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Part I of the Obese Hoops Preview: Phoenix My Ass

Posted by The General on November 5th, 2009 under Basketball

Below you will find Part I of IV of my Obese Hoops Preview.  Les Disfrutan!

Vegas note:  Odds on all four parts being written and published currently: 50 to 1, which makes the Texans winning the Super Bowl a slight favorite, and the Cowboys a prohibitive favorite.

Moving on.


Vasherized ate the cover and practiced the mantra in the sack.

Browsing my local Half Price Books sometime last summer, I came upon a copy Jack McCallum’s Seven Seconds or Less for the whopping sum of $3.00 right next to jonestopten’s book.  I purchased it and jtt’s book because that is exactly the type of buying power I have.  First, it is a great read on the inner workings of an NBA team and you should read it if basketball is interesting to you.  Second, while it is not an X’s and O’s breakdown of the Mike D’Antoni’s system, it does take a good look at that system as a basketball philosophy.  Something that I had long believed was true, but did not have anything but my opinion to back up (or even anyone that was willing to listen to my semi-coherent drunken rants on the subject, Thank You Interwebs), was that comparing Rick Barnes random screening offense to the D’Antoni and Nash led Suns offense was a farce on the level of calling Animal Crackers effing Crackers.  They are cookies.  End of discussion.

While I will give Rick credit for a marketing coup in this instance, the notion that a college team can run this system is patently absurd.  The reasons for this are many.

Practice


Practice?

NBA players are professionals and college players are amateur student athletes.  While amateurism in revenue producing college sports is its own farce on the level, of say, Bob Stoops’s coaching genius, there are limits on practice time and coach’s contact with players in the long offseason (six months or so).  In the NBA, there is little or no limit on such things, and the season itself goes from the end of October through June (in the case of the playoffs) with summer league and a month long training camp bridging the gap.  In essence, NBA players play and are coached in basketball almost twice as long in any given year than college players.

The Phoenix system functions more as a concept or philosophy than a rigid offensive system (like a Bob Knight Motion, or Phil Jackson’s Triangle).  It can not be learned by rote or studying a playbook.  It has to be orchestrated on the fly by 5 guys in absolute and fluid synchronization with each other.  This takes lots of time to teach.

Specilization and Emphasis

Specialization has been a common trend throughout sports and business in the twentieth century.  Closers and Setup Men in baseball, no more ironman football players, a wider assortment of packages depending on down and distance, are all more common now than they were in the past.  Last year I went on an interview with a very large multimarket construction company as opposed to the relatively small single market company I then worked for.  One of the topics in the interview was my duties at my current employer.  I detailed my responsibilities for a project from the bidding phase through completion.  They told me that in their company there would be between three and eight people assigned to my identical responsibilities based on the size of the project.  Specialization made them more efficient and profitable.  It is also a luxury that the little guy can not afford.

It is also the reason Henry James is our corporate sex slave wrangler.

D’Antoni’s system relies on two old basketball truisms:

1)  If I can make you play my style or pace, then I have the advantage.

2) All basketball players want to play faster (for a while at least).

In the Nash/D’Antoni era, if Phoenix made you run with them, then they won.

A common theme in the book was the extreme effort D’Antoni and the coaching staff had to exert in reminding the players to run, run, run.  They did this statistically in positional meetings, highlighted it in pregame speeches, and did it audibly during games.  I do it in run on sentences.  It takes an enormous toll on even professional athletes to maintain the pace that Phoenix had to maintain to have an advantage.  Some nights they could not bring the effort, mainly because the NBA regular season is roughly 40 games too long, but the mental and physical strain (especially on Steve Nash) was enormous.

A side effect of being successful in this system is that the defense suffers.  Part of the reason it suffers is the extraordinary amount of effort expended offensively.  The main reason it suffers is that it is not emphasized by the coaching staff.  If we consider the best coaches in college, and even some of the best in the pros, they are all known as offensive guys or defensive guys.  Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, and Rick Barnes are all known for offense or defense (or pace if you want to get snooty).  Lute Olsen once made a postgame comment after playing a Rick Barnes Horns team, that if he could get the defensive effort out of his guys that Barnes got, he would never lose.  The two examples that disprove the rule are probably Phil Jackson and Bill Belichik, but they might be the two best coaches practicing their trade in any sport right now.

