Archives For Steve Nash

The Strategy Session: Two Man Games

Darius Soriano —  September 5, 2012

Welcome to the Strategy Session. In this space we’ll explore different aspects of the game from a strategy standpoint. It may mean looking at a coaching decision — like determining a rotation. Or a specific offensive play that we think will work. Or it could be an examination of a defensive scheme. Sometimes we’ll use video others we’ll just blab away for a while on the topic of the day. Hope you enjoy it.

At the beginning of last season, the Lakers looked to be (at least) one player short from elite status. Sure, their top three players were as good as any other trio in the league, but outside of them they had a mash-up group of guys that would need to provide their best case scenario nightly in order for the Lakers to get that extra boost.

At the trade deadline, however, reinforcements arrived, mainly in the form of Ramon Sessions. Sessions flashed game changing speed and an attack mentality that helped boost the Lakers’ offense whenever he was on the floor. However, over time — especially after a shoulder injury curtailed his aggressiveness, the tighter defenses of the playoffs took hold, and the Lakers adjusted their offensive approach — Sessions’ aggressiveness waned and the Lakers again struggled to produce offensively at a consistently dangerous level. Thus, Ramon Sessions is no longer a Laker.

When Sessions was at his Laker peak, though, Mike Brown made the strategic decision of always having either him or Kobe on the floor at all times. The reasoning behind this was simple: for the Lakers to be at their best offensively they’d need a balance between the post and the perimeter. The only way to achieve that balance would be to have at least one offensive threat who called those places home on the court at the same time.

Brown’s strategy, then, was to not only have at least one of Kobe/Sessions on the floor at all times but to also do the same for Gasol/Bynum. This upcoming year, Brown would be wise to do the same with his new perimeter and post-up dynamic duos of Kobe/Nash and Gasol/Howard.

I understand that the hope is for all four of these players mesh seamlessly when they share the floor. The only way the Lakers are going to achieve at the levels they want to this season (aka win the championship), these guys will all need to blend together and find a comfort level where their games can not only co-exist, but collaborate to make each other better.

All that said, the Lakers are in the unique position of having two duos whose games not only compliment one another’s, but can be the foundation for an elite offense.

In Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, the Lakers have acquired one of the best pick and roll guards and the best pick and roll finisher in the league. They are, essentially, a symbiotic match in how their skills are best deployed. Mike Brown would do well to find line-up combinations that feature these two players as often as possible. Pair them up, flank them with shooters (Meeks and Jamison) and let them run a lot of one/five pick and rolls like they’ve both done their entire careers.

Ideally, I’d like to see Mike Brown use a substitution pattern that subs Nash out around the six minute mark, Dwight at the 8 to 10 minute mark of the 1st quarter, and then send them both out at the start of the 2nd quarter (or near the end of the 1st quarter). This would match them up with a lot of team’s 2nd units and let them wreak havoc against teams’ reserves by pounding them with P&R’s with the Lakers’ best shooters supporting them.

Opposite of Nash/Howard, Mike Brown could then use alternative lineup combinations around the duo of Kobe/Gasol. Remember, these two were the foundation for three Finals and back to back championship teams. Last season their chemistry suffered some, but I think it’s fair to say that both men will be rejuvenated this upcoming season. And, if both can be played together frequently — while being used as the key scoring options for their unit — I think we’d see a return to the chemistry of season’s past.

Plus, the games of Pau/Kobe would seem to be good matches for the other role players not playing with Nash/Howard. In Steve Blake the Lakers have a PG who is more adept at sharing ball handling duties and spacing the floor next to a more dominant perimeter creator. And Jordan Hill’s defensive ruggedness, penchant for attacking the glass on both ends, and offensive game that’s built off cuts and put-backs is nice match for Gasol. This unit could play together for stretches in the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd periods with Brown then using his starters as the primary closers every night (if they’re even needed to close).

Ultimately, we’ll see what Mike Brown actually chooses to do. But, with the way the Lakers’ roster is built they’re in a unique position of having two sets of wing/big-man duos that can not only compliment each other well but do so within the context of what the Lakers want to do on offense. In Nash and Howard, Brown can direct his troops to free lance a bit more by leaning on the pick and roll prowess the two newcomers bring to the table. With Pau and Kobe anchoring the O, the team can shift to the Princeton’s more formal structure and return to the read and react roots that those two have thrived under in their time together.

Basketball can be a complex game. All five players on the floor must be in synch for the best results to be produced. However, basketball can also be quite simple where the two man game — a style we’ve all played since we were kids — can be the foundation for a unit’s success. It will come down to personnel groupings and rotations, but the Lakers have the pieces to produce two of the best two man games in the league. I’m excited, to say  the least.

In Dwight Howard, Kobe, pau gasol, Steve Nash, Strategy Session
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Fast Break Thoughts

Darius Soriano —  August 31, 2012

There may not be a lot going on at this time of the basketball year but that doesn’t mean there aren’t topics of interest to discuss. So, let’s go around the league (and beyond it) with some fast break thoughts…

  • We’re at an interesting point in the Lakers-as-super team news cycle. We have, essentially, completed the inevitable circle of coverage that occurs when moves like this happen. The stories went from ” Wow, I can’t believe the Lakers got Nash and Howard, they’re going to be amazing” to “Look at everything they can do on offense/Here’s how the Lakers will be amazing” to “Here are some things that may hold the Lakers back from being amazing” to “Let’s not crown the Lakers yet, the Thunder and the Heat are still the best teams until proven otherwise”.
  • For what it’s worth, I’m still of the mind that we need to see some games before we know anything beyond what their potential is. That said, based off talent alone the Lakers have catapulted themselves into the conversation of having the best team in the league. And, since talent matters so much, this is pretty important. So, at this point, my analysis stops at “the Lakers are one of the 3 to 4 teams that have a legitimate shot to win it all”. And, frankly, that’s enough for me.
  • I don’t know about you, but I’m still getting used to the fact that when I see a link to a Dwight Howard story it is, essentially, now a Lakers’ story. It hit me again the other day when I clicked on a link about Dwight playing pop-a-shot in China and there he was in his home Lakers #12 jersey. It’s still sort of surreal.
  • Speaking of Dwight, Eddy Rivera (and his crew of fine writers at Magic Basketