Tuesday, October 6th, 2009...4:17 am
Figuring Out the Frontcourt
Some of the most interesting questions facing the coaching staff this season revolve around our big men. The frontcourt has depth and a diversity of skill sets. Figuring out how to organize that depth will be a challenge, although a far more pleasant challenge than figuring how to navigate last season’s lack thereof.
One of the more interesting tactical developments of ‘08-09 was our slow and steady movement away from a 3-out, 2-in motion offense to more 4-out, 1-in sets. During the days of Fransisco Elson, Fabricio Oberto, and Robert Horry, you were far more likely to see both bigs line up in or near the paint, whether it be in the high and low post or on either block. But once Matt Bonner was inserted into the starting lineup, you nearly always had all four players aside from Tim Duncan perching themselves along the perimeter. (Horry could be found setting up along the perimeter as well, but his spatial intelligence and passing ability made him a far more flexible tool than Bonner.)
It got to the point where Gregg Popovich was infrequently playing our two traditional bigs (Duncan, Thomas) alongside one another, and oftentimes deploying units with only one true big. Because of Pop’s growing fascination with small ball, we saw Bruce Bowen or Michael Finley at the four a startling amount of the time.
With the additions of Antonio McDyess, DeJuan Blair, and Theo Ratliff, I imagine we’ll see more offensive sets that resemble the pre-2008 Spurs. In both Matt Bonner and Marcus Haislip we have two forwards who will head for the corner reflexively. But Ratliff and Blair are most comfortable on the block, while McDyess and Duncan can execute consistently from either the high or low post. When any two of those four are on the floor simultaneously, 3-2 motion schemes will be the norm.
I’m a much bigger proponent of the 3-2 than I am of the 4-1, and for a number of reasons. In 3-2 sets, our offensive rebounding rate will increase significantly (whether DeJuan Blair is on the floor or not). People always blame our poor offensive rebounding rate on Pop’s commitment to stopping transition baskets but having only one player positioned in the paint is just as much a cause.
It’s not just a question of how much we value second-chance shots, but how much we value high-percentage shots: shot attempts off of offensive rebounds are nearly always taken by players well-positioned near the rim. The Spurs were not only one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the league last year; we also ranked near the bottom for points in the paint. The two are not unrelated.
In my opinion improved offensive rebounding is just a small part of what makes the 3-2 superior to the 4-1. By the end of last season, our offense had devolved into nothing more than the low-post iso, the high pick-and-roll and 3-pointers off of the inside-outside game.
In theory there is nothing wrong with that, particularly when you have Tim Duncan anchoring the operation. But Tim’s knee issues emboldened opposing teams, and they began doubling him less and less. By staying home on our shooters or more confidently switching onto Parker after Duncan set the high screen, opposing teams forced players ill-equipped to score off the dribble, such as Mason, Finley and Bonner, to improvise. They also put increasing amounts of pressure on Duncan’s worn down body to execute.
By operating out of a 3-2, you don’t necessarily complicate the offense substantially (in fact, Pop has made it clear he wants to keep the playbook relatively minimal) but you create more opportunities for players to instinctively execute simple yet effective plays. For instance, by having a man at both the high and low post, the team is prepared to pick for a man driving from the top of the arc, or cutting along the baseline from the corner. In a 4-1, the team is only setup for one such pick, making the entire play easier to predict and derail.
Similarly, both bigs are well positioned to set screens for one another. When coupled with a cut from either the corner or the top of the arc, the offense forces the defense to confront a confusing amount of movement that is deceptively easy to execute. In February, 2008, the X’s and O’s of Basketball wrote an excellent post breaking down a similar, highly effective play that the Spurs used to run.
Over the course of the offseason, I’ve gotten the impression that this is the direction the offense is headed. When we traded for Jefferson, Popovich remarked that he was glad we finally had a small forward we could “post up,” suggesting that Pop is more committed to scoring in the paint than he was last season. And in Sunday’s open practice, Duncan and Blair played an extended stint at the 4-5. Duncan may have won the post-practice 3-point contest, but I don’t imagine Pop wants either of them setting up beyond the 3-point line all that often.
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11 Comments
October 6th, 2009 at 5:39 am
I’m experiencing increasing marginal returns when it comes to my level of excitedness for the season with each post I read. I also find one quote per day from The Express that gets me juiced. Today’s comes from McDyess about Mahinmi:
““I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, this guy is good,’” McDyess said. “I wondered why I hadn’t heard more about him. I love his game.””
