Head Coach JJ Redick Discussion: Spazzing Out

JJ, LeBron, and Luka sitting in a room together to gameplan for a 7 game series against any team...

There's no way they walk out of that room not fully prepared for what they have to do

 

Gotta throw AR into that mix and I would bet Luka and LeBron and JJ would want him there as well.

 

i believe that the scheme matters and that lebron's communication matters, but i'm also still of the mind that caring about it is the biggest factor, as jj has suggested.

to play jokic the way we did just takes a ton of energy and focus--and not all teams can put five guys on the floor who can/will do that.

 

We shouldn't undersell how important the scheme really is. I haven't seen anyone else employing it this extensively or successfully in the NBA as of yet. We're basically playing the percentages on defence not just on a player by player basis, but also on a per shot per player basis.

Didn't expect this kind of stuff from JJ if I'm being honest.

 

This is why we win the championship.

 

do we believe that nobody has tried this or that nobody has successfully done it because it's hard to get that level of buy-in and attention to detail?

it's not like this kind of analytics hasn't been available for a long time. i would find it hard to believe that teams aren't talking about these exact things all the time. i mean, the analysts watching the game basically talk about it without the numbers and have done so since the 80s. "don't let him get to his right shoulder." "you'll take that shot from that guy, but not this one", etc.

even in the piece they allude to bobby knight's schemes. i'm just not sure the scheme itself is super innovative. it's the ability to execute in the nba.

 

I think it's a few things.
-First you have to have the horses.
-the coach has to be a great communicator.
-he has to be able to get top down buy-in. JJ even holds Bron to account, their relationship allows that, that's not the case with a lot of HCs and their franchise player.
-then a high level on the court communicator to lead/organize. Bron is a super computer, he sees the game better than 99.5% of players to ever lace them up.

For most teams, you can't check all those boxes.

 

right. so it's not that a new scheme was devised. it's that the circumstances are allowing a wise-but-difficult-to-implement scheme to be used.

i agree that coaching matters here, too--i'm just not sure i've seen or heard anything in the actual scheme that seems philosophically new. the reason not everyone does this is they don't have the things you listed above. not that they couldn't have thought of the plan. there are lots of things i know how to do but can't because i don't have the tools or resources.

 

I don't think we need to get into a debate about the granular details of why's something is successful. There have been plenty of teams that have had great buy-in, good defensive players, a good defensive coach. But they've used other schemes (that were successful in their own right by the way). I just didn't expect JJ to have this defensive coaching ability... not only do we have a good defensive scheme, it's one that fits our personnel AND one thats highly successful against the way the NBA currently plays.

That deserves some credit in my opinion and it's not just a result of buy in and high energy. A lot of the credit has to be put towards acute coaching intellect from this staff.

Theres a lot that really impresses me, this scheme basically fronts the big and denies the paint with a pseudo zone helper in case they decide to throw it in there. It then sells out on every lower percentage shot from the opposing team on the perimeter/mid range by sending a double against their best players. The help is on a string while each player constantly shifting between man to man and zone. We utilise extensive switching to minimise the impacts of dribble hand offs and good screen setting.

JJ has basically found how to get the most out of Rui and Lebron defensively (a problem last year), while hiding Luka and Reaves (via switching) and getting the most out of DFS, Gabe and Vando. It takes SO much preparation to get this defence to work, some of these guys don't have high defensive IQ - I imagine they're receiving a full report breakdown of what to expect on each opponent and each game and what their role is. During the game you can see the assistants actively coaching up everyone on whats happening in real time. It just requires a ton of work.

In my opinion, the buy in and the energy comes from it working.

 

To give you an example of other defensive schemes that have worked; Wolves basically try to use Gobert and Reid as anchors and then they allow their guards to play really aggressive defence with the aim of funnelling everything into the anchors if it fails. This is a tried and true NBA scheme. But it's easy to play against if you have good shooting, Green just sets a screen and Steph shoots from the outside.

So in a lot of ways, no what we do isn't revolutionary, I don't think thats the point anyone is trying to make, but also, it is evolutionary. We're taking a switch heavy defence and we are combining Bob Knight's principles into it and using money ball analytics defensively. I'd love to see examples of other teams who have done what we have done? I can't think of any.

 

Well..we are about to find out how committed, our defense will be shortly

 

MEH.

Just doing you.

 

Ball don't lie

 

Ball is life ... life is a ball.

 

JJ being taught a lesson early, a good a** beating

 

He's got to start running more plays on offense. Just way too much watching someone cook right now

 

He's in for a rude awakening...

 

If 3s are more important than 2s offensively , it should be the same case defensively .. Lakers were always overhelping for no reason .. Helping Off Randle I can understand but not way a team should leave Reid wide open again and again ..