Golden Age of Point Guards

We truly are in a golden age of the lead guard in the NBA today. There is such quality that coming up with a top 5 list quickly morphs into 6, 7 or 8. Here are in no particular order the top lead guards in the NBA today. Actually that's a lie, we put them in order.

5. Tie Deron Williams / Steve Nash. Both are extremely capable lead guards who can score and dish with the best of them. Nash makes the list for body of work. He's the only reason Phoenix is somewhat palatable to watch, and that's barely.

4. Rajon Rondo Freaky long and quick. Great slasher and passer and has shown flashes of being able to make a jump shot this playoff. If he becomes a deadly shooter watch out.

3. Derrick Rose Slashing ability, strength, explosive quickness and burst. We'll see how he recovers from his injury. I've been saying this since he came into the league, he needs to develop a jump shot otherwise he will be less useful after 7 or 8 years in his career. The pounding he's going to take attacking the rim will take a toll on his body so hopefully he continues to improve his developing jumper in rehab and becomes more potent.

2. Tony Parker Has asserted himself as the leader of the Spurs and can do it all.

1. Russell Westbrook. Shooter, scorer, two guard who has slowly transformed himself into a point. When he's on he's scary good.

Lifetime Achievement award: Jason Kidd

There's not much to say about him other than wow. Saw him live in 93 when he and Lamond Murray beat Duke in Chicago, in the NCAA Regional. A potential triple double every night he steps out onto the floor.

Honorable mention

Chris Paul

Again we're skittish about little guards who rely on quickness. The NBA is a man's game, attacking the paint takes a toll and little guards tend to get hurt. Which we've seen is an issue with Paul.

Ricky Rubio Liked what we saw early, we'll see how he recovers as well.

Organizations win championships

Jerry Krause uttered those words about 15 years ago much to the chagrin of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. But if you look today at what's going on in the world of basketball, especially out west, you see that organizations do indeed win championships.

First off, players win, that's obvious. You must be talented enough to make plays and win games. However, talent isn't enough to win championships. Organizations, GMs who mold rosters to put enough pieces in place, having a consistent vision from one year to the next and staying true to that vision separate the talented from the champions.

Now onto this year's analysis.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are scary good. Their star three players are 22-23 years old, primed for at least an 6-10 year run baring injury or self-inflicted ego wounds. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs have quietly gone about being the one of the best teams in the league for the past 15 or so years. While the Spurs core is far older and is on it's last hurrah's it's a testament to Greg Poppovich and R.C. Buford for building and keeping this championship train chugging along. The Lakers have gotten more sheen or glam to them, it's the nature of being in L.A. but you would be hard pressed to find a better contender for team of the last 10 years than the Spurs.

Congrats to the remaining championship organizations out west. The east well that's another story.