I hope this isn’t too sugarcoated. I am really pushing for Mahinmi to be in San Antionio’s future.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:38 am
It’s a fantastic quote, NL. I hadn’t seen it yet. Thanks for sharing.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Here’s the Mike Monroe article that NL metioned: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/63577592.html
Also, I think this might be the first 48MoH article to be linked on Spurs.com!
October 6th, 2009 at 9:47 am
This is just crazy!. What the crap is Pop gonna do? At this point, what set of skills from a front court player do you value the most when (let’s not kid ourselves) we go up against L.A? Do you want Size (Mahimmi)? Toughness (Blair)? Athleticism (Haislip)? Shooting (Bonner)???? Knowing Pop, he probably already knows what he wants. I just hope it ends up being the right formula.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Papi, i think our best lineup against LA would probably be Duncan/Mcdyess/Haislip or Duncan/Blair/Haislip…or if Bynum is back to being beastly, Ratliff/Duncan/Haislip.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Steve,
Haislip instead of Jefferson at the 3?
October 6th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
When they play big, and have Bynum/Gasol/Odom out there, i think Haislip is a bit bigger then RJ. That would be the only reason i’d stick him out there. Although i havent seen TOO much of Haislip, it seems that he is just as quick, but a little longer and a little heavier, and against Odom i think that would make a big difference. I dont think LA will do that as much as they did last year though because of Artest (he cant play the two with Kobe at the 1, can he?)
which brings up another question, is how are the lakers going to line up to close out games? They cant play their 5 best at the same time like we can. Last year, when they needed their best on the court, they had Kobe, Odom, Gasol, and Bynum (pre injury) on the floor, usually with Fisher at the point. Who is going to the bench in crunch time this year?
And where has our laker-troll Kaveh been? He hasnt said anything negative about RJ in weeks!
October 6th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
well just have to wait and see, ive heard laker fans saying theyre going to put kobe pg ron artest odom gasol bynum, and they think we would just let kobe defend and take advantage of parker, i doubt they would do that, but you never know with phil. in that case we can have ginobili jeffersonhaisliptimmy ratliff. i cant wait to see if they put ginobili on kobe this year
October 6th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
i’m more looking forward to continued George Hill vs Kobe matchups myself. He did well last year, and i’m sure he’ll be even better this year.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
[...] at 48 Minutes of Hell, Graydon Gordian has an excellent post about the Spurs frontcourt. He covers the new roster additions and how [...]
October 7th, 2009 at 10:09 am
I generally agree, I’m inclined to look at what has worked in the past to see what we need. Robert Horry was huge in 2005 and 2007, and generally speaking we don’t have anyone that really replicates what Horry brings to the table. If we look historically, the Spurs have had frontcourt rotations outside of Duncan (and Robinson) of players like: Fabricio Oberto, Nazr Mohammed, Francisco Elson, Kurt Thomas, Matt Bonner, Robert Horry, and Malik Rose. I’m not going to count the ends of the bench like Rasho Nesterovic, Kevin Willis, and Mengke Bateer. Generally speaking, Pop has played a rotation of primarily 3 bigs throughout games, perhaps with Duncan’s ailing knees that no longer becomes a possibility, however, let’s assume that he does something similar, just allocates the minutes a little differently.
So let’s call Duncan big option 1, I think it’d be pretty safe to assume that big option 2, formerly Robinson(1999 and 2003) and Horry (2005 and 2007), would be filled by Antonio McDyess. This leaves big option 3 available, and Pop has to juggle to see how he’s going to work it out. Formerly, it has been Malik Rose (1999 and 2003), Nazr Mohammed (2005), and the two-headed center of Fabricio Oberto and Francisco Elson (2007). Last season we had Bonner as our second big and Kurt Thomas as our third more or less. I anticipate a lot of tinkering, but I believe that the balance will be something of a toss-up between who actually steps up out of the young guys, primarily I believe Marcus Haislip and DeJuan Blair. I will actually be quite disappointed if it ends up being Theo Ratliff or Matt Bonner, from everything I’ve been reading, Ian Mahinmi is still a massive project, so I don’t have much expectations from him. Maybe Pop proves me wrong and actually goes 12 deep this year.
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