Re: The thing that drives me nuts...

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:11 PM 5/30/02 +0000, Robert Brooks wrote:
> ...about this team on offense is the standing around when Pierce is 
> double-teamed.  At first I thought it was inability to find the open guy, 
> but then I look around the floor and nobody is moving 
> *anywhere*!!!  They're just standing there, waiting for the ball to come 
> to them instead of finding the open spots on the floor.  My wife even 
> pointed this out last night and she hardly ever watches any 
> basketball.  Is this due to a lack of agressiveness on the part of the 
> players or is the coaching staff to blame for this?
Shared, I should think, although I'm less sure that lack of aggressiveness 
is where the problem is with the players. It's been a problem all year, 
most noticeable when they play the worst. Driven me crazy at times. And 
it's something that tends to happen on any team where the offense is too 
concentrated around one or two players (especially where they're of the 
take the game over myself rather than dish off type). Remember Washington 
when MJ first came back this year, or Chicago back at the beginning of his 
career when everyone just stood around and watched.

Anyway, I can't believe that the coaches haven't encouraged more movement 
without the ball, because it's SO fundamental. So some of the blame has to 
go on the players for executing. And some of it can be tied to the fact 
that some of the players - notably Paul- don't alway pass off as much and 
when they should to reward people for moving without the ball. But I also 
suspect this sort of thing is one of the casualties of  what O'B's admitted 
was less emphasis on offense than defense this year. In a subtle way, it's 
a maturity issue - doing this effectively and consistantly is part of the 
difference between disciplined professionalism and schoolyard. They'll get 
there eventually.

Kim