Any of you stat-masters care to take a stab at figuring the Blazers' pace in games with and without Roy playing?
I don't care if the Blazers are slow... I really don't. The team (playoff exits notwithstanding) have been pretty good, and if Nate is a slow-it-down coach, I can live with that as long as it gets results. I'm less cool with the notion that the team is FINALLY going to run this year. No they're not. Nate's had over a decade to try to run with a myriad of players across two franchises... and he hasn't. He doesn't. I therefore believe that he won't. Ed O.
I think pace is vastly overrated by some as a way to improve success in the NBA. Faster paced basketball may be more aesthetically pleasing and fun to watch, but by the time teams get to the playoffs, they'd better be able to play a halfcourt game at a slow-pace or plan their summer vacations. Still, I think indications are that the Blazers plan on running more based upon recent roster decisions and comments from players, Buchanan and Nate. I understand the reluctance to accept that we'll actually see it on the court because of Nate's record, but I still think that we will see a bit more running next year. Unfortunately, we're probably not going to have the chance to see any proof one way or the other until January or so.
Felton wants to push the pace, I think with him at PG, Batum 2, Wallace 3, LMA 4, they could run circles around teams. And when they do slow it down into LMA, Felton will keep them honest unlike Miller was unable to do. Stoked on Felton after hearing him speak: 20:00 http://www.nba.com/blazers/tbtv/video.html?videoID=2220
I don’t think we need to worry about running more fast breaks. I would like to see the team concentrate on efficiently getting up the floor, having the offense in position, and have the PG make his first pass with more time on the shot clock. I don’t want to see the PG walk up the floor or dribbling the ball for more then a few seconds. Get guys into position and start executing the offense. When the shot clock is at 12 and we are just starting our offense there is a much higher probability we have to settle for a poor shot. Also, I think we need to play our starters less minutes. If LaMarcus and Wallace are playing 40mpg they won’t be able to run as hard or often as playing 34mpg. Give them some time off, even if we have to sacrifice a few wins.
They had the identical lineup last season except with Miller instead of Felton. Miller has pushed the pace just as much or more than Felton in his career. Yet we finished dead last in pace. Every offseason for 5+ years we've talked about the team running more but by the end of the season we finish dead last in pace. The only change we have to the roster is Felton instead of Miller. They both run the same, so I think it's silly to expect a change.
We only had that lineup for a couple dozen games tops, and we did run like hell when Miller, Rudy, Batum, Wallace, and LMA were in the game... but it was only 6 or 8 minutes at a time. That's not going to affect your overall pace after 60 games. I wish I didn't have to work at work today; I'd go Excel jockey and try to determine our pace with Wallace and without Roy.
What I'm saying is Nate wants to run "IN THEORY" but hamstrings his fastest players with control half court ball. Think when we had Outlaw, Bayless, Martel and LA... that team should have flown up and down the court!! Instead they walked the ball up the court and waited for much older teams to set their defenses up thus killing our strength. We were the youngest team in the NBA then. So once we let other teams defenses set up walking the ball up the court, the great X's and O's of our offense came out, right? NOPE! The clock would run down to almost nothing and Roy would take on the other team by himself on a 1 on 5 clearout. I can't tell you how many times I would see this happen and think, what kind of play is that? Now that Roy can't will the team to win anymore because of his limitations what do we do? This is where a coach who has a sytem is very important and Nate is not that coach! He's doesn't know how to coach fast, and he doesn't run a X's and O's half court game that is effective. To get out of the first round of the playoffs he's going to have to master one or the other.... I think he's lost on how to do either well!
No, just having fast athletes doesn't mean a team should be up-tempo. You also need players who are good passers and decision-makers to run successfully. Otherwise, you'll have more turnovers than dunks. Outlaw, Bayless and Webster are not what I'd call good decision-makers and passers. It takes more than speed and athleticism to run. I think the team could have run more with Miller, Aldridge and Batum. Roy would have been great on the break if he had had any inclination to run. Oden would also have been a nice asset to an up-tempo team, as the kind of guy who could trigger them with a block or rebound and fast enough to run the secondary break. But Oden hasn't been there to help start fast breaks, Roy never did want to run and Batum has been too inconsistent to be built around, in part. I don't blame McMillan for not wanting to run. I just don't think Felton replacing Miller (Miller is probably the more poised decision-maker on the break) is going to change anything, so we shouldn't expect an increase in pace.
However, I've also heard the differentiation between Miller and Felton that Miller primarily "ran" by passing upcourt, whereas Felton runs by pushing it upcourt himself. Clearly, passing gets the ball upcourt faster, but it also requires predetermined cooperation from the other team members, in that they have to be upcourt in order to receive a pass. Felton, on the other hand seems more likely to (attempt to) initiate an increased tempo himself; even if there's no one upcourt, he'll push forward all by himself, hoping someone else takes the hint and joins him. Maybe after the first 10 or so 1-on-5 fastbreaks, his teammates get the hint and start running with him.
That was something I noticed with Patty; he'd run up the court himself instead of passing to a lesser ballhandler... but he was by far the fastest guy on our team, and didn't slow it down so he could be behind the play (like you're supposed to do as a PG on the break). As a result, our "fast breaks" with him were Benny Hill-style hilarity with little or not actual scoring.
The one year in Seattle that McMillan's team didn't finish very near the bottom in pace, there was a player revolt of sorts. Led by Ray Allen, who was sick of Nate's offense, the team ran more and took wide open threes when they had them, even if there was 15 seconds left on the shot clock. (the horror!) Other than that one abberation, Nate has never presided over a team that wasn't very slow. This talk about Miller slowing the team down, or Nate wants to run, is all very comical. It is as if folks are unaware that Google and Basketball-Reference exist. Sorry Nate - but your record speaks for itself. Please stop saying you want to run. We know who you are. We have the proof.
I dont really care if we run more, or not. I'd like to see more pick and roll ball, we are horrible at it. Felton is a great pick and roll PG. Between Aldridge and Oden, they could be dynamic with the P&R and they could have a great high-low game. Its the constant ISO's that bother me.
The thought of 6'1", 205lb Ray "Tubby" Felton outpacing Andre Miller/Rudy Fernandez with the same lineup seems far-fetched at best. Watching our team get locked out of the paint all season because we have an obese midget PG who can't post up against anyone taller than David Stern seems more likely. He also has a worse career FG% than Miller and worse career 3pt % than Rudy. 3rd year in a row, same old story. The Official Theme Song for Larry Miller's TrailBlazers: [video=dailymotion;x1bxxf]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bxxf_one-step-up-bruce-springsteen_music[/video]
Sure they are....The only time Nate runs is when he has diarrhea. And even then it's a deliberate trot.
I don't really care whether or not we become a running team. What I want is that we're a competent running team when the opportunity presents itself. The Spurs play slow ball, but when they have a chance to run for an easy basket, they take it.
There is fast break offense and fast break defense. Nothing has been said here about our inability to slow down other teams' fast breaks. The Celtics used to just run all over us repeatedly. We had no idea how to stop it. In scrimmages, Nate doesn't practice fast break on offense (half the players on offense, half on defense), so players get no practice at either playing it or defending against it. Good point. That's because our 8-year coach (20th longest in history) didn't think in advance to have one of our players get down there to help Patty. You have to practice this in advance.
