VladRad? Really?
John Kuester brought a butter knife to a gun fight, Keith Smart’s rejoinder was a stick of Land o’ Lakes.
Smart has done a good job overall, so this game was the exception that my nightmares call a rule. Because–against Detroit–the Warriors were snookered into featuring D-League lineups. During the fourth quarter, David Lee absorbed splinters like an obese termite. While Lee rebounded a folding char, Vladimir Radmanovic played defense as if he was one. Biedrins had two personal fouls, but only 26 minutes to his name. Somehow, Rodney Carney and Reggie Williams didn’t make up for lost rebounds. Somehow.
Coaches over-adjust to situations out of an urge to prove wise. Last year’s Warriors could only win against those who were deluded enough to “go small” against Nellie. These game managers were not pressing an advantage, but instead flaunting their “knowledge” of strategy. It was a fool’s flaunt.
On the heels of Sunday, I’m reminded of how obscure, former San Diego Chargers defensive coordinator Joe Pascale used to dominate the Denver Bronco’s vaunted zone blocking scheme. Over the course of five seasons, the mighty Terrell Davis could only muster a single 100 yard game against Pascale. When asked why this happened, Joe said:
“Their linemen don’t fire off the ball. They work laterally and everybody on the defensive front works laterally with them, so seams are created. What we used to do was, rather than move laterally with them, we’d attack them and knock the offensive linemen back. By doing this, we took away their cutback lanes.”
As in, their strategy only works when you try to repel it. Just go after the quarterback as though the opposing linemen aren’t moving sideways. Don’t accept your enemy’s paradigm. If Bill O’Reilly shouts, “Why are you a Communist!” don’t begin the next sentence with, “Well, I’m not a Communist because…”
The Pistons are playing Prince and Villaneuva at the 4 and 5? Great, go big and bludgeon them till Detroit’s eye sockets cave into their throats. Because, countering with Vladimir Radmanovic and Rodney Carney isn’t hope and it isn’t a plan.
What makes Keith Smart fun to follow is that he’s not Don Nelson. The traditional lineups have worked well and Keith’s energy has been a welcome rebuke to Nellie’s implacable zombie routine. The next step is to erase the memory small ball with an Orwellian earnestness.
As Joe Pascale once said:
“This is a simple game. That’s a simple answer, but people always are looking for something else.”
Look for Lee, look for Biedrins, find the playoffs.
Twitter: @SherwoodStrauss
Hey ESS, 2cents on the RRI: in short, it’s backwards from a language+math perspective.
If it’s a REGRET index, then a positive number would logically suggest the regret is HIGHER. That’s clearly not how you are defining it, because I’ve been following Lee vs. Randolph (and Turiaf and Kelenna) on my own and Lee’s math (and attitude) is clearly better. Confused, I had to go read the old post just to get clarification.
For the sake of accuracy, you should flip the numbers or change the name (LRI?). Or, of course, you could just define it however you want; semantics are a wonderful tool.
Incidentally, I’m an early believer in the trade — esp. when most people’s caveat was “we hate to see Kelenna go,” and he hasn’t even got on the court yet. For the record, I felt the same way — Special K is a class act; I hope he gets back up to speed.
Still adjusting, too bad the Warriors couldn’t overcome Detroit though, they really can’t afford to be giving away any games.