There sure was a lot of talk at the beginning of the year about running. Seems like the fast break has mostly vanished from this team. I don't see Martin getting fast break points. He's one of the fastest player in the NBA. I don't see Thompson getting (many) fast break points. He's one of the fastest power forwards in the NBA. Brown is a very fast point guard (when he plays). Cisco isn't slow. Heck, Hawes can get down the floor pretty fast also. Granted, the other guys aren't going to running 4.2 40s anytime soon, but don't you think we should be able to run more and get easy baskets? What's the deal? Has the turnover bugaboo turned this team into slow man walking?
Fast Break Anyone?
- Thread starter Kingster
- Start date
Fast breaks start with forced turnovers, or rebounds. With their opponents scoring at such a high rate, the Kings are taking the ball out of the basket most of the time. Their turnovers earlier on this year changed the strategy, to slow down the game, and prevent unforced errors. Once they get a true pass first point guard, and they start forcing more turnovers and missed shots, then this team can and will run with anybody.
If we got a quick point guard with great decision making and passing skills it would really help a lot.
A quick point guard along with Martin, Thompson, and Hawes could get down the court in a hurry provided that our team made a consorted effort to own the defensive glass.
It's my understanding that one of the reasons we started slowing things down was that Beno was having problems making good decisions and properly executing them in run-n-gun situations. It also hurts when you're not consistently getting the defensive rebound.
With that said, I'd love to have a team that cleaned the glass with the goal in mind to make a run for the easy basket in transition. And if the defense gets back in time, that is when I'd like to see the inside-out game with Hawes and Thompson. Both of them are quick enough to get down the floor and establish good post position. It should be the personal goal of whichever of our two bigs who did not secure the rebound to beat his man down the floor to establish good post position/go for the easy hoop in transition. And if we played that style, ideally we'd have a 3rd big we could bring in who could play the same sort of game, as going full tilt like that is going to wear you out.
As for the inside-out game with Hawes and Thompson, they are both so young I'd really like to see us work with them to get more posting opportunities. And not just for them to score, but for them to bring on a double team.
Am I the only one who is absolutely thrilled when I see Thompson get the ball in the post, see the double-team coming and kick it out to a perimeter player for the open shot? I've seen him assist Kevin a few times in the last few games that way. But in order to get the defense to bring in a double team, you've got to prove that you can score in the post, and to do that, you've got to establish position, and then get the ball.
We've seen time and time again it doesn't look as if our perimeter players know what to do when there is a big man in great posting position calling for the ball. So it would be great for them to work on that more and implement during game time. It may not be pretty a lot of the time, but it should be an investment which can pay huge dividends in the future.
A quick point guard along with Martin, Thompson, and Hawes could get down the court in a hurry provided that our team made a consorted effort to own the defensive glass.
It's my understanding that one of the reasons we started slowing things down was that Beno was having problems making good decisions and properly executing them in run-n-gun situations. It also hurts when you're not consistently getting the defensive rebound.
With that said, I'd love to have a team that cleaned the glass with the goal in mind to make a run for the easy basket in transition. And if the defense gets back in time, that is when I'd like to see the inside-out game with Hawes and Thompson. Both of them are quick enough to get down the floor and establish good post position. It should be the personal goal of whichever of our two bigs who did not secure the rebound to beat his man down the floor to establish good post position/go for the easy hoop in transition. And if we played that style, ideally we'd have a 3rd big we could bring in who could play the same sort of game, as going full tilt like that is going to wear you out.
As for the inside-out game with Hawes and Thompson, they are both so young I'd really like to see us work with them to get more posting opportunities. And not just for them to score, but for them to bring on a double team.
Am I the only one who is absolutely thrilled when I see Thompson get the ball in the post, see the double-team coming and kick it out to a perimeter player for the open shot? I've seen him assist Kevin a few times in the last few games that way. But in order to get the defense to bring in a double team, you've got to prove that you can score in the post, and to do that, you've got to establish position, and then get the ball.
We've seen time and time again it doesn't look as if our perimeter players know what to do when there is a big man in great posting position calling for the ball. So it would be great for them to work on that more and implement during game time. It may not be pretty a lot of the time, but it should be an investment which can pay huge dividends in the future.
We don't have a PG who can pass a basketball and our D doesn't get many turnovers to generate it that way either.
As much as people bagged on Ron, dude sure got a lot of steals and sometimes he'd have a beastly 4-5 steal game with was good for 8+ extra points in a game. Too bad that's gone now. We need a perimeter defender who can get turnovers, bottom line. Whether it's a PG or a SF. Kevin got way more fastbreak opportunities last year.
If we had a PG who was even halfway decent we could break a little more but we don't so we can't so oh well.
As much as people bagged on Ron, dude sure got a lot of steals and sometimes he'd have a beastly 4-5 steal game with was good for 8+ extra points in a game. Too bad that's gone now. We need a perimeter defender who can get turnovers, bottom line. Whether it's a PG or a SF. Kevin got way more fastbreak opportunities last year.
If we had a PG who was even halfway decent we could break a little more but we don't so we can't so oh well.
Not much I can add to this discussion. Were a perimiter team as of now. Unfortunatly, were not a good one. We certainly have some of the horses to be a good fast break team, but not all. We currently don't have a point guard with good court vision, or even the passing skills to be effective in an uptempo game.
Countless times I've seen Thompson, who seems to run the floor on every possesion, with a step on his defender and not get a pass thrown his way. Its a shame, because right now, this is his main asset and were not taking advantage of it.
Countless times I've seen Thompson, who seems to run the floor on every possesion, with a step on his defender and not get a pass thrown his way. Its a shame, because right now, this is his main asset and were not taking advantage of it.
I am with you 100% on this. There's going to be some growing pains for JT and Hawes in the post, but they both have a lot of potential to score well in the post. They both currently make the same mistakes all young bigs do - playing too fast, already having their mind made up which move to use instead of reading the D, forcing shots instead of passing out and resetting - but they need more repetitions to improve those. It's not as if we are competing for anything right now, I would much rather see them getting those repetitions instead of watching our 1/2/3s over-dribbling all game long.
To elaborate on your point a little more, it does seem like with the speed of Hawes and Thompson that they can get down the floor fast enough to plant themselves for a post pass if the team can't get a literal fast break basket. That's another option that hasn't happened, even though it is available. Granted, they both aren't that great in the post at this point in their careers, but if the team could focus on getting them the ball in the post on fast break situations it certainly seems like it would be a lot easier to make those post baskets.
Those are the major factors -- unless you run a junked up run n chuck system where you just don't care, its hard to run if you can't rebound, don't create any defensive havoc, and the other team makes every shot. Means that you are constantly inbounding the ball under your hoop, and the other team has time to get back on defense. When teams run despite being miserable in those areas its just complete garbage -- you look pretty scoring your completely undisciplined playground 100 a night while the other team scores 110.
And BTW given that a major component of Kevin's open court game s leaking out and cherry picking, I think our defense has enough problems right now without guys abandoning their posts looking for cheap hoops. So no, I really don't miss us fast breaking as much as I could. Learn to bleeping play the game first. Put in some bleeping defensive effort. EARN the right to go pad your stats.