A new wrinkle for Coach Brooks
Something we don’t discuss too much on this site is the performance of Scott Brooks as head coach of the Thunder. I think most would be of the opinion that it’s much too early to form opinions about Brooks’ ability to steer the team going forward, having only 69 games to prove himself. But the opinions will begin to be formed during this upcoming season.
We all know he says the right things, and that he seems to be genuinely well liked by just about everyone. He seemed to be level headed yet passionate on the sidelines and I never really thought he was completely outcoached at any point last year (like I often did the previous season and early in ‘08 under Pajamas Carlesimo). For me, a real defining time for Brooks came in late February when Kevin Durant went down for 7 games and 4 of those were also without Jeff Green. The team went 5-2 during that stretch and almost overnight got the team to buy into a lockdown defensive mode. It was genius. Coach Brooks really showed me he could coach.
Coaches work in the offseason too. The Oklahoman
had this to say about Brooks on the day of the season ending exit interviews: While the players will be working on getting better over the summer, Brooks said he’ll be doing the same as a coach. He plans to visit coaches across the country this summer, looking for better insight into running a team, whether it’s by picking up another practice drill, installing another play or improving his ability to communicate with players.
Good words, good to hear. Then in yesterday’s Oklahoman in the last paragraph of a Mike Baldwin piece it says the following: Brooks experimented with some plays in Wednesday’s exhibitions game against Miami, running a few new plays and a full-court press for a possession or two. “It’s good to look at them in an exhibition game, not against each other in practice,” Brooks said. “When we scrimmage against each other you know what each other is going to do. I want guys to see how it flows against another opponent, see if we pick things up on the fly.”
I didn’t get to see the Miami game, but I am excited that Brooks is putting in the new wrinkle. I love full court pressure defense as a changeup, as a disruptor. It’s a devastating hurricane of chaos for the opponent if used wisely and sparingly. Rick Pitino uses it all the time in Louisville and before that in Kentucky. Coach K used it some in the Beijing Olympics. I think quite a few coaches have it in their arsenal, but few use it extensively. However, just like Brooks changed up the game plan when Durant and Green went out to better suit the strengths of the team without the two the full court press suits the team as well. The idea is that you send swarms of long, quick, athletic guys after the opponent for 94 feet. Oh yeah, we have a few guys that meet the criteria. Guys like Thabo, Weaver, Durant, Green, Westbrook and Ibaka.
Anyway, if your interested Malcolm Gladwell wrote a very interesting (and looong) article about the full court press a few months back. It’s really worth a read. It has just about everything in there: war references, David and Goliath, Lawrence of Arabia, girls basketball etc. You can read it here.
Again, I give Brooks big kudos for thinking of ways to give the Thunder a little edge. We lost so many games by just a few points last year, a new wrinkle like a full court press might put a few of those in the win column in the future
I hate prefacing everything by, “I know it’s only preaseason,” but such are the times. Obviously, the Thunder look to be better defensively. What’s interesting is that they’ve done this without Elmer (glue guy Nick Collison). And frankly, the numbers would be MUCH better if our Pledge crew was polishing the bench instead of giving up fourth-quarter leads. Only time will tell if this carries over into the season. If it does, you have to give a lot of the credit to Brooks.
I would to see some full court press. With the team’s athleticism and depth, I think it would be awesome to turn up the heat like that on opponents.
You Oklahomans have probably seen more of it than I have. Apparently Travis Ford at Oklahoma state is a former player for Pitino and disciple of the full court press. I haven’t seen a cowboys game that I can remember, but he had quite a nice turnaround for that program.
Like I said, just as a changeup. In close games, or coming out of a timout for 3 or 4 possessions here and there. It’s good to have all the tools in the toolbelt.
I have long been a fan of picking up the other teams pg in the back court. Westbrook would be great at it. It is not really “full court pressing” but it is used more to just disrupt the other team getting into the offense. Plus with the 8 sec. back court rule it might help getting the other teams out of rythem. Full court press is hard at the NBA level, but I think the Thunder would be good with it just because of the athleticism we have. I remember Miami getting passed our full court pressure once pretty easily, but I don’t remember the other time.
The full court is a great change of pace defense. Opposing teams always have to get themselves in a new rhythm when facing it (Louisville made the elite 8 on their press). The two major problems with it are 1) it’s hard enough getting NBA players to buy into good half-court defense for 48 minutes, much less all out defense encompassing the entire court and 2) it leaves the basket very lightly defended if the opponent can move the ball quickly. It’s not something I think you could pull off in the NBA for extended periods simply because the players are better and will beat it once they adjust. That said, one of my favorite Bill Simmons podcasts had them talking about a coach training his bench players to run the full-court press perfectly. The bench would lock down on the opposing team and throw them out of rhythm, either forcing the starters back early or at the least ruining the opponent’s plans. It can work in short doses.
Really though, all I want from Brooks is an offense where everyone plays together. We went 5-2 without Durant because no one was waiting for someone else to win the game for them. No one was sitting back and watching their teammate. If we can do that while Durant is on the floor, we can really start turning this team into someone to watch out for.
I loved Gladwell’s discussion with Simmons about the full court press. (Great Article)
Bryan Davis was on the Animal this morning and said he was impressed with Green’s leadership on Defense. He said he’s the one calling everyone out. Which is interesting because I would think he was close to the weakest.