There was an (unresolved) chicken and the egg argument in the book about whether Nash made D’Antoni or D’Antoni made Nash.  As all such arguments are wont to do, they ignore the fact that both parts are absolutely necessary to the whole.

Personnel and Staff

Not Steve Nash, but Trips would have his baby

Rick Barnes is a great college coach.  Texas has had some great college point guards.  But, Barnes ain’t D’Antoni and nobody is Steve Nash.  Marc Iavaroni and Alvin Gentry were verteran NBA coaches.  Chris Ogden is about 4 years removed from being a veteran of the Blind Pig.  Nash sees angles that no other point guard in the league today (and maybe ever) can see.  He is a fucking wizard.  There has been some speculation that this has something to do with his soccer background, but I know less about soccer than I know about Jenna Jameson’s snatch.  What I do know is that DJ Augustin is a real good basketball player that will never run a team like Nash does.  DJ was about three more look offs of a post man from me painting myself in a woodland camo theme and shooting him from the Tower (Too Soon?).  Dogus Balbay is the closest thing we have to a true point guard and that ain’t real close.  If I was going to use penis to make a comparison between Doge and true point, then the distance between them would be Mr. Marcus.  Let’s take a quick look at the unique lineup D’Antoni had at his disposal.

PG: Steve Nash – As good a distributor as has ever laced ‘em up.

SG: Raja Bell – The closest thing to a Barnes guy.  A tough as nails defensive stopper at the two that wasn’t scared of big shots

PG/SG: Leandro Barbosa – A fast as lightning combo guard that played the point in Europe.

PF:  Shawn Marion – The Matrix could guard 4 positions, had out of this world athleticism, and runs the floor like a gazelle.

C:  Boris Diaw – He was a backup point guard in Atlanta and a center for Phoenix.  Needless to say, nobody had that kind of passing ability from the 5.

G/F:  Tim Thomas a 6′10″ enigma that had tremendous skill in all areas possible for basketball greatness, but could only put it together for about 6 minutes at a time every third Tuesday, except not that consistently.

D’Antoni often had 3 point guards on the court at once.  Texas is lucky to have one every couple of years.


Not Rick Barnes, but Nice ‘Stash Broseph!

What this means for the Horns

The Horns don’t have the personnel to run the Phoenix offense.  They don’t have the practice time to install it.  And, most importantly, our coaching staff chooses to emphasize defense.  Even with DJ and TJ running the point, Texas was prone to long stretches of ball games where they could not buy a bucket.  I think this is because we do not have a base offense for our team to fall back on when we are struggling.

A plague of our basketball team has been stagnation in the second half.  In the middle of the second half, there is a period of time where we get tired and the result is a whole lot of dribbling and very little ball and man movement.  This has been true during the entire Barnes era, and it is going to be true this year as well.  Texas has been able to overcome this problem because of our defense.  Eventually our pressure causes mistakes and get us easy buckets, then we get our second wind. 

Every team goes through periods where there shots are not falling.  There is a glimmer of hope this year.  Varez Ward, J’Covan Brown, Avery Bradley, and Jordan Hamilton are all guys that can get their own shots.  We have not had four such players on our team in the Barnes Era.

The problem with assuming that our personnel additions will counteract an offensive system that was once described on this website as being coordinated by Greg Davis (If I am quoting myself, then I apologize, because that is hubris even for  uhh . . myself, but, I don’t think I can possibly be accountable for which asshole said what here.  Not with my IQ in its 16th year of a steady nose dive.)  Throwing personnel at a conceptual problem is kinda like throwing government money at a broken economy.  Ohh, Shit!  No you d’int.

Unfortunately, our best example of this is the offensive side of our football team.  I was going to link to an article regarding the offensive conceptual problems of our football team until I realized that is all the articles.

