Pace

[pshn80]

The light bulb just went on in my head, as usual, about 5 weeks after most others - PACE for the Kings is just an attempt to get Cuz to hustle up and down the court more - a legitimate endeavor. It's the first sense I made of any of the pace talk. I'm not sure of the merits, however. It seems one of Cuz's techniques is to very quickly dribble the ball over the half court line, look at the scene (all 5 opponents are already in place), then continuing to the basket where one time out of 5 he makes a basket, one time he is fouled, one time he is blocked, and twice he turns it over or fouls somebody. Not good.

That's what's made it hard for me to understand- that PACE is only meant for Cuz, not the other 4 guys on the floor. Good idea but I doubt it's going to happen let alone work very well.

 

[Chubbs]

If you look at the numbers from the 8 game losing streak, you see the team had fewer assists, more turnovers, worse shooting, and fewer fast break points.

But hey, the pace increased.

 

[Glenn]

"I can run," Cousins said after pushing through early fatigue to play a commendable 33 minutes on Thursday, including the entire fourth quarter. "I'm able to run. We'll just be a faster team. I think it'll help. I think I rebound at a good enough rate where we can get some guys out running on the floor. Hopefully we can just get easier baskets running."

That's obviously the goal. Getting there, though, will be continuously asking one of the best rebounders in the game to work the defensive boards, sprint the other way to catch up to the ball and remain one of the best scorers in the game and one of the best passing big men.

The halfcourt is where Cousins' talent is maximized.

"It is," interim coach Tyrone Corbin conceded. "You look at him on the low post against most teams in this league, he's effective and that's where he does the bulk of his work at. We still will have to continue to use him in that area, also try and expand the game or speed the game a little bit to utilize the other guys in the open court."

There is simply a challenge to basing an offense on transition when the best player is a center.

"There is," Corbin said. "You want to take advantage of all the assets you have on your team, but for the way this team is built, DeMarcus is a huge asset for us and we have to make sure we utilize his talents and are not wasting his minutes on the floor. There will be opportunities as we try and balance things out of when to go fast, when to slow it down to control the tempo and try to go inside. He can run at times. He can be effective there. We can get him down the floor quickly, take advantage of his mismatches on the post early. There'll be some challenges to see which pace is better for us as we go forward."

I seem to remember this quote. It sounds like Corbin knows what to do with Cuz and in our offense, that's about half the problem. Know what to do with Cuz. For some reason there is a lot of high post Cuz that sometimes ends up with him in the low post and sometimes not. Perhaps that is OK. I personally am not as upset with Cuz taking a jump shot (do his feet leave the ground? ) because he has a decent jump shot and it makes it very difficult for him to be defended because he can put the ball on the floor and take it to the basket. Jump shots also preserve his energy. (insert video of Kareem explaining how difficult it is to play with two or three guys on his back)

Pace maybe means that you take advantage of a rebound and throw it up court quickly. That should be an obvious ploy when you have a great rebounder and two streaks like Collison and Ben. There is no magic in this idea. If this can't be had, revert to some half court game probably centering around Cuz (notice the clever word play) but also keeping in mind Gay needs his shot also.

Come to think of it, it takes quite awhile for two guys like Cuz and Gay to work out who gets what and when. Then there is the complication of Collison and Ben who need their shots also. This has nothing to do with pace, I think, but all of this coordination between 4 decent if not great offensive threats takes experience together. I don't mean months but I mean years. Keep that foursome together.

Maybe there is no magic definition to pace. Maybe it's just a word PDA likes to make it seem like he is contributing.