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If you watch the following video clip of Ricky Rubio’s play this season with Barcelona:
then, one thing should be perfectly clear.
This young man …
Signed, Sealed, and Soon to be Delivered: Ricky Rubio
if he’s GMed and coached properly …
is destined to eventually become a “star” player in the NBA, given his level of relative quickness, size, strength, vision and overall skill-set at the PG position.
The Chicago Bulls of the Michael Jordan era were, unquestionably, some of the best NBA teams of all-time.
Although the man who assembled those teams has endured more than his fare share of criticism, over the years - mostly for being far less-than “personable” … i.e. Jerry Krause Bio… so, too, should he receive well-deserved kudos for sticking by his word and refusing to set foot inside the Basketball Hall Of Fame until legendary coach Tex Winter was actually seen fit to be inducted.
Jackson, Krause expected at Winter’s Hall of Fame induction
If Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Jerry Krause, et al., do eventually join Tex Winter for his induction ceremony, in Springfield, Massachusetts, later on this summer, it will truly be an historic occasion worthy of a celebration for the NBA.
For the most part, today’s article by one of ‘The Godfathers of modern-day statistical-based analysis for the NBA game’ – i.e. Dean Oliver – strikes the right note:
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How Mavs’ style swap beat the Heat
Credit the Mavs and don’t kill LeBron. The Mavs’ defense did a great job keeping creators out of the paint. If you want to criticize someone, criticize the coaches, Scotty Brooks and Erik Spoelstra, for not figuring out how to attack the Mavs’ defense in a more decentralized way.
What team did the best against the Mavs’ defense this year? The Orlando Magic, who shoot 3s like maniacs. The Heat could have done more to spread the floor by running more sets for perimeter shooters, but they were also reportedly hampered a bit by an injury to James Jones. Don’t get me wrong, Brooks and Spoelstra are good coaches who just couldn’t quite match the moves quickly enough. And, of all the voices criticizing Westbrook and LeBron for what they did and didn’t do, [#1] I didn’t hear any of them offering constructive criticism for how to beat the Mavs’ defense.
A final lesson for the playoffs: When teams are fairly close, the NBA playoffs become a chess match. This makes it difficult to have basic statistics characterize a series. There are no great rebounding or shooting or turnover statistics to characterize the 2011 Finals, because adaptations constantly change what wins.
Even MVP Dirk Nowitzki had a statistically bad game in the clincher. Did he have a good series? Absolutely. [#2] But the tactical moves were what won this series.
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in an effort to explain accurately what happened in the NBA Finals.
re: Bolded Text #2
This observation is 100% accurate.
re: Bolded Text #1
This observation, however, is not completely 100% accurate. 
After being in a prolonged ‘slump’, Henry Abbott finally nails one:
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James has fairly consistently made about a third of his NBA 3-pointers. Somewhere around that percentage is the point where you’re bad enough that defenses want you to shoot 3s.
As you improve from 33 percent, however, every opportunity you get to take an open 3 is likely to improve your whole team’s offensive efficiency. Open 3s for 40 percent 3-point shooters win games, and defenses know that and go to great lengths to prevent shots like that. Making more 3s would give James a way to move defenders away from the rim — which has the potential to vastly improve the entire team’s offense.
In addition to helping the whole offense, it would simply gift the Heat important points even if you changed nothing else. Had James shot 40 percent from downtown this season the team would have had scored a dozen more points over their 21 playoff games. It’s hard to imagine any other way the Heat could improve results like that without changing anything else.
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clear out of the park.
Although yours truly is not a regular reader of Doug Smith’s Toronto Raptors Blog, special thanks go out to him today for being the first to publish this ‘action’ clip of New Jersey’s REAL ‘Big Man’, where these eyes could actually see it:
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Dear Clarence,
Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery from your current illness.
You, Sir, have been responsible for bringing an untold amount of joy into this world …
“With all that pain and agony I went through on the last tour — I’d do it again. There’s something about being on stage. I call it the Healing Floor. I do all this shit up there and then I think back later and say, ‘How the hell did I do that?’ But it’s what I’m supposed to do. It revives me.” – Clarence Clemons
for millions of people.
Do yourself a favour and watch THIS interview:
Bravo to The - incomparable -Howitzer!
… for doggedly carving out his own unique place in the glorius history of the game.
FYI …
What you see below is the specific email which was sent by yours truly to Kevin Pelton [Basketball Prospectus], at 1:03 PM on Saurday afternoon [Jun-11-2011]:
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Kevin:
re: Without Peer: Carlisle’s Playoff Coaching
Unfortunately, I cannot read the rest of this article.
From the part which I can see, however, it seems as though your analysis is heading in the right direction.
Thus far, Rick Carlisle has been the best coach in the NBA Playoffs … by a wide margin.