Political Correctness, the hard foul, and the softening of America

When I started college the political correctness movement began in earnest. This was the softening of language to ensure that you didn't hurt someone. Midgets were no longer midgets, they were vertically challenged. Gays were no longer gay, they were homosexual. Blacks weren't black, they were African-American. That type of softening has now seeped its way into the NBA. When I was younger, the NBA had enforcers, players who controlled the paint and any opponent who dared venture into the paint paid a physical price. Players got hit, clothes-lined, smacked, and on the odd occasion punched. Today, the NBA and other sports leagues are so worried about their "Image" that they punish players who act in this manner. Players like Rick Mahorn, Ed Nealy, the mid 80's Boston Celtics, and Kurt Rambis could never play in the league today. They would be spending too much time on the suspension list. The game has softened its image. The NFL has done this as well with outlawing hits with and to the head. Defensive lineman now have a strike zone with which to hit the quarterback, nothing above the shoulders or below the knee. Baseball pitchers are suspended for throwing at hitters, which has been an accepted form of internal discipline for the game for over 100 years. Now the question is, is this softening good for America? Since 2007 there has been a spike in foreclosures, the banks who sponsored the loans lost money and were insolvent. Rather than letting capitalism run its course and allow these businesses to fail, we bailed them out with TARP. The auto industry was broken, they got bailed out. Millions were unemployed and couldn't find work, we extended unemployment benefits to bail them out. The government can't balance a budget, so they raise the debt ceiling to bail themselves out. When or where did this softening start? Well obviously with the political correctness movement on college campuses. You can no longer say words that have the perceived ability to hurt someone. It trickled down into sports at the youth level where everyone gets a trophy. Then it seeps to the high schools where everyone must get playing time. Coaches get fired for not playing the right kids enough or parents with an axe to grind complain until school districts do something about it. Case in point, there was an article on yahoo sports about a month back about a woman suing the school district for violating her son's constitutional rights by cutting him from the basketball team. Her argument was that cutting him decreases the chances of him getting a college scholarship. Perhaps someone should explain to her the fact that there are 12 other players who are better than her son reduce the chances of him getting a scholarship. And the fact that no player on that roster is even being recruited, further reduces her son's chances of getting a ride. Perhaps if in the youth basketball stages if someone told her the truth, a ridiculous lawsuit wouldn't be filed. When or where does this softening stop? Life is hard, there are cruel twists and turns that you must accept and move on. Soldiers who do everything right, perform maneuvers to perfection still die from a stray round. Honest, good people die every day in car wrecks or get cancer. Cats get feline leukemia. That's life. Are we really that naive to believe that if our sports or words aren't offensive the ugliness in the world will go away? Sports are a reflection of life. Sadly there is ugliness, but that shouldn't be shunned or hidden in some dark corner never to see the light of day. Rather, it should be shown, in its nastiest most hideous form. Only then can we appreciate the game or life's true beauty.

Inmates run the asylum

What's happened in Orlando in the recent months shows just exactly what's wrong with professional sports. You have a player, a franchise player, who is paid a lot of money, voicing his discontent about his administration. You have a coach who knows of the player's discontent and quite literally calls him out on it. The player's response? Aww shucks it wasn't me. You have a general manager in pure damage control mode, disavowing facts and statements that have been made. So how does the tragedy play out? The owner fires both the general manager (forget the spin he was fired), and the coach. All in an effort to appease the player who has not committed to the franchise beyond next year. My two cents would be for the player to shut up and learn how to score with either hand in the post. Oh and being able to step out from beyond 5 feet and be an effective scorer would be a nice touch. My two cents for the owner are you just screwed up by firing one of the better coaches in the NBA, who is both sound on a technical level and has a personality on the sidelines. Yes he's opinionated. Yes he's a dead ringer for Ron Jeremy, but yes he is a good coach.

Where has all the creativity gone?

Watching the first week of the NBA season we've noticed some familiar patterns emerge.

First the NBA playbook of a steady diet of ball screens will never go away. Players who have great ability with the ball in the hands are just too dangerous coming off the ball screen. It puts tremendous pressure on the defense to guard this action and if you combine it with a talented player as the screener it's very difficult to guard.

At the collegiate level it seems that coaches have completely eschewed the motion game or creative specials and strictly use the ball screen game. Last night the URI-Pitt game, Pitt almost exclusively ran side ball screens in the closing minutes of a tight game. You'll notice as you watch the college game even teams that were once traditional motion offense teams, now feature a steady diet of ball screens.

Another more troubling aspect of coaching is the lack of creativity or ideas at the pro level. You can almost tell what's coming every trip down and there are very few wrinkles or options that teams employ to get any variety of looks for their players. Now if you have a dominant lineup and will win by keeping it simple, by all means, but teams that are inferior in their talent shouldn't try to overpower teams with a simple playbook and hope their talent wins out, it won't. We're not going to mention any names here (New Jersey).

We're going to watch film this week and see how Atlanta and their motion based game has been fairing. Their record has been good so far, but we'll report on how their offense has looked early on.

Watching players grow

It's fun watching a player develop their game so that they become more useful to their teams. 3 players in particular have shown growth in the NBA.

Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose are 3 NBA players who have amped up their level of play this early part of the season. Let's take a look at all 3.