The plays and sets that we do run, we do not teach the counter for the standard defensive alignments.  I can spot 6-7 layups per game we miss just because our post man don’t pin their man after setting screens for off the ball guards.  I am not John Wooden.  I am a fat guy that can’t play basketball anymore because of herniated disks plus knees sans cartilage, and quit playing basketball his sophomore year in high school.
 
The simple fact of the matter is that players aren’t going to suddenly teach themselves how to throw the ball to a low post player (since Barnes has not taught this to any previous players).  Proper spacing is not going to magically be a non-issue (part of our post entry problem is we are standing in the wrong place).  Ball movement is not going to suddenly be crisp and purposeful for more than short stretches.  If I see Avery Bradley running around like we ran AJ Abrams around, where he catches the ball at a dead sprint away from the basket and beyond the three point line, then I will probably end up in jail after I throw my shoe from the mezzanine at Barnes’s head.  This wouldn’t be a big deal except Sailor used the entire BC Bail Budget on Scipio’s recent ’sabbatical’ to Phu Ket.  I can buy a 12 year old for the change in my couch in Thailand, but it takes $5,843.00 to bail out a tree rapist.  Thank you Southeast Asia.


Good question!

A quick summary of our offensive problems:

1) Bad Spacing

2) Bad or Ineffectual movement without the ball.

3) No Offensive System

4) No Counters for the things we do run.

5) Egregious and Gratuitous Capitalization that I Can’t control and am Tired of Correcting.

Whoops, that last one was my problem.

Part II – Why this is the best Texas basketball team ever and Why Texas will win the National title this year Making everyone our Bitches (Who Must Be Kicked) starting with those Cunts in Kansas.

To be delivered hopefully before the season ends.

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21 Responses

  1. chuck nevitt said:

    November 5th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    yeah, ” No Offensive System” tends to bite us in the ass from time to time.

  2. hotspot shield said:

    November 5th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

    Do Asians throw hamburgers at their weddings since American’s throw rice at theirs?

  3. Sugarpants said:

    November 5th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    I hope we’re NOT trying to emulate the Sun’s offensive system. At their best, they were getting beat down at their own game by the Spurs.

  4. timbeam said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 12:25 am

    Transcendant big men > transcendant point guards.

    This is a generalization, but the Spurs dominance over just about everybody can be summed up by that idea.

    My offensive hopes for this team are pinned to the notion that we finally have enough high level players, particularly offensively, that can consistently exhibit recognition for counter moves out of the random screen.

    Sometimes lost inside of the understanding that Barnes has the most talent, by far, that he’s ever had is that Barnes now has, by far, the most talent he’s ever had…i.e., these guys are simply better basketball players than Barnes has EVER had here at Texas. Which is not to say that we’ll undoubtedly win more this year. Simply that the level of player is so much higher that their inherent basketball IQ should allow them to make plays, innately, that other players under Barnes could not.

    To put it bluntly: if these guys can’t make a legitimate offensive system out of Barnes’s ideologies then the likelihood is that absolutely no team can.

  5. EnglishAg said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 3:00 am

    “There has been some speculation that this has something to do with his soccer background, but I know less about soccer than I know about Jenna Jameson’s snatch”.

    i threw up a little and then had a thought on the steve nash soccer thing.

    soccer does help a great deal with spacial awareness and teaches atheletes to know what is going on on the field / pitch / court at all times.

    there was grainy old footage on youtube of bobby moore – an soccer player from yesteryear – he was playing in a practice match when the coach picked up the ball blindfolded him and asked him to point to each player on his team. he was able to say where each of his 10 team mates were on a full size pitch 110 yards by 70 yards (give or take) – saying fullback, 3o’clock, 20 feet away, etc etc etc.

    a lot of the euro basketball players will have grown up playing soccer too. i understand that (as a gross generalisation) they are seen to be technically proficient solid basketballers who fit well into a team / playing style. guess there may be something in it.

