An NBA Rant: Phoenix's Pace and SacTown's Owners

The Clips destroyed the Suns last night, much to the delight of the boring, defensive coaches everywhere worried that the Suns might actually win and make the league fun again. Now, the panic sets in, as "experts" believe Mike D'Antoni must relent and "go big," inserting Brian Grant or a healthy Kurt Thomas into the line-up to bang with Elton Brand and Chris "Caveman" Kaman.

I never understand this logic. A team wins 60 games playing its style with its personnel and suddenly it needs to change to beat a team with a worse record? The Suns are different and unique, and thus good, because of the system and personnel they employ. Inserting Grant into the line-up at the expense of Marion/Diaw/Tim Thomas alters their style; in trying to devise a scheme to neutralize the opponent, they neutralize their strengths too, as Grant hurts the floor spacing and takes an offensive weapon off the floor.

Basically, Phoenix is smart. They do not have the personnel to play a normal game and win. In this situation, a coach has two options: speed up the game or slow down the game. Most coaches slow down the game an try to control the game from the sideline. Phoenix speeds up the game. Basically, the only way for a team like Phoenix to win is to be exceptional; that is, to play on the edges, the fringe. To change the game and force other teams to play their game. Inserting Grant into the line-up only brings them closer to the pack in terms of style and personnel, though not enough to win at a normal pace. It only makes them less exceptional, and hurts their chances to win.

As for the Maloofs, I am so sick of alcohol salesman and night club owners trying to be basketball people. Sit in the front row and cheer. Stop making stupid comments. First, the Maloofs said Adelman was not a good enough defensive coach even though his team led the league in defensive field goal percentage in 2002-03. Then it was one play, the Barry three, which proved to be Adelman's undoing. Now, the owners want a more visible coach who fraternizes with the public, as if Adelman's recluseness is hurting ticket sales and a new coach might generate new sales (uh, your building is sold out every game).

The Maloofs said a team built around Brad Miller, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Peja Stokakovic and Mike Bibby was good enough to win a championship and one called the Kings starting line-up the best in the league. That is just the Maloofs showing their basketball illiteracy. How can they blame Adelman for not being a good defensive coach when they acquire and make Bibby-Miller-Peja the cornerstone of the franchise? All three are terrible defensive players. No coach is going to make them great defenders. And, fwiw, Peja's D improved dramatically during his Kings' tenure.

The Maloofs fire Adelman, but they would not re-sign Jim Jackson, who proved to be a pivotal play-off performer during his season here. They chose the more offensive Mike Bibby over the better defensive player Bobby Jackson when they traded BJack. They chose the more offensive Stojakovic or the better defensive Hedo Turkuglo when they traded Hedo. They traded away Scott Pollard (a defender/anger/rebounder) to acquire Brad Miller, a finesse shooter. Every personnel decision ove the last half decade has been to favor offense and, as with D'Antoni above, Adelman and staff devised a system to maximize the players's strengths and attempt to hide their deficiencies.

Hiring a defensive coach is not going to make the Kings a great defensive team, even with Artest in the mix. Bibby needs to want to contan dribble penetration and Miller has to stop getting pushed around and the Kings need to acquire someone who can protect the basket and block shots before Sacramento will ever be a great defensive team. Poor perimeter defense and an inability to stop dribble penetration plus a lack of deterent around the basket equals poor defense, especially in a conference whose best teams are dominated by quick, penetrating point guards (Nash, Parker, Cassell/Livingston, Miller/Boykins, Paul) and seven-footers (Duncan, Nowitski, Ming).