, most of his team played two positions, and the roster was in flux the entire season (even on teams in transition the roster usually settles down after the trading deadline). In the midst of this mayhem, the coach was supposed to teach, groom, prune, and quarantine any cancers. And he didn’t even get hazardous duty pay. Yet, Stevens did all these things, and by most accounts, did them pretty well. About those balances on the floor, actually not too bad considering the handicaps.
As far as the individual players, last year we saw Rondo put up some pretty off-balance shots as his rehabbing body left him in some unrecoverable unbalances, and his success rate plummeted because of it. We saw Crawford throw up all sorts of contortionist shots, and I was frankly amazed at how many of them found the net. Still, the only team for which he played an entire year was Washington and they dumped him for expiring contracts that were either disabled or not playing; and he remains unsigned to date. Amazing that Ainge got the Philly pick(s) for his Celtics’ Fall ‘13 revival and Brooks who is now laboring overseas. Although some players pull off some unlikely shots, one of the hallmarks of good shooters is that they reach their release position in balance and with shoulders square to the basket.
Balance is the basis, as in base, literally, for a good fake, a good jump, a good push off to run or change direction, or even a defensive stance to be ready to move. For an offensive player, it is a tremendous advantage if he can get his defender to leave his feet, or even just to lean, with a fake, and if he can get him to cross his feet (the beginning of off-balance), the guy is toast.
As for that balance of emotions, once Garnett got inside their heads, many players went to pieces. Basketball is a game of emotion, but either too high or too low and the performance becomes erratic, or just plain off. There is probably some yin/yang oriental philosophy that fits here, but that’s not my area of expertise.
Only 46 more days until training camp begins.
bob
MY NOTE: A nice little soliloquy here. Once again, the author (Lee Lauderdale) shows that he "gets it", even if "it" is obvious. Its biggest single weakness, I think, is that what he's saying is abundantly obvious to the high BBIQ members of this board, but would be divine revelation at BDC. It also speaks to the need for patience, grasshoppers. Rome was not built in a day and neither will #18. I was pretty harsh on Brad Stevens last year because I saw weak ATO calls, weak clock management and questionable substitution patterns but it would be unfair if I didn't also recognize that what Lauderdale is saying has more than a grain of truth to it. Stevens was dealt a crappy hand by Danny, whose event horizon wasn't next game but 3-5 years down the road. We got a better Sully (an animal on the boards, even if he did take too many 3s), we got Kelly straightened out (the game slowed way down for him) and we got to see Pressey run (and I do mean RUN) an offense. All this without a legit starting PG and no center.
I lost track of him but I am surprised that Jordan Crawford hasn't been picked up by somebody. Mr. Herky-Jerky surprised a lot of people with how well he was able to run point last year and Lord Knows he will shoot but he's not feeling any love from GMs. I'm not sure anybody can figure him out. I hope he likes chinese food. One thing I read about him last year is that before every game, both at home and on the road, he'd sit out in the stands and just take in the court from the perspective of a fan and bliss out at his extraordinary good fortune to be able to play in the NBA for a living. His style of play made my head explode, but that's having your head screwed on right. Good luck, Jordan.
.
bobheckler- Posts : 61553
Join date : 2009-10-28
Re: Summer Quandaries - Basketball Is A Game Of Balance
by Sam Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:28 am
An interesting premise, although I believe he made some stretches just to highlight the omnipresence of balance. I don't believe most of Rondo's bad misses were the result of his being literally off balance because of his injury.
But it's nice to see someone tackling the qualitative aspects of basketball that have virtually nothing to do with statistics or top 10 lists. That has always been the part of the game the most fascinated me, which is why I talk about things like rhythm, flow, creativity, enabling, balance and continuity so frequently.
I believe the primary mission for the Celtics this season should be one of assembling combinations that will most enable them to find a path toward greater cohesiveness. Once on that journey, gaining momentum is right around the corner. The matter of balance then shifts from number of players at a given position to number of minutes allotted to given players.
Notwithstanding the potential of guys like Sully, Kelly, Bradley and Smart, I believe the two most important players to watch this season will be Rondo and Zeller. The offensive performance of a floor general and the defensive performance of a center can be major influences in limiting the imbalances of teammates, whose struggles are ideally restricted to improving their own performances rather than compensating for inadequacies at either the 1 or the 5 position.
Sam
But it's nice to see someone tackling the qualitative aspects of basketball that have virtually nothing to do with statistics or top 10 lists. That has always been the part of the game the most fascinated me, which is why I talk about things like rhythm, flow, creativity, enabling, balance and continuity so frequently.
I believe the primary mission for the Celtics this season should be one of assembling combinations that will most enable them to find a path toward greater cohesiveness. Once on that journey, gaining momentum is right around the corner. The matter of balance then shifts from number of players at a given position to number of minutes allotted to given players.
Notwithstanding the potential of guys like Sully, Kelly, Bradley and Smart, I believe the two most important players to watch this season will be Rondo and Zeller. The offensive performance of a floor general and the defensive performance of a center can be major influences in limiting the imbalances of teammates, whose struggles are ideally restricted to improving their own performances rather than compensating for inadequacies at either the 1 or the 5 position.
Sam
Sam- Admin
- Posts : 22663
Join date : 2009-10-10 -
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