  6. batate said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 6:02 am

    Greg Davis looked fine when he had Ricky Williams (post) or Vince Young (pg). This year, Barnes has both.

  7. The General said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 6:05 am

    Wrong, batate. Greg Davis was bad with Roy, and was only good with Vince when he removed himself from the equation.

  8. uthookem said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 7:07 am

    Very nice article. I am looking forward to part II.

  9. Bob in Houston said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 7:46 am

    Excellent stuff, General. For all the stuff that coaches preach, including Barnes, about being accountable and doing your job, the idea that Texas runs the Phoenix offense is lip service to what that really means. To Texas, it has meant freelancing and (for the most part) first guy that gets open or can get his own shot puts it up.

    I am not sure that Pittman was ready to take on more than he has taken, but any chance of that was limited by the inability of the guards to throw entry passes.

    To throw in an Underdog reference… “Teamwork, teamwork, that’s what counts!!”

  10. jonestopten said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 11:07 am

    If you were going to build a team expressly designed to beat the D’Antoni Phoenix Suns, then you would build the San Antonio Spurs. The Suns, as the good general points out, could put three point guards (for all practical purposes) on the floor at one team. The Spurs, during the same time period, were the only team that could put three excellent (All NBA defensive-team level) defenders in the game at the same time: Duncan, Bowen, Ginobili (although Ginobili has never, to my knowledge, made all-defense, which is a crock).

    In addition, the Spurs own point guard never had any problems running with Steve Nash–covering him, sometimes, but never running with him. Nash got physically abused in those playoff series–even though he often played exceptionally well.

    The Spurs intentionally left Amare Stoudamire alone, covered the other four–particularly closing out on three-point shooters, eliminated the Suns. Simple as that.

  11. jonestopten said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Oh — and thanks for buying my book.

  12. The General said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 11:17 am

    No problem. I’ll buy anything for $3.00

  13. ransomstoddard said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    I always wince when people try to draw parallels between the NBA and college ball. Two completely different sports, with completely different objectives.

  14. Sugarpants said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 11:37 am

    I’d hardly call Duncan a defensive liability either. He had some effort lapses but in crunch time he was money.

  15. The Bobs said:

    November 6th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    the other reason the Spurs always won is that they’d make the Suns try to play the game on both ends… and they never did that. For everything Nash might give you on the offensive end, he’d give it all back on the defensive. With the Spurs, they played defense as a team, with a commitment utterly lacking from the Suns, but they also could bring their own offense – the Suns never had an answer to Duncan, or Parker, or Ginobili…

    I think/hope that this year’s Horns team is more like the Spurs – adjusted for all the factors explained in the article for NBA/college distinctions – and make teams beat them on both ends of the floor. I don’t really want a one-dimensional, Suns-like offensive juggernaut. I want to see a team that plays together with total commitment on defense (which I believe we’ll see), and also plays well at the offensive end, which I guess… we’ll see about that.

  16. anonymous said:

    November 7th, 2009 at 10:07 am

    I don’t agree with the earlier commenter that a transcendent big man is more important than a transcendent guard. At the college level, give me the guard every single time.

    I too wish we had a more of an offensive system to fall back on. But I don’t think the throwing personnel at a conceptual problem analogy to football really holds up. These are two very different sports. One player winning a one on one matchup in basketball can create offense consistently. Not so in football. I don’t disagree that we shouldn’t improve spacing and movement etc to make things easier, but I think you are underselling the ability of personnel to make drastic and systematic changes to your offense’s capabilities simply by dint of that personnel’s ability to consistently beat their man. Contrast this with football, where, for example, you truly are not going to have a functioning running game no matter how talented that back is if the scheme is terrible.

  17. SkyMonkeyHorn said:

    November 7th, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Damn, wake up with a headache and then read another headache. We have a shitty offense scheme. Yes or no depending on the poster and his educated guess, maybe.

    I know by watching our team that we appear confused MOST of the time when we are in our Offensive Scheme. Basketball IQ is a very important to any OFF.Scheme. Our longhorns have lacked that for several years and the offense comes to a halt when the first option is defended. Our offense has been predictable so much that our players look bad out there.

