<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">O'Brien loves the Sonics' style of offense, which spaces four shooters around the three-point arc and a shot-blocking center. He particularly admired it seeing it in person last month, even if the Sonics drained 18 treys in a 103-95 win over the Sixers at the Wachovia Center. "I've made no bones about it," O'Brien said of his conversations with general manager Billy King. "I'd love to be able to have four three-point shooters on the court with a shot-blocking center. That is my goal. From the first moment I talked to Billy, he knows the type of offensive team that I would like to have, that I would like to grow this toward." The Sonics have three players, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic, who had combined to drain 174 three-balls entering last night's game with the Sixers at Key Arena. That's 24 more than the Sixers' team total.</div> <div align="center">Full Story</div> Now while it would be great to have the Seattle Supersonics type success (I don't believe I just said that, times have change so much ), O'Brien needs to give this team a different identity. It?s reasonable why O'Brien wants this team to shoot the 3 ball, but at the same time to be a "replica" of the Sonics is NOT the way to go. First and foremost we do not have as good of a cast of perimeter shooters as the Sonics. Secondly, if you live by the 3, you'll die by the 3. And lastly, it's just simply not the 76ers style. The 76ers would not be able to play under this style effectively and most importantly consistently. We already have a tough time being consistent and making the 3 ball the primary source of offense would just make matters worst. While this articles pretty much sums up what O?Brien was aiming for once he was appointed the head coach position, the 76ers has been playing more of a transition game and getting into the open court rather than making the 3 ball the first option on offense. But my point is that, granted the way the 76ers has been playing lately, I wouldn't be surprised if O'Brien makes some adjustments to the offense and indeed go for this. He already has a ?hot? Iverson, and everyone has been feeling the perimeter shot lately, so don?t be surprised if O?Brien makes those adjustments in games to come. If he does, things won't be looking good. My advice for O'Brien is let them stick with the fast pace, up-tempo type of game and have them take the 3 ball only when necessary. So what is your take on this? Is O'Brien doing the right thing?
<font face="Tahoma"> That would be a horrible offense for the 76ers to run, because we do not have nearly as many three point shooters as the Sonics have on there team. We would be jacking up to many threes, and not dishing the ball inside enough. One of the reasons besides there shooters that Seattle runs that offense is because they really do not have anyone inside that can do anything against a western conference team inside. We play in the eastern conference and have guys that can perform inside its just the wrong offense for us. I do not think he will change our offense to this because he says he admires it in the article, buthe knows the teams strength and weaknesses and the three point ball is not our stength we have two good three point shooter (Mckie and KK) and even then one of them (KK) is streaky. Who else would we put on the arc to run that offense? Our guys inside can not shoot the three ball like some big men on the Sonics KT use to shoot a lot of three balls earlier in his career, but now a days you will be hard pressed to find him taking a three point shot. SD barely has a mid rnage jumper, and Marc doesnt have that kind of distance. JO came in here with the taught we would have a run and gun offense thus he formed the team to be just that trading Snow and moving AI to the point. That is the offense we are going to stick with I believe.</font>
hey Pure Skillz...since AI has been in the league about as long as the grizzlies have been made (95-96)... just put in your sig AI has won more games with the Sixers then the Grizzlies have ever won.
Why would JO even adapt to that offense now?The Sixers are on a hot streak offensively(100+ the last 8 games) because of their fast tempo game. Even if he's going to change the offensive scheme, he's obviosuly gonna make some moves to the roster.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting zEx69:</div><div class="quote_post">hey Pure Skillz...since AI has been in the league about as long as the grizzlies have been made (95-96)... just put in your sig AI has won more games with the Sixers then the Grizzlies have ever won.</div> I will probably do that on day 16 the last day I have to where this sig.
