You've likely read that they incorrectly credited a fourth foul to Delonte West late in the third quarter of Cleveland's win over Atlanta on Sunday, directly forcing poor widdle Cavs coach Mike Brown to remove Delonte in the midst of a close game. Because he had four fouls.Dwyer makes no specific mention of Larry Brown disciple Mike Woodson but the point stands.
At the 2:41 mark of the third quarter.
This is what passes for conventional wisdom in the NBA, and I have news for you ... it's not all that wise.
You see it all the time, mainly with Larry Brown disciples (Mike Brown, by extension, is one), and it never seems to make any basketball sense.
Coaches lift players because of the threat of them getting in foul trouble. The point of avoiding foul trouble is to avoid having to remove your players from the game, so to avoid foul trouble these coaches (say it with me) remove their players from the game.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Kelly Dwyer on The Horford Treatment
He doesn't call it that, natch, but that's what he's talking about having drawn inspiration from the most recent incidence of scorekeeping incompetence (I've got a "bad scorekeeping" tag for hawks posts. How sad is that?) in Philips Arena:
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3 comments:
so how are you taking the fact that the man who brought your college hoops team a national championship is also the creator of the Horford treatment?
From a very young age I've understood that Larry Brown is both one of the finest basketball coaches who has ever lived and more than a little self-destructive in the choices he makes.
What's odd to me about Woodson adpoting this particular tactical tic is that he doesn't strike me as having the same control issues as Brown (Which I assume are the personal, psychological reasons underpinning this strategy: If a guy fouls out it's no longer Larry's choice whether he plays or not.) who's a pro-active rather than reactive (and, dear god is Woodson reactive) coach.
Who will be the Tony LaRussa of basketball coaches and break with tradition and play players regardless of foul count---well until the sixth one, that is---
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