Bad Boys II
I’d like to send a quick shout-out to the Detroit Pistons for winning the NBA championship last week and actually making me somewhat interested in The Finals for the first time in about 5 years. If all teams played team defense like Detroit did the NBA would be much more enjoyable to watch.
I know what you’re thinking. That chick Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas is hot, but that’s not what we’re talking about right now. So back to what you were also thinking: “Great, if everyone played team defense like the Pistons all NBA games would be 63-59. Really awesome, Jamie. Jerk.” I actually don’t think that would happen - at least not in the long-term. I think if more teams played a solid team defense, then teams would be forced to counter with something the Lakers obviously couldn’t: a solid team offense. Finally, we would be free from the “give it to Option #1 or #2 and let them go one-on-one or one-on-three“ offense that has weakened the NBA product over the past 12 years.
I think Larry Brown is one of the best basketball coaches ever, and he proved why in this series against the Lakers. He threw a defense at them that he knew they couldn’t handle because they were the Lakers. The Lakers had the talent to beat the Pistons hands down, but they did not have the will to play the kind of basketball necessary to beat them at their own game. They could not get over their “give it to Kobe or Shaq and get out of the way” mentality and it cost them the championship. We won’t even get started on how overrated Phil Jackson is as a basketball tactician.
Anyway, back to my theory. If team defenses like the brand the Pistons just displayed became more prevalent, I think team offenses would become better. We would start to see the re-emergence of the two kind of guys that really make a basketball game flow: a guy who can move without the ball and a guy who can shoot a dead-eye medium range jumper. These are skills that most NBA players today simply do not possess, and the game suffers as a result.
Of course I’m not naive enough to think that this will become the norm anytime soon. I’m sure that we’ll be back to the same old crap this fall. But until then I’ll enjoy the memory of this improbable Pistons run. Thanks fellas. There should be more like you.
I will avoid the Larry Brown comments…
Anyway, dude, the NBA sux. Period. They allow too much hacking and hand checking and then they call phantom fouls.
Everybody talks about how bad defense used to be but that was because the game was actually officiated.
Please, can we move on to something exciting like Curling or Soccer?
Oh yeah, Fergie is hot…
This is more for the sake of conversation than I really feel strongly about what I’m getting ready to say…
"I think Larry Brown is one of the best basketball coaches ever, and he proved why in this series against the Lakers."
Brown is a great coach. Arguably the best in the NBA. But I don’t think it was defensive genius or even a mild offensive explosion (in Eastern conference terms) that won the series. I think the Lakers quit after game 3.
"If team defenses like the brand the Pistons just displayed became more prevalent, I think team offenses would become better."
Indiana played against Detroit 4 times during the regular season. They won all four, averaging 77 points. They really stepped it up in the playoffs, averaging 72 points while losing in 6 games.
That’s seventy two points. To put it in perspective, the ‘88 Celtics could have spotted them Bird’s 20 points in the 4th quarter of the Eastern Conference semis and still won by 27 points.
The NBA was a better place in the 80’s and early 90’s. A guy who can move without the ball and a guy can’t save it now.
I basically agree with both of your sentiments - minus the Larry Brown thing - that the NBA essentially blows now. This was more of a half-hearted attempt to give props to the Pistons for playing something that resembled actual basketball the past few weeks. I think I’m doing more wishful thinking than anything else, mostly because I’m so bitter about the state of pro basketball these days.
The sports calendar used to be so much more exciting this time of year. You’d have a bit of a lull after the NCAA Tournament ended, but at least you’d have the NBA playoffs to look forward to until you were stuck with crappy baseball for the summer.
I’ve basically given up on American basketball players saving the game. If it’s not a commitment to team defense that will bring some offensive balance back to the NBA, then maybe the influx of more fundamentally sound foreign players will light a fire under our kids to actually learn how to play the game instead of practicing dunks and 3-pointers all the time. You are going to hear a lot of foreign names called again on Thursday night. I’m hoping that percentage will grow each year until U.S. kids figure out that they need to adapt in order to make the league.
Even this feels like I’m grasping at straws though. You would think the fact that the numbers are down so dramatically for the playoffs and the NBA in general would cause the league to take some action, but I guess they must feel like they’re doing something right.
How long until football starts?
The NBA can have their young potential — Deng, Dwight Howard or Shaun Livingston… Get them out of college basketball as far as I’m concerned.
How great was Tim Pickett to watch in the ACC tourney this year? He wasn’t worried about agents or draft position or whether he should show at the Chicago camp. He was on a bum ankle just trying to win games.