team identity?

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

OK, last for today - I promise!

I thought an interesting aspect of BSG's analysis was the question of team
identity. 

Actually, in thinking about the season, it seems to me that the team had a
more coherent identity during the first month than it has subsequently -
instead of "gelling" the team seems to be "melting". At least during the
first month the first team was consistently outscoring other teams through
the mixture of a conservative yet effective defense and a fast-breaking
offense. The "bomb squad" although ineffective (to say the least) also had
a clear identity as a pressing, scrambling team. Most of our problems then
seemed to be tied to the (over)use of the bench.

Since early December the rash of injuries (Pierce, Potapenko and now
Griffin) combined with the needed adjustment of shortening the bench seems
to have induced a kind of schizophrenia. Occasionally we will see flashes
of the old starting unit (in Denver, against Sacto here) - using defensive
gimmicks judiciously and effectively as surprise measures - but much more
frequently we tend to see an odd fusion of the old identities both in terms
of the personnel (the bench - particularly Williams, McCarty, and Cheaney -
still log too many minutes) and strategy (with aggressive trapping and
double-teaming although we rarely see the full court press any longer).

I agree with BSG that Pitino has to pick one identity and stick with it:
either the effective (yet "conservative") strategy of basic
meat-and-potatoes fast-break ball that the first team played during
November or a version of the "outbreak" ball with which Pitino earned his
fame and considerable fortune. 

If Pitino were to opt for the latter identity then he needs to change some
key personnel. Neither Vitaly nor Fortson will ever be effective in such a
system (as it is they're only averaging roughly 30 minutes a night COMBINED
in the current "hybrid" system). Pitino might as well ship them out right
now for Shawn Bradley and Steve Nash during the soon to be held Dallas
firesale so we can get down to pure monkey outbreak basketball. Leave Twon
at pf (as if such designations mean much in this brand of ball) and
continue to stockpile large numbers of similarly sized players (such as
McCarty, Williams and or Cheaney) so they can be rotated like cogs on a
machine. We can call this identity "PitinoBall". Despite its success in
college I would shy away from it because the roots of its past successes
are minimized in the transition from college to the pro game (increased
levels of skills, experience, maturity i.e. less selfishness, size, palming
etc.). We've seen this before during 97-98 and in the succeeding two years
the other teams in the league seem to done a good job at countering it and
exploiting its weaknesses. 

If Pitino were to opt for the former identity then he should start Fortson
at pf NOW. You can't run the fastbreak unless you control the boards and
you can't have a no-frills post defense without bulk. With VP, Fortson and
Twon we would have one of the larger frontlines (in terms of bulk) and yet
also one of the more mobile (whoever thought that VP and Fortson were too
slow has to remember that they will not be guarding Allen Iverson but the
Dale Davis's and Matt Geigers of the world - BTW it is not unusual for
Vitaly to beat his man up court). I agree with Joe that Twon would be very
effective posting up opposing 3s. Stop tinkering so damn much on defense
and NEVER AGAIN halt a fastbreak to call a play from the sidelines - let
the players play (Tommy H. would be forever thankful). Ship out McCarty,
Williams and or Cheaney for a back-up pg - if possible - and get another
big guy soon, certainly before next training camp. We could call this the
"cans o' whupass" identity. It is the one I would vote for since it has
already be road-tested (November) and we already have the personnel.

Go Celts Go - let's open some cans o' whupass tonight!

-Tom Murphy