I can remember Rudy losing a ball, Andre's bad pass to LA, and the offensive fouls by Martell and Greg that could be attributed to running. Alot of the others were offensive fouls when we were in a half court set or a flat out steal by the Rockets. If not for the run in the second quarter, the Rockets might have had a decent chance at winning.
This is why for a long time I have said there is no need to run just for the sake of running. No purely running teams have won it all since the showtime Lakers, and the rules of the game have changed since then to favor defensive minded teams. If you watch the teams that run for the hell of it, you will note the biggest hole in their scheme is that they can blow a big lead very fast. When you play Phoenix, Dallas, New York, etc, you can be down by 20 and then be back in the game in like 3 minutes. Then when these teams hit the playoffs, and you have to execute in the half court because of all the timeouts, fouls, and must score posessions (Coaches will use every time out in the playoffs, in the regular season not so much.) they cannot score as well in the half court because their game is not comfortable in that scenario. Portland needs to run to take advantage of good situations. But they don't need to run for the sake of running. That is complete bullshit, and will not bode well for playoff basketball.
Portland has been last in the league in fast break points ever since Nate got here. No one wants the Warrios, but maybe move up to the middle somewhere would be nice?
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. Nate doesn't want to win, he just wants to play his style regardless of how good or bad the team plays.
Surely. But the amount of turnovers they had last night says they were forcing the issue. There is a difference. Also remember you have to work with what you bring to the table. Several players on this team have never been good decision makers in fast break situations. Thats just the facts. Work with what you are given.
Well, let's see. None of Oden's 7 TO's were because we ran. None of Joel's 2 TO's were because we ran. None of Roy's 3 TO's were because we ran. None of Blake's 2 TO's were because we ran. So assuming all other TO's happened because we were running, which they didn't, that would = 12. While the non running TO's = 14 Keep in mind that Portland averaged 12.9 TO's last year.
Is it because they've never been decision makers in fast break situations naturally, or because Nate doesn't practice it enough and let them develop the skills in game situations enough to be comfortable with it? I think that is a legitimate question that should be asked of Nate. Like MM said I don't think anyone here wants to be the Warriors or Suns (outside of perhaps Maris) but we're dead last with a lot of young athletic guys who run the floor (LaMarcus is possibly the fastest big in the league); that's just really sad and not taking advantage of the natural abilities of the team. It's like how Nate said we don't need Greg to score because we scored last year just fine and this year we'll score just fine as well. Yeah, we score fine in the regular season because we have a lot of jump shooters and if they're not falling we can go to BRoy iso drives; but that ended up failing us in the playoffs because our jump shooters started failing, and BRoy was getting double and triple teamed by aggressive playoff defense. We should be working on developing Greg in the low post for playoff circumstances because he has the size and strength to get other bigs in foul trouble. We might score just fine now without him because of a variety of reasons, but if we don't get him developed we're going to be hurting for easy and vital buckets in the post season. It'll probably cost us playoff wins.
I thought the travel play was definitely a foul on hayes. It looked like he grabbed Oden's arm when he was off balance causing Oden to take steps.
It could be a little of both, but I can tell you from what I have seen, Steve Blake will never be a good decision maker on the fast break, the only role he can fill is the spot up shooter. He just cannot handle the speed at which things happen, and he can't finish so everybody knows he will pass. Its just a matter of when. The same for Outlaw. He is ok if he is out in front of everybody on the break. But if there is defensive pressure there, not so good. But there is an upside. Last night I saw Miller actually looking for Aldridge on the break like I have been screaming about the last 2 years. Nobody throws to Aldridge although he is a 6'11" forward who tends to get out in front of everybody on the break, and you can lob to him. Miller tried it but threw an errant pass. That is the type of stuff that will improve. Maybe guys like Blake turn into you trailer who hits the 3 so he isn't making decisions. The key with fast breaking, is to have players who can make good decisions and handle the ball run the show. Those same players have to make the decision of when not to run, that can be as critical for not wasting a posession as cashing in on a fast break. If they make bad decisions, you are in for a 27 turnover night. If they make good decisions, about half that.
Absolutely on the money. We have the data to back it up. Look at Blake's TOV% when he played in Denver. It was Jarret Jack like (in his last year in Portland). Not good.
Uh ... wow. That's all I've got to say. Running broke the game open and the team continually turned the ball over in the half-court with illegal screens, travelling, bad passes, getting stripped and he points to running being the issue ... wow.
The amount of people that think they know more than Nate is comical to me. Luckily, our GM appears to have a lot more faith in him than people on this board. I guess that's what makes KP the professional and us fans.
