Not Exactly Born To Run

You’re right to point out the disconnect, Jeff. In the past, watching guys like Gerald (and Al back when), it seemed like they were always bogged down by thinking too much on offense. Part of that, I’m sure, is good. But part of it makes you wish their talent was just let loose (maybe the tempo thing would help). Good thoughts, though, Jeff.

Also, I think this is Gerald’s second year.

Ughh. You shouldn’t have started down this road. Your going to get the “you don’t need to be fast to run” speech any moment now.. :P

The C’s will run situtionally.. like when they get TA back of if they trade Wally for Ricky Davis again – who was about the only guy who ran for us..

Running is overrated.

Name the last team to win a championship that was better at a running offense then they were at a half-court offense. Its been literally decades.

And that’s because half-court offense dominates gritty, hard fought, close basketball games. Running is a way to exploit the other teams stupidity, something your going to find in garbage time, not the playoffs.

Like wdleehi I think this running the ball craze, like the West Coast offense in football before it is just a fad. However, as long as teams are running with success, NBA gms will always be jealous of thier neighbors. I think Boston should take advantage of quicker points in the paint, a sort of “secondary push”…Dean Smith used to run it at UNC, its pushing the ball right as the defense is setting up…or more exactly, most teams get into defensive position, but there is a short period of time where they’re set but not ready to play real defense yet (please if any real basketball people know anything about this help)…thats when you push the ball for easy buckets…not quite running, but not quite a trad. half court set either.

Running would just mean that we would lose games 116-104 instead of 102-93. We dont have the talent no matter what pace we play at.

We should be dictating tempo a little more though. When we play running teams, we run. when we play slow-it-down teams, we slow it down. We are always playing at the other teams prefered pace, while we should be forcing teams to make adjustments. The only time we force teams to make adjustments is when we go small.

If we could just score more effectively when we get a fast break opportunity I would be happy. Every team should look to capitalize on fast break opportunities – easier buckets AND if you don’t get to the hoop, you can run your halfcourt while the other team is still setting up their defense.

This was no secret pre-draft knowledge. Until Wally and Pierce are gone, you don’t have the players in the positions to be a running club. Why it takes half a season of horrible basketball for Danny to realize this is beyond me. I knew it draft night.

Half court offense and defense have more to do with championship ball than running. Toronto tried to run the start of the season and were abysmal. They scraped that plan and are playing to their strengths.

Danny is too too scattered. This dual youth movement/get Pierce vet help isn’t working. This attitude in the off season to get small points over needed big man; and to use 2 first roung picks on 2 uptempo small point guards who lack outside shot; and want to run on a non-running team killed us for this year.

Injuries aside, we were a sub 500 club, destined to missing the playoffs. Now our whole goal is to ride out the season, hope for as many loses as possible to increase the ping pong balls, and pray #1 or #2 comes our way. This was not Danny’s plan and having to root for loses sucks and goes against everything you want as a fan of sports.

At some point management needs to clean house.

"I wonder if the team Ainge has assembled is really a running team at all. Think about the current 4 best players on this team: Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson, Delonte West, and Ryan Gomes. The bench features players like Perkins, Powe, and Scalabrine. Exactly which one of those players is a fast break player?

The only players well suited to a running attack have fatal flaws: Rondo is the best of the bunch, but still making his share of rookie mistakes. Telfair, in his 3rd year, is also still making rookie mistakes. Gerald Green, also in his 3rd year, is making fewer and fewer rookie mistakes, but he’s no vet. And of course Tony Allen is on the shelf.

This is one case where I really canâ€â"¢t blame Doc for failing to get the team to run. He has to work with what heâ€â"¢s got and that means slowing things down."
 

Sorry, Jeff, but as other people have pointed out, that’s nonsense. The reason why this team doesn’t run has nothing to do with the players, it’s because Doc Rivers doesn’t WANT the team to run because. Perkins is the only player on the Cs who’d have trouble fastbreaking, and since when is the center supposed to be finishing a fast break by swooping in from the wing for a dunk? There’s no reason this team can’t run. Whether they’d be more successful doing that is another question.

Mike

I don’t know that it’s fair to judge anybody when most of these games are being mailed in. We’ll probably know whether these guards were made for a running team next season when we’re actually trying to win games….and we hopefully have an NBA-level coach…..Hopefully….Please??

When Perk, who will never be the most mobile player, is chasing guards around the three point line, he isn’t in position to rebound to start the break. When the opposition is getting wide open shots because of this defense and shooting 50%, it’s hard to start the break in the first place.

The running game is a mentality more than anything. One of my favorite comments from Bird shows this.

Bird was talking about running after a made basket. He said that one of their favorite things to do was get the ball upcourt quickly and score an easy basket while the other team was still high-fiving and jogging back up the court.

Those Celts were hardly great runners, but they had the mindset to advance the ball quickly to take advantage of their opponent and get easy shots.

Fast break basketball puts tremendous pressure on the other team’s defense, and if kept up it will wear them down. There is no reason that we can’t do that today.