Joakim Noah is exactly what you would want in a big. He's a high motor guy who runs the floor hard and give tremendous effort defensively and on the glass. His offensive game coming out of college was suspect to say the least, however, the past 2 seasons he's really worked on developing a jump hook game in the post to either shoulder. He also has, and this is difficult to say, improved his shooting from 15 feet and out. His technique is brutal but he's becoming more and more accurate and he's more willing to shoot it. If we were game planning to play the Bulls we'd let him shoot as many of them as he wants, but he's shown the ability to make them and will start to make teams pay for sagging off him.

Lastly we're really impressed with his ability to be coach-able. As a rookie he had issues with the veteran leadership of his team, going so far as to get suspended. But recently on a nationally televised game against the Celtics, Noah got a rebound and took the bust out dribble by himself, getting back tipped and turning the ball over late in a one or two possession game. Last night against the Nuggets, twice in the last 3 minutes of close game, Noah got rebounds and took the bust out dribble, and then he jump stopped and outletted the ball to a guard. He learned from his mistake and made the proper decision. He's definitely improving.

Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo we can evaluate together. Both are jet quick guards who can go end to end and attack the rim at will. Both are played as slashers or drive first guards who have had their driving angles closed off by sagging on ball and help defenders. Both over this summer have improved their jump shots to the point where teams have to honor it and guard them honestly. The result? Rondo is on a remarkable pace with assists and he blows by his primary defender and dumps the ball off to open teammates when the help comes. And Rose is scoring at a torrid pace. His athletic ability to blow by the first defender and get a floater up in the paint is fun to watch. He also has the power to attack bigger defenders and attack the rim for a dunk or drawing the foul. Both players as they increase their perimeter shooting percentages will become even more effective and entertaining players to watch.

The Art of War and basketball

Recently the History Channel ran a show on Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese war philosopher. His most recognizable quote is:

Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win a 100 battles.

This translates on the basketball floor as know your strengths and weaknesses and know your opponent's strength and weaknesses and you will be successful in every game.

Most coaches scout their opponents, they study patterns, player tendencies, coaching tendencies, etc.

But how many coaches scout themselves or their own teams? Do you have any tendencies that your opponent can exploit? Do you run the same play out of every timeout? Are you predictable? Are you giving your opponent the edge? Re-watch your game film and look not for your players' mistakes but your own patterns and be unpredictable and tough to coach against.

Goal for Pre-Season

Coach, what are you goals for pre-season?

Unlike the NBA or college where there are scheduled exhibition games, high school teams may or may not (under their state rules) have a scrimmage but more often than not you're playing games that count right out of the gate.

How do you use your 2-3 weeks of practice before the games begin and how do you use your first games? Is it exhibition season and you're trying out different lineups with the results being secondary? Or are you playing damn the torpedoes right out of the gate and doing everything possible to win?

A lot has to do with your philosophy of the season, if every game is a must win, you'll probably have your all your sets and defenses and you'll play your top 6 or 7 to win. Sure you'll win games but at the expense of your bench and mastery of your stuff.

If you view the season as a marathon, you'll most likely have stuff you're going to put in later in the season and you'll spend time on developing players 8,9, and 10 on your roster by giving them playing time. The negative is you might lose games early on and your players might lose some confidence.

Either philosophy isn't bad. A team that plays to win early and succeeds will have almost unstoppable confidence as the playoff season comes closer. A team that is taking the longer view of the season will see growth along every step of the way and be a really tough team to beat in playoffs.

There is no right or wrong answer to this subject, you as a coach much determine your philosophy and stick to it.

Are we forcing players back too quickly after surgery?

A lot has been made about players coming back from injury in record time and the advances in medical science getting us back so quickly. Perhaps we need to take a step back and re-examine that thought process, are we rushing athletes back too quickly? 3 injuries this fall stick out because players who have injured their ACL's all rehabbed and gotten back in under a year, only to tear them again. The New York Jets Kris Jenkins, the Minnesota Vikings Cedric Griffin, and Purdue's Robbie Hummel.

Obviously we all want our athletes back quickly, but is that any reason we should rush them back? I think we all can agree as coaches that it's the worst thing in the world to see one of your kids get hurt. I think it's especially heart breaking watching one work and rehab only to get hurt again. The looks on Griffin's and Jenkin's faces when their injuries happened were especially crushing. They knew they had torn it again immediately and all their rehab work went for naught.