    WE have to look now at the outstanding TALENT that the new guys bring along with their high BB IQ.

    Let me say that players have to make plays for teams to win the big games = BB IQ + TALENT + teamwork.

    Bradley,Hamilton, Lucas, have BB IQ and TALENT and are Teamplayers.
    Williams is a scorer with a lot of tools in his skill set with a load of Talent. IQ to me is lacking.
    Wang sitting for a year enabled him to see what he has to do to play great defense. BB IQ is lacking due to BB inexpirence .
    The 4 Off. players create their own shots while also helping the other 4 players on the court max out their chances for a high % shot, closer to the rim.
    Add a good center that can score, a great rebounder and we have a lot of options to cover our shitty off.scheme. The experience that Mason,Ward, Balbay, and the rest bring will just make us a better team with many combination of players. Will Barnes get off his hard ass schemes and allow more options for his players without fear of making mistakes. That the biggest Q for our team,

    I love Soccer and football but this sport is played on a hard court and the skills sets are also different although they overlap in some areas.
    Give me a smart,quick, fast jumper and runner and you can train him to be outstanding in most sport that they want to play. Teach them the game and it improves the IQ, their skills sets that we refer to as Talent and to play nice with his teammates and you have a keeper that will make the plays to win games…….. IMO with a headache.

  18. timbeam said:

    November 8th, 2009 at 8:39 am

    The context of the comment about bigs vs. guards was made with regards to Spurs vs. Suns. Duncan > Nash. In the NBA there is little, to any, doubt that transcendant big men are far more important to success than are transcendant point guards.

  19. ipowers said:

    November 10th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    Fron Orangebloods:

    Hoops: Longhorns get final dress rehearsal with Gonzaga
    One week after scrimmaging Davidson in Austin, the Longhorns hoopsters headed to Denver for a closed scrimmage Saturday against Gonzaga at the Denver Nuggets’ practice facility at the Pepsi Center.

    Here are a few nuggets from the scrimmage as the Longhorns prepare for their season opener Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Erwin Center against UC-Irvine.

    –Texas won the scrimmage, according to the source I talked to. It was an impressive showing for some (J’Covan Brown, Shawn Williams and Avery Bradley) and a wake-up call for some others (Dexter Pittman and Gary Johnson).

    –Dex, who has battled through an ankle sprain recently, got all he wanted from Gonzaga 7-footer Robert Sacre. Sacre was more physical than Dex and threw some forearms into Pittman’s chest (and even tripped Varez Ward on a screen). Sacre was a good wakeup call for Dex that he’s going to occasionally run into someone as big and strong as he is.

    –J’Covan Brown is making a strong, strong push for minutes at point guard and showed some good stuff against Gonzaga. Even though he’s still got a lot to learn on the defensive end, he really sees the floor well, plays with a veteran’s pace and can score. If UT wants to get the most out of Pittman, Rick Barnes is going to have to surround Pittman with shooters. J’Covan can shoot it.

    –Dogus Balbay got some work against Gonzaga, and the starting job at point for Sunday is down to three players: Varez Ward, Balbay and J’Covan. One source said Barnes could change his mind “five times between now and then.” It’s a good battle.

    –Another player really making a solid impression is freshman wing Shawn Williams. One person I talked to said Williams is probably being overrated as a shooter and being underrated as an all-around basketball player who does little things like move without the ball, play help-side defense and make the extra pass. Watch out for Williams.

    –Damion James is doing exactly what Barnes wants from a rebounding standpoint. James is truly gifted in that he will rebound “out of his area” and just go get the ball. It’s a lesson that Gary Johnson and Dexter Pittman are still learning. Coaches want Johnson and Pittman to “go get” more rebounds this season.

    –Lexi Wangmene has really bought into his role as a physical post presence who will set screen after screen, play physical post defense, block shots and go get rebounds. From this standpoint, he may have a more clearly defined role than Clint Chapman and Matt Hill. Wangmene isn’t really even concerned with offense. He’s all about defense and rebounding.

