hasoos

You are completely wrong with Nate not wanting to run, Nate wants to run, but he wants the team to be smart as to when to run. What Nate and Kevin Prichard both have said many times, is that they are fans of having a big back court. This covers defensive weakenesses which have been present on the team since Damon came here, which is the smaller guards getting smoked on defense when they get posted and attacked in the key. This also allows switching on defense which makes many screens set on the perimeter useless, unless a big guy is setting the screen, which also means you have drawn them out of the key and made them not as effective as well.

Now back to the original subject. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I am pretty sure that most of the top 8 players taken will turn out to be pretty good this year, and guys like Morrison and Aldridge will both turn out to be top notch players. If given a choice between two top notch players, you always take the one with more size.

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Hasoos

mediocre man

It's going to be very hard to convince me that Nate want's to run given his history of coaching and the fact that he himself just said in an article that he wanted an 18 wheeler over a sports car. Saying things like zach is a beast down low does not scream fast break, it screams throw the ball to Zach and watch the shot clock go down.

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hasoos

It makes it much easier for Zach to run if his minutes are limited and fresh big guys like Aldridge and Magloire to come in. Depth is only an advantage if you use it. Having several big guys makes it so they can work hard while they are in there. Also of note, Lemarcus Aldridge runs the floor like a Deer, much like Rasheed Wallace did when he made the effort.(Note the disclaimer). Effortlessly up the court in a few bounds.

Also remember, Dirk Nowitzki is rarely the recipient of a fast break attack. But he is most of the target of a pass to the trailer, hitting the open J from deep, much how I envision Zbo being used on the break.

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Hasoos

Sug

A few things I notices last season. Martell is very fast, and if you want speed on the break you don't need to look much further than Travis Outlaw. Darius can run the break as well, and I would imagain that Roy will not be too shaby at getting out.

I like your idea of Zach being the trailer, especially with that sweet 18 footer.

mediocre man

So your ideal fast break has our 6'9" PF trailing and shooting 18 footers?

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Oil Can

I think Nate is the type of coach that might have a preffered style, but he will bend style to fit athletes.

PorterIn2004

Sure, why not? Someone like Jack, Miles, or Roy leads the break with guys like Webster, Dickau, LaFrentz, and Zach spotting up outside, much the way the Suns do it. Admittedly, both Amare and Marion can fly up the court but I don't hear Suns' fans complaining when Marion trails a play to then take an open 3. And yes, I know Zach doesn't shoot like Marion but he's not bad and he's been adding range....

Tince

You don't want the ball coming up the court and four guys flying down filling the lanes, there just isn't enough space on the floor.

Ideally, your PF and C would be fast, but would also be capable of hitting an outside shot on the secondary fast break.

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Ed O

Nate's coaching career and where his teams ranked in terms of pace in the NBA:

2001 Seattle: 16th out of 29 (note this is for the whole year; Nate only coached 67 games)
2002 Seattle: 24th out of 29
2003 Seattle: 27th out of 29
2004 Seattle: 15th out of 29
2005 Seattle: 27th out of 30
2006 Portland: 28th out of 30

Does anyone still want to argue that Nate is a coach that's interested in running and creating extra possessions?

He's a slow-it-down, grind-it-out coach. It's possible he'll adjust or change his style, but he certainly hasn't in the almost six years of NBA coaching experience he has so far.

I'm NOT arguing there's anything wrong with not running a lot... the most successful teams (Detroit, San Antonio, Dallas) were all low pace teams (29th, 23rd, 27th, respectively). Miami (12th) and Phoenix (1st) were really the only exceptions there, and they could lean on Shaq/Wade/Nash, who would probably excel at any pace.

Ed O.

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-- Sandy Koufax

Oil Can

Actually there is some obvious fluctuation there. I wonder what the reasoning was?

tlong

How is that stat determined? I'm surprised to see that Seattle ranked 27th in 2005 as they had one of the highest scoring teams in the league.

Ed O

The fluctuations actually are minimal.

There's one freak season, it appears. But even the freak season saw them in the lower half of the league. I didn't crunch many numbers here, but I would guess it's more a matter of the league being slower overall that year than the Sonics speeding up substantially. In this year, the league pace factor dipped from 91.0 to 90.1 before going back up to 91.9 the next year. Coupled with a slight bump in the Sonics' pace, the ranking went up considerably even if Nate's coaching style/philosophy didn't.

The first year, too, might be considered a "freak" but given that Nate took over after 15 games (a fifth of the season) for Paul Westphal (whose Sonics teams had been 10th and 13th the previous two years) it's not surprising that his first year was less slow-down than almost any other year.

Ed O.

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"In the end, it all comes down to talent. You can talk all you want about intangibles, I just don't know what that means. Talent makes winners, not intangibles. Can nice guys win? Sure, nice guys can win -- if they're nice guys with a lot of talent. Nice guys with a little talent finish fourth, and nice guys with no talent finish last."

-- Sandy Koufax

mediocre man

(cough) "told you so" (cough)



While I agree that the other teams are very good, I would also argue that those teams have what Portland doesn't and that's all star players on them. Duncan is all world, as is Dirk....and Detroit had 4 of their 5 starters on the all star team this last year.

The one way to get easy baskets is to run, which is what this team should be doing more of

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Former Blazer Alaa Abdelnaby on being a student athlete at Duke. "The only way I could get 5 A's at Duke was to spell my name"


I'm Mediocre Man, and I approve this message.

Ed O