In his 5 years coaching Seattle, I watched McMillan get the same criticisms for a slow game. He had less talent there, so he had more of an excuse. But the reluctance comes from him. Roy may have some of this too, but the Coach has the power to change the system. I don't think McMillan is very good at speeding it up. And for a decade before that as a player, he was the most careful PG in the league, so much that he averaged about 5 ppg. For example, he tried very few crosscourt passes (like 1 per game). So I don't expect him to change.
They just need to get to the middle of the pack to have enough running to win easier. I find it hard to believe folks would be saying this about Roy, when Steve Blake has been personally fucking up and killing fast breaks on this team for several years now.
Have we been a good enough team to trade baskets in the half-court verses all of these teams. You basically end up gambling that Roy outplays Kobe or Melo in a game like that (which he does a lot) but the problem is when they still take advantage of fast break points and we don't. Everyone always bitches about how slow San Antonio, Detroit (under LB), and other 'championship' teams were, but they always got their share of easy buckets on the break. It wasn't a huge piece of their game plan but we're at an ungodly extreme.
It's really weird that Nate would foist off responsibility for not having a faster paced team on Roy when Nate hasn't EVER coached a fast paced team. In his life. Perhaps the reason they don't run more is that Nate calls every single play. Perhaps the reason they have been running more lately is because Nate can't get up and yell out plays from the sidelines right now. I sometimes get the feeling that Nate may have learned some really bad habbits from George Karl when they were in Seattle together. You know Karl, the guy who throws his guys under the bus when things go bad and takes credit when things go well. I am not saying that Roy isn't a part of why the team doesn't run. But placing the entire blame on Roy is insane when the team's coach has a history of coaching very slow paced teams.
I think the bottom line is that in order for the team to be successful, we will have to do both. Roy is going to have to run more and the rest of the team is going to have to learn to run an effective half-court offense as well. Running will benefit us in the regular season and the half court offense will benefit us in the post season.
It's an historical fact that Nate doesn't coach teams that run much at all. I have no idea why Nate wouldn't be the primary reason they don't run now. Why do you feel differently?