I think Jim Obrien is just confused on what kind of offense to run. First we are a run-n-gun type offense. Now he is talking about making us run an offense that involves shooting three's all day. I don't like it all. This couldn't even happen in the first place. When your team revolves around the three point shot, wouldn't you need a true PG to distribute the ball, thats what the Sonics have in Ridnour. The last time I checked O'brien's offense didn't involve a pure point. So basically Obrien is defying his own style of offense if he wants to have a offense like the Sonics.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Jim Obrien is just confused on what kind of offense to run. First we are a run-n-gun type offense. Now he is talking about making us run an offense that involves shooting three's all day. I don't like it all. This couldn't even happen in the first place. When your team revolves around the three point shot, wouldn't you need a true PG to distribute the ball, thats what the Sonics have in Ridnour. The last time I checked O'brien's offense didn't involve a pure point. So basically Obrien is defying his own style of offense if he wants to have a offense like the Sonics.</div> Nicely said, I never thought about it like that. Very impressive. But ever thought that O'Brien can use Iverson ball penetration to get the ball to other guys? I personally think using this method would be the best way to go if O'Brien goes with the plan of ?mimicking the Sonics?. Iverson draws some much attention once he gets into the paint and once he does he can kick it out to the open man, and than the beneficiary could either swing it around or take the shot. So, there are different possibilities with this game plan. But the fact is that, I would not want O'Brien to go with this plan, but at the same time if he does, using Iverson the way I mentioned could probably work.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Avery:</div><div class="quote_post"> But ever thought that O'Brien can use Iverson ball penetration to get the ball to other guys? I personally think using this method would be the best way to go if O'Brien goes with the plan of ?mimicking the Sonics?. Iverson draws some much attention once he gets into the paint and once he does he can kick it out to the open man, and than the beneficiary could either swing it around or take the shot. So, there are different possibilities with this game plan. But the fact is that, I would not want O'Brien to go with this plan, but at the same time if he does, using Iverson the way I mentioned could probably work.</div> What you say is true. But if we were going to copy the Sonics style, we wouldn't have nearly success as they would. The reason why we couldn?t have much success as the Sonics is because they have a lot better three point shooters then us. At first, I thought we had as many three-point shooters as the Sonics but we don?t, because we have players that can shoot, they just don't make the three ball consistently. The Sixers do seem as if they have changed their offensive style a little these past few games. Besides the regular good scoring from Allen, the team has been scoring in the early hundred lately. When I watch the Nuggets game on ESPN, I'm going to be looking for any changes in the offense.
First, let me say that as a Celtic fan, I appreciate many of the things that Obrien did with the Cs. He took a team without much talent or depth to the conference finals, and gave the fans a couple good years. I respect him as a coach. Having said that, I hope for the sake of all 76ers fans (not that i care all that much about your success, division rivals) that he doesn't switch the offense to one similar to the sonics. This is exactly what he tried to do in Boston. And let me tell you, it failed. It was an exciting trip to the conference finals, but at times, it was so, so, so, sooooooooooooooooo painful and ugly to watch. I think it went a long way in ruining good players like Antoine Walker, and to a lesser extent Paul Pierce. They got used to taking terrible shots and hoisting up threes at every oppurtunity. This is the problem with many coaches in the league. They have a philosophy, and they try to force feed it to their team. Instead, they need to look for the things their team's strengths, what they could excel in, and coach towards that. jeff Van Gundy is another good example. he's a slow-the-ball-dooooowwwwnnnn and play nothing but D type of coach. You have T-Mac on your team and you want to walk up the court? Obrien is the same way. He wants his players to jack up 3s all game. Bad idea.
Well, I believe that Obrien is a better judge of what this team should be doing than anybody on this forum, including myself. He is coaching this team into the type of team that can win in the NBA. He may not do exactly what we expect at every turn but I leave it to his expertise to make that call. You can discuss offensive strategies, 3-pt shooting, pushing the ball, etc ... However, from my viewpoint, I see a team that scores plenty of points. So, it is not offense that needs work, it is defense. This team is beginning to show signs of getting it together on defense. If that happens they will be successful.
