re: Monty plans to update offensive sets

This link from Grantland on the Suns touches on some of the offensive philosophy stuff that Monty might be thinking of. It's an interview with new coach Jeff Hornacek

LINK


On playing up tempo:

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If you can get it in the post, or penetrate and kick out, and get that early shot in the first seven seconds, or maybe eight seconds of the shot clock....Statistics say in the first eight seconds, you shoot a much higher percentage.

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On what type of system they will run on offense:

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You have to get a read on your players and what suits them the best. When you look at the game today, with the rule changes — that’s why everyone is going to some sort of pick-and-roll. The rules are, you can’t touch that guy with your hands. It’s not like the old days, where you could hand check. It gives such an advantage to the point guards out there, if you have a good one. And we have two of them. If you can execute well, you’re going to get good shots.

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The Pels have 3 good pgs

On finding balance between Bledsoe and Dragic*- just insert Holiday, Gordon, Evans

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Sometimes it might shake out one way or another, but our vision is to be a good rebounding team, where we can just get the ball and hit the first guy you see. And in our set offense, depending on the plays we run, maybe it’s Goran one time with Eric off the ball, but Eric goes on the ball for another set of plays. We’ll have to get a feel for it.

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On the relevance of having a post up threat:

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If you can find a guy that can post up inside and be effective, whether it’s a center, power forward — heck, you could put a point guard down there. It’s the same concept of creating some sort of double-team that allows you to have a four-on-three. Whether we do that from the post or with pick-and-rolls — we’ll figure that out.

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I mean, when you watch Miami play, you can stick LeBron there in the post and let him dictate what’s going to go on. But you do hope your good post-up players offensively are good passers. Then you can really do different things.

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It's from another team's coach and it could be coach speak from both guys, so TIFWIW, but Hornacek and Monty seem, to me, to be speaking the same language.

*H/T to Jester for the catch.

Heard he's on the chopping block

He's also not good.

Jake Madison, the play dissector at BSS, just posted a good article about spacing vs. positioning.

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Holiday, Evans and Gordon are all rim-attacking guards; when they are on the court together, who, other than Ryan Anderson, will receive the kickout passes once defenses collapse? When all three are out there with Anthony Davis (or Greg Steimsma or Jeff Withey . . . or Greg Oden), the paint will be too crowded for to have them drive into the paint! There is only one ball for three ball-handling guards! And on and on.

But it’s all a myth — for a multitude of reasons.

Before going any further I want you to get the notion that 3-point shooters are not the only way to spread out a defense. Sure it absolutely helps — we saw that in the finals — but there are other ways to achieve effective results. John Schuhmann has a great piece about how the Heat’s floor spacing is really effective because of how they position their bigs. After pointing out that the Heat’s deep shooters weren’t hurting the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Schumann says,

...Andersen [Birdman] is no threat to shoot from out there. In 54 games with the Heat, he’s 5-for-15 from outside the paint. So Hibbert doesn’t have to venture out there to defend him. But Andersen’s positioning gives his teammates a passing lane when they penetrate and draw Hibbert’s attention.

If Andersen is closer to the basket (or if he’s the roll man in a pick-and-roll), Hibbert has the length and smarts to challenge the ball-handler and cut off the passing lane at the same time. But by pacing the floor so much, the Heat’s bigs force Hibbert to make a difficult choice.

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Much more at the LINK /

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Not sure that using Birdman to show how you don't need 3 pt shooters to create good looks is the most convincing piece of evidence.

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I think the point was you position him in a way that forces Hibbert to make a choice. The Pelicans already do this all the time with Anthony Davis getting lost on the baseline behind the basket. The opposing big can either stay with Davis or help on defense, but not both. We saw Davis get a ton of easy baskets that way last year.

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I think the point was you position him in a way that forces Hibbert to make a choice.

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Oh I agree. Spoelstra is a great coach and Bird is clever off the ball. That type of play doesn't just happen by accident against a very, very good Indiana defense. But there's no help for Hibbert because the other defenders have to respect their man at the 3pt line. If Wade and Haslem are in for Allen/Battier, I don't think the same look is there.

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The Pelicans already do this all the time with Anthony Davis getting lost on the baseline behind the basket

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Definitely. Davis was way beyond expectations with his movement along the baseline and out of PnR. Monty takes undeserved heat for being poor on offense, but what he did with the talent available last season was quite good. He's got some tricks. I worry more about his defensive schemes.

I did see where the competition committee is thinking of doing away with allowing offensive players to go out of bounds during play. Davis was turning into a force with that particular off ball move.

I guess they can't make it TOO easy for the Pels dynasty.