NBA Lockout Off-Topic Theater: Play Us A Song, Flip Saunders

I’d like to say I like Flip. I appreciate that there has been incremental improvement in the play of some of the youngsters. He understands how to design a defense. He’s decent in making adjustments based on match-ups. I don’t like his demeanor with the media, handling things publicly instead of in house. And it seems he ticks off his players somewhat over time. And good god he needs to get over his ex-wife KG. BUt still, he’s a solid coach in many respects. A pro.

Still, more than anything I’m no fan of his offensive system. He works too hard to create bad shots, and his preferred methodology is not a great fit for our team’s best strengths. If you walk back through all years of available data on Flip’s teams, every year he is among the league leaders in jumpers at the ‘long two’, just inside the three point line:

http://hoopdata.com/teamshotlocs.aspx

(Yes don’t bother linking me the ‘shxt shot’ article, I’ve been saying this before he landed in Detroit).

Point being he consistently likes to run plays to develop open jumpshots for his off guard and face-up bigs. Whether this is staggered screens on curl patterns or pin screens in the pain or high post jumpers from KG/Sheed/McDyess etc. Flip would prefer to have his guys shooting with nobody guarding them, often after some motion or misdirection.

Solid plan, right? Shoot open shots? Fine, except what it leads to is a great deal of activity ‘til late in the clock, winding up in a low-percentage long range 2pt shot, taken with your bigs out of position to rebound, and since it’s an open shot, no chance for a free throw.

The system thrives best on smart savvy jumpshooters. Your Rip Hamilton, Chauncey, Wally Z types. This team has one player who has that skill set, in Nick Young, but 3 years into it he’s only 30 pages into that 700 page playbook. The system puts a great deal of pressure on the PG to take the ball up, make the calls and reads, and run the system. But this tends to work best with a savvy deliberate calm veteran floor general who can walk the ball up and watch what develops.

Flip’s systems rarely take full advantage of one of the key weapons in any team’s arsenal (in the new no-hand-check era)— the attack off the dribble. The PG is the primary ballhandler, with the first pass often to the mid/high-post big (who is the secondary decision-maker while the PG runs a baseline cut) but the system is not designed to iso talented ballhanders to clear out the middle and force the opponents to check-up on D or foul when beat.. In fact the paint is often clogged with down-screening forwards to trap opponent defenders to allow for that open mid-range jumper.

Set plays rather than player creativity are the order of the day. And as such the team is easier to gameplan against in the postseason when coaches become familiar with the sets and can actually choose to defend the mid-range instead of letting you take a crappy low-percentage shot for free. And refs allow more clutching and grabbing to slow-up your complex offensive machinery.

All of which is a poor match to our team’s primary talent, and weaknesses. We have a length and speed and creativity mismatch (in a positive way) in 3 or more positions (Johnny Ballgame, N1-on-5, and uh, ‘Pierre’ McGee). Adding the bouncing Czech to the roster adds another similar read. These are uptempo improvisational artists more than cogs in an engine. And to be frank, many of our best talents aren’t winning any chess tournaments, you understand. Still, even putting all the decisionmaking in the hands of our rookie point is tricky — a cunning instinctive predator like JimmyWall has to check up and out-think an opponent instead of reacting quicker than thought. Speed of reaction is our forte. Run with it, literally.

Granted, to run uptempo, you need to force misses and collect rebounds. Still,aside from that shortcoming, this team would do best with a system like the Coach Cal Dribble Drive Motion system, that gives it’s players freedom to create. Even if Cal is a disingenuous and unctuous bastid.

So. Flip is a witty fellow, a longsuffering guy who landed in the wrong situation for what he thought he was getting, I just think his strengths are an awkward fit for this roster. I’d have no problem with that is I thought his was the right way, but so far it’s not proven to be an ironclad playoff-tempered method. So, if it’s him or them, I dunno. Them I guess.

Though Teddy will give him a year at least I’m sure. No point eating the contract for free in a shortened year.