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The NBA thinks on its feet, and Cleveland is plodding proof
In this year’s NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt has decided to slow down the game, limit possessions, limit potentially turnover-causing passes around the perimeter, and ride LeBron James’ isolation play to a 2-1 series lead. He’s been absolutely spot-on in his approach.
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During the regular season, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr completely abandoned an offensive game plan, put into place by former W’s coach Mark Jackson, which just about mirrored what Blatt is doing in Cleveland right now. Isolation play and simple screen and roll sets designed to highlight the All-Stars were thrown out the window, and a fevered, risk-taking approach led to the Warriors finishing a few blown outlet passes away from ending the season as the league’s leader in offensive efficiency. He came through with an inspired and correct call.
In the NBA’s other conference, Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer aped the form of his former boss Gregg Popovich in encouraging the pass that led to the pass that led to the pass that led to the pass; watching as his team drove opponents batty on its way up charts prior to earning the East’s best record. San Antonio’s Coach Pop won a title against James’ Miami Heat just under one year ago by letting his talented, position-less players make the call after the coach had provided a warming atmosphere in which his players could create. It was smart work.
Three years ago, with James’ legacy on the line and the team in danger of falling to an aging Boston Celtics squad, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra created a “pace and space” system gleaned somewhat from the trigger-happy world of West Coast college football. It was the perfect move to make.
Years before, Phil Jackson did away with some of the more pedantic processes of his beloved triangle offense in order to focus on Tex Winter’s tenets – penetration and spacing, above all. This meant there weren’t five passes to take in before each score, but what does it matter when Kobe is nailing that 19-footer? Fantastic work.
Prior to that, Jackson encouraged both those tenets and the passing as he attempted to introduce both tact and reason to his fire-breathing superstar in Michael Jordan, and a bit of poise to his emerging stars in the rest of the Chicago Bull rotation. It was the right call.
We could go on, but you get the idea. The idea that this league is never out of ideas, and that one year’s movement might turn into another year’s potential millstone. That sometimes the goose is more important than the gander, and that sometimes the league’s most talented flock can’t even take more than two games in the Finals round.
This game never stops teaching us new things, and anytime we think we’ve got it sussed out, we’re going to be left behind.
This isn’t to say that the Cavaliers have the newest, bluest, great idea. Their desperation was born out of necessity, due to the team’s various injuries, and its Finals run came after what was, frankly, a regular season that saw them underachieve offensively. Deciding to limit a possession to a pair of passes, a single screen and roll, and just 12 seconds’ worth of decision-making for a player that might end his career as the best player in league history is hardly a novel idea.
This isn’t to take away from Blatt and LeBron’s execution, but even with James Jones and Mike Miller having to play spot minutes, the Cavaliers’ Big Problem will be a luxurious one as long as James can play 47.3 minutes a night.
It’s also a winning one. For now, at least; because nobody should be surprised if a team as formidable and as self-aware as the Golden State Warriors wins out and takes the series in six.
That sort of turnaround, however, wouldn’t damn Cleveland’s offensive leanings to the scrapheap. Context matters, in a game with just five to a side, and organizations continually have to play to the strengths of their own personnel, and the abilities of the opposing squad that they’re charged with defeating four times in seven games.
Whether the Cavaliers wrap this up on Sunday or watch as their season ends on Tuesday would be just as fleeting a statement as B.J. Armstrong lining up for a corner three that Phil Jackson would someday pooh-pooh on something called "Twitter" two decades on, or Dirk Nowitzki’s ability to act as the most efficient guy on the court while working 19 feet from the hoop. The same goes for Golden State’s actions in its eventual comeback or dismissal.
This is what makes this league so fascinating. That the movement and the motion we all rightfully championed throughout an endless summer and wearying winter can come to a stop in a fortnight. That a few unfortunate twists and turns can lead to an unexpected change of the guard that defines a player’s – a franchise’s, a city’s – permanence in our minds.
That’s as exhilarating as a splash from two different brothers from another mother who both had fathers that played in games that Marv Albert called. We can spend four different seasons guessing and asking and challenging and discussing and re-watching and reading over and over, and at the end of the day – at the end of another season – we still don’t know a damn thing. Outside of the fact that this is damn fun.
The damn fun has only a few games left, and we have no idea who is going to win them. Enjoy this.
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