As a direct result, the Mavericks are only 1 more win away from winning the championship.
Erik Spoelstra will need to improve his feel for the game and make better decisions:
[for example]
- start the game with the 5-man unit of Chalmers + Wade + James + Anthony + Bosh
- finish the game with the 5-man unit of Wade + Miller + James + Haslem + Bosh
- use a rotation which includes Chalmers [PG], Wade [PG-OG], Jones [OG-SF], Miller [OG-SF], James [SF-PG], Anthony [PF], Haslem [PF], Bosh [C-PF] and Ilgauskas [C]
- use Ilgauskas [C] against Chandler [C], in order to space the floor and pull Tyson away from the basket more frequently
- use a 2-3 zone defense, on occasion, when JJ Barea is on the floor
- ensure that their players stop allowing Jason Terry to shoot while either: A. dribbling/moving to his right, or B. Standing still
- ensure that their players make Jason Terry drive to his left left-hand side AND THEN finish his own drives at the rim, without being able to make draw and kick-out passes to open teammates for high percentage 3PT-shots
if Miami is going to win the next 2 games.
The Heat have the better personnel available in this series … and SHOULD have already won the championship in 5 games … but the Mavs are certainly capable of winning, if Rick Carlisle continues to out-coach Erik Spoelstra by a significant margin.
Cheers
khandor
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Down-the-road, Kevin Spoelstra is … eventually … going to become an outstanding coach in the NBA.
Unfortunately, yesterday evening Miami needed him to be much closer to accomplishing THAT specific goal right now.
Rick Carlisle was THE Difference-maker in the NBA Finals … and, as a direct result, the Dallas Mavericks are the World Champions!
Given the resources which Miami had to work with this season, the Heat should have been able to capture this year’s NBA championship.
There’s a very good reason, however, games actually need to be played before an authentic Championship TEAM can be crowned.
From the start to the end of this season:
Mark Cuban [Owner]
Donnie Nelson [General Manager]
Rick Carlisle [Head Coach]
Dirk Nowitzki [Player Leader #1]
Jason Terry [Player Leader #2]
Jason Kidd [Player Leader #3]
Shawn Marion [Key Role Player #1]
Tyson Chandler [Key Role Player #2, vital off-season addition]
DeShawn Stevenson [Key Role Player #3]
JJ Barea [Key Role Player #4]
Brendan Haywood [Key Role Player #5]
and each member of the Mavericks’ supporting cast:
Caron Butler [injured]
Peja Stojakovic
Brian Cardinal
Ian Mahinmi
Corey Brewer
Rodrigue Beaubois
Dominique Jones
did a fantastic job! … learning lessons from years gone by and then implementing specific practices which eventually contributed to their team’s major on-court success.
Throughout the 2nd half of yesterday’s game, it was readily apparent that the Dallas Mavericks actually had THE LEVEL OF COLLECTIVE BELIEF which is necessary to surmount all obstacles and claim a League Championship
In the game of basketball … which, incidentally, cannot be played without a properly designated ‘coach’, according to the rules … this COLLECTIVE BELIEF is rooted, fundamentally, in only 1 person, who occupies a position at the heart of the organizational flow chart and, therefore, is [in fact] capable of positively effecting each member of ‘the collective’, both, above AND below him, in a positive way, which can then put the team in the best position possible to achieve major on-court success through the actions of their players.
Kudos to Rick Carlisle! … who, for a long time now, has simply been one of the best coaches in the NBA.
Related:
The real goal of ‘crunch time’ in the NBA game … in sharp contrast to what ’TrueHoop’ might try to tell you:
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Today’s crunch-time best vs Air Jordan
Pattani painstakingly identified every close playoff game of Jordan’s career (see below for the complete list of qualifying shots), then went to the video, the game recaps in newspapers, and any other resource he could find to find Jordan’s shots that matched Pattani’s “core-sampling” criteria:
While those aren’t the only crucial situations, they do allow an apples-to-apples comparison with today’s players.
Why not look at shots when up one point? Or down three points? In short, because those are times when weird things happen with intentional fouling. If you want a fair measure of crunch shot-making, it’s good to keep the sample pure. Teams that are tied or behind by two or less just want points, and they’re fighting for them against honest defense.
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… is to actually have IT occur as EARLY in a game as possible, with the outcome in favour of your team.
The best teams and players in NBA history are those few that have been good enough to dominate their opponent in the earlier stages of a specific contest, such that the play which actually takes place in the final 24 seconds of a game is rendered mostly irrelevant, given the margin of points which exists between the teams.
A proposed definition that constricts ‘crunch time’ to only the final 24 seconds of a game with the score at +/- 2 points is simply not a valid measurement of player performance in this phase of the game … and akin to comparing one red herring to another, rather than apples to apples.
