That bolded part is the key; running for running's sake (The Warriors, D'Antoni teams, et al.) is no recipe for success, but if you are getting out on the break after defensive stops and putting a team on their heels after they fail to convert on offense, that's a whole different animal. This is "running" done the right way.
Don't be surprised to see this idea being stolen by many teams, it will be known as the Northwest Offense...
Good point. I agree that McMillan is adjusting the system to what he's seeing in his personnel. With luck, next year Oden (back in full shape and athleticism recovered) will be playing starter minutes, helping make defensive stops and running the floor extremely well, fueling this "defend and break" transition game.
Hoo-boy, I know what you're talking about. Blake and Sergio cave in under full court pressure. I remember when we blew a 25 point lead to the Sixers last year just because they threw a full court press, and Blake was like pissing his pants. I thought for sure we'd see more of that, but no. But I think this offensive change is long over due. They are finally running the court and passing INSIDE, throwing ally-opps, cutting to the rim. They're doing what we've all been clamoring for the last 2 years.
The player benefiting most from this uptempo offense is LaMarcus. It only took McMillan 70 games to realize our roster is made for running.
This meme is becoming pretty tired. McMillan has said for a long long while that he wants the team to push the tempo more off of stops, but it hasn't been until the last month-ish that the team has actually been applying the kind of interior defense that leads to stops and long outlet passes to streaking forwards like LaMarcus and Nicolas.
My only question is why it took Nate 3 years to "discover and implement" something that Sergio has been doing game in and game out since he was 13.
I agree. His coaching has been excellent this season imo. He's had a few screwups, but nobody is perfect. I definitely think he can lead this team to a championship.
At the same time, I'm not entirely convinced that McMillan deserves so much credit. I think he's doing a good job, but I also think a lot of coaches could do well with this roster.
It's the small stats that make me think Nate's doing some Very Good Things with a very talented roster: we're a low-turnover team, a high-percentage team, a very efficient team. But those are not traits of a young team. I think a lot of coaches could run these young horses fast and hard and win quite a few games... but you don't learn good habits that way. I think Nate's Mr. Miyagi routine has indeed taken hold, and is starting to work. Hell, even Outlaw's passing out of bad shots now. If he's learning, there's someone teaching.
Good point. One of the things that I really liked about McMillan in his first training camp with this team was that he isn't afraid to teach. He isn't afraid to get in the mix and show guys what he wants. I remember watching him guard Ruben Patterson in the post once... it was very entertaining.