    –Chapman can play inside and outside, but he and Gary Johnson need to focus less on offense and more on defense at this point. Chapman is behind Wangmene at this point.

    –Matt Hill may also be a little ahead of Chapman simply because Hill, too, is so focused on defense and rebounding, while Chapman is a little more offensive minded. And let’s be honest, most of the offense on this team is going to come from the perimeter and wing positions or from the center (Pittman). So the team’s other big men need to be very careful about thinking offense first (Johnson, Chapman).

    –One source inside the team said, “We forgot just how physical of a presence Lexi can be. It’s nice to have him back (after his knee injury last season).”

    –The best and most consistent players in camp so far have been Avery Bradley, Damion James and Varez Ward.

    –What impresses the coaches most about Avery Bradley is how much he wants to be coached. He’s constantly asking questions to make sure he gets things right. Even after getting a butt chewing from Barnes in practice, Bradley will thank his coach for ripping him. On more than one occasion this “thank you sir may I have another” mentality from Bradley has completely disarmed Barnes and made him laugh.

    –Barnes continues to be really happy with the leadership of Dexter Pittman, Damion James and Justin Mason. Practices are heated. Players are going at each other. But those guys continue to lead.

    –J’Covan and Jordan Hamilton, maybe the two best offensive players of the freshmen class, showed some good stuff against Gonzaga one second and then had defensive lapses the next. “They are both learning just how consistently hard they have to work,” one insider said..

  20. The General said:

    November 11th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

    Sky,

    I agree with everything you have written, but our spacing issues and unique inability to post entry goes back to the Mihm and Chris Owens days.

    I think we will be much better this year because of the guys we have and their attitude, I just don’t think our offensive prowess passes our defense or rebounding.

    I also think there will be inexplicable periods where we look lost.

    Nobody would be happier about being 180 degrees wrong about this than me.

  21. Jason Demko said:

    November 11th, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Basketball is a really true intensive, exciting and unpredictable game in a Live! scene to witness…

    BallGames

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    Otherwise, I’m 2-1.

  • CloseToJumping commented on the blog post Beat the Barkers NCAA Tourney Bracket   4 hours, 12 minutes ago

    Yeah, that Purdue pick was awesome. It seems like I heard something about them having injuries, but it slipped my mind when making picks. I’ve literally not seen them play for one second this season. Not a highlight, nothing. Good work.

    1-2 to start things off, I think it’s clear I’m going to own this thing.

  • ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   4 hours, 50 minutes ago

    Man, Sam Houston State is playing Baylor perfectly. Rec Specs is running the paint. And I always love teams with short guys who jack threes.

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  • ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   5 hours, 3 minutes ago

    And they have a dude with rec specs.

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  • Trips Right commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   5 hours, 3 minutes ago

    Sam Houston State with a triangle and two to stifle Baylor. I’m going to vomit

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  • ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   5 hours, 3 minutes ago

    Sam Houston State is like Tom Penders’ wet dream.

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  • Art Vandelay commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   5 hours, 5 minutes ago

    MMOD is beating me down with the Ivan brothers.

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  • ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post March Madness open thread   5 hours, 5 minutes ago

    ND proved that the old tried and true, anti-Duke theory about how teams that rely on unathletic white dudes who have to get to the foul line and/or make a alot of really ugly right-handed layups never win in the tourney.

  • ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post March Madness open thread   5 hours, 6 minutes ago

    Man, I can’t believe that Florida game. Their team actually appears to be DUMBER than ours.

  • Vasherized commented on the blog post March Madness Open thread   5 hours, 8 minutes ago

    We need to send our guys to Baylor’s School of Hard Dunks.

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  • Triston27 commented on the blog post Big Dance: Day One   5 hours, 11 minutes ago

    Dollar $igns!

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  • Art Vandelay commented on the blog post March Madness open thread   5 hours, 14 minutes ago

    Great start to the tourney. Two OT games and a one point ND loss.

    Yeah – a bunch of half ass bowl games is a much better idea.