At halftime of the TNT telecast of the Mavs/Spurs game on Thursday, Kenny Smith said that Jason Kidd gets guys easier shots because he "pitches the ball ahead". This is something that I strongly advocate that the middle and high school kids I coach do. Most young players want to dribble the ball the length of the floor into "assist range" where they can make a pass that leads directly to a shot attempt. However, the easier (and I dare say smarter) play is to pass the ball ahead to an open teammate which
1) allows the offense to go against less defenders because it's a transition situation and
2) forces the defense to react (which increases the chances of them being out of position) because the ball has moved.
This approach of passing the ball ahead, rather than dribbling the ball into the half court, makes for easier basketball because most youth players are not skilled enough to operate effectively offensively in a 5 on 5 half court setting.
I think kids pick the wrong approach up from watching guys like Nash accumulate assist via sweet bounce pass and lobs to teammates for 3s and dunks. However, the vast majority of kids don't have an ability to handle the rock and pass the rock anywhere near the level of a Steve Nash. Plus in the pre-Shaq Suns offense, Nash was receiving the ball quickly on inbounds after made shots it was akin to another passing the ball ahead (and Nash was operating in so much space he could afford to dribble the ball more).
John Stockton made a lot of "assist range" passes, but it was a function of the Jazz offense being built around the pick and roll with Malone.
Magic made a lot of "assist range" passes as well, but he was 6-9, which allowed him to threaten a defender in a fast break situation in a manner that a 6-1 guard could not -- so he gets a pass(pardon the pun).
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thoughts while watching the Mavs vs. Spurs on TNT
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2 comments:
Good point. Plus Stockton and Nash have amazing coaches and 4's like Stoudamire and Malone that roll after screening flawlessly.
Kidd is amazing not because hes a great passer, but because he gets the ball to guys in the right places where they can score. Any point knows not give a big man the ball when hes running and outside 3 steps of the goal.
I think Harris will be a top 5 pg in the coming years and Dallas will regret this move. But hey, maybe they can pick Harris back up wihen hes 36....
I think it was a move that Dallas had to make. As the team was currently constituted they were NOT going to win the championship. Even if you kept that team together for 3 more years, they were not going to win a championship. Their best chance was blown in that series against Miami. I don't think last year was their best chance because even before the playoffs I felt that Golden State was going to give the Mavs trouble if they were able to make it into the playoffs. Golden State had been the Maverick's kryptonite for the past 2 years. Jason Richardson was always going off against Dallas in the regular season. So that being said, do you keep a team together that's never going to win a championship or do you take a gamble and attempt to infuse some life into the franchise in the short term? My feelings are you give yourself the best shot to win in the short term, because in the NBA it's not hard to change your franchise around in a short period if you don't have too many back-breaking contracts on your books (read: NY Knicks). The Celtics are a perfect example of a team going from the outhouse to the penthouse in one move. The Lakers and the Utah are other examples. There will always be teams looking to dump salary and trying to avoid paying the luxury tax. If the Kidd thing doesn't work in 2 years, then look to go in a different direction. I'll address the Devin Harris top 5 question in a separate post.
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