Chris Finch on 1280AM Tuesday Morning

quote:

---

After listening to him talk about his plans for the Pelicans, the best way to summarize Finch’s offensive goal is “randomness.” He believes that having multiple playmakers on the offensive end (he highlighted not just Boogie and AD, but also Holiday and Rondo) will allow the team to play with a high degree of randomness, which will make them more difficult to guard, since opponents will have a more difficult time predicting who any given possession will feature.

...He expects to play through Cousins and AD at top of the floor and have them make plays in their own unique ways – Cousins as an elite passer, AD as a continuously improving ball-handler. The Pelicans will aim to create high quality shots by forcing opponents to react what those two big men do, working to get the right efficient shots (get inside, to the free throw line or threes). He closed out this question by saying that if things are clicking, guys will gravitate to their strengths, and that (as stated above) playing with high degree of randomness will make the team more difficult to guard.”

... Finch is excited about the roster overall, describing it as having strong top-end talent and underrated role players. His comments on a few specific players:

Diallo: soft touch and great scoring ability
Jackson: can play multiple positions and handle the ball in the pick and roll
Hill: will be more involved in everything the Pels do – can be a playmaker at times in random situations. Great cutter, which will be important to put pressure on the defense
Miller: shot-making ability will be huge to space the floor

---

quote:

---

JCF: Is there an equilibrium you’re trying to achieve based on the heavy emphasis on pushing the pace after every miss and playing up-tempo versus allowing enough time on offense for the post game to breathe and develop?

CF: Our principles of playing fast, playing with great space and taking the right shots – those aren’t changing. So whether it be ‘O’ (Asik) or Dwight or D-Mo, or Terrence [Jones] or anybody who plays for us at the five – and particularly if the two bigs play together – they’ve got to run. If Dwight runs and is committed to running, then we’re committed to getting him the ball early. It’s not something that we overemphasized last year. ‘O,’ oftentimes because he rebounded the ball, he trailed a lot. But if ‘O’ is going to be rebounding, then Dwight should be able to get out a little bit more and vice versa. So those guys need to get down there so we can get them in early post-up situations. They can get four, five, six touches a game just in the flow of the offense before the defense settles, and the benefit of that is not only unpredictability, but the defense can’t set up, they can’t force them off the post, they can’t come with organized traps and doubles and all kinds of other pressure in an attempt to bother Dwight or ‘O’ in those kinds of situations. So there’s a way where we can take our principles and benefit from it if those guys are willing. That buy-in I think is there, we just need to get Dwight accustomed to playing with our pace and then making an emphasis to find him when he does.

---

quote:

---

He should benefit immensely from being asked to get buckets instead of run the offense

---

quote:

---

I agree, someone (maybe AD) said in an interview last season that Holiday needed to be himself and be aggressive attacking. Having Rondo as the main ball-handler should lead to Jrue feeling like he can 'get his' and not have to worry about trying to get everyone involved. If AD or Cousins are open for an easy bucket, obviously go that route, but his first instinct should be scoring now.

---

quote:

---

Finch wants to make sure the players understand the importance of sacrifice, meaning that everyone will need to give up a little bit to get a lot back. He has already spoken with DeMarcus, and will be heading up to LA to talk to Davis. He said that they must sacrifice for each other and to make your teammates better. Finch truly believes that there is no basketball reason that it won’t work – only human reasons, which can be overcome.

---