Karl Interview

[Jerichoholic]

You can dance around it but they are clearly talking about pace and playing a more uptempo offense. No one is making the leap to say they are trying to score 120 every night but honestly when you give up 112 you better get close.

The bigger issue is this whole belief that somehow playing uptempo is as important or more so than defense, which has been mentioned repeatedly, was a major factor in the Malone decision and is reflected on the player moves we've made.

The problem is that it is no way supported by the league performance. Just looking at the last 3 years you get as many or more playoff teams in the bottom 10 of pace as you do in the top 10. But top and bottom 10 defensive rating is very clearly tied to team success. Even with the poorly used examples of gs, sas and Atlanta it's their defensive performance that balances what they do on offense and 2 of those 3 teams aren't even uptempo systems.

So not only is the team trying to put cousins in a system that has not been traditionally used with bigs, that doesn't appear to matter to team success but it is at he expense of the side of the court that most directly leads to winning.

Not quite sure how we are even arguing these points anymore.

This is exactly my point as to why I'm not sure we are all talking about the same thing in these debates. George Karl never said "Pace" and I never said "Pace", in fact I actually said "Offensive Efficiency". I hadn't even looked at the statistics when I said it so I decided to take a look just now. Top 10 teams in "Offensive Efficiency" are: Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland, Toronto, Dallas, Atlanta, New Orleans, Portland, San Antonio, and Phoenix. I guess my examples were good after all. Most of these are excellent teams and if you looked at the bottom 10 you would see mostly bad teams. Now I'm not saying defense isn't important either, if you took the top 10 "Defensive Efficiency" teams you would see mostly excellent teams as well, you need both. If I'm not mistaken, George Karl mentioned a word multiple times that implies this.

I agree that "Pace" is near meaningless, jacking up as many shots as possible does not promote success and when combined with poor defense is almost guaranteed to lose. That is not what I want nor do I think what Karl wants.

The main issue here is the players. I will say that I give Malone a lot of credit, I think he got the most out of these players, but the bottom line is that still really isn't that much. Over the course of a season these players just don't have much to give for the most part. I think that both Malone and Karl are coaches that could get a basketball team into the top 10 in both "Offensive Efficiency" and "Defensive Efficiency", just in their own ways. However neither coach could do it over a full season with this roster.

 

[sdballer]

This is exactly my point as to why I'm not sure we are all talking about the same thing in these debates. George Karl never said "Pace" and I never said "Pace", in fact I actually said "Offensive Efficiency". I hadn't even looked at the statistics when I said it so I decided to take a look just now. Top 10 teams in "Offensive Efficiency" are: Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland, Toronto, Dallas, Atlanta, New Orleans, Portland, San Antonio, and Phoenix. I guess my examples were good after all. Most of these are excellent teams and if you looked at the bottom 10 you would see mostly bad teams. Now I'm not saying defense isn't important either, if you took the top 10 "Defensive Efficiency" teams you would see mostly excellent teams as well, you need both. If I'm not mistaken, George Karl mentioned a word multiple times that implies this.

I agree that "Pace" is near meaningless, jacking up as many shots as possible does not promote success and when combined with poor defense is almost guaranteed to lose. That is not what I want nor do I think what Karl wants.

The main issue here is the players. I will say that I give Malone a lot of credit, I think he got the most out of these players, but the bottom line is that still really isn't that much. Over the course of a season these players just don't have much to give for the most part. I think that both Malone and Karl are coaches that could get a basketball team into the top 10 in both "Offensive Efficiency" and "Defensive Efficiency", just in their own ways. However neither coach could do it over a full season with this roster.

Go back a read the first post here with the interview. Unless I'm misreading it he mentions pace, tempo and offense-over-defense far more than anything about effeciency. That's also been reflected on the court.

Edit: i re-read the article along with the latest in the bee and don't see how anyone can argue karl isn't pushing uptempo basketball. He mentions it repeatedly.

 

[Jerichoholic]

Go back a read the first post here with the interview. Unless I'm misreading it he mentions pace, tempo and offense-over-defense far more than anything about effeciency. That's also been reflected on the court.

Edit: i re-read the article along with the latest in the bee and don't see how anyone can argue karl isn't pushing uptempo basketball. He mentions it repeatedly.

You are correct, the word "Pace" is used. My bad on that.

The thing is I'm trying to read between the lines in what is probably the opposite direction that most people are on here. The idea of "Pace" without defense is simply a stupid notion, no coach would do that let alone one with as good a resume as George Karl. You can still have "Pace" and "Offensive Efficiency", I believe Golden State is first in both this season. I think they are also first in "Defensive Efficiency", no wonder they are so good.

The other things Karl does mention are defense and rebounding. He says that both offense and defense are needed and that the system is based on getting the rebound. Well if you don't stop the other team then there is no rebound to get. This team needs to get better on both ends of the court. We have been talking about two major problems for years and those problems are poor outside shooting and poor defense. We will never win unless both problems get fixed. I do think Karl can fix this and if he wants to do it with a faster pace then fine. I think Cousins can indeed thrive in an offense like this, playing in a way that doesn't allow the defense to set fast enough with their double teams will allow him to do a lot. Combine that with players who can shoot outside consistently and you have a guy who could average 25 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 assists a game and do it on over 50% shooting, now that's efficiency.

I don't believe that Cousins and Karl have conflicting styles or don't get along. When Karl first came aboard Cousins said this system was great, he hadn't so much fun since he played at Kentucky where they used a similar style of running. I think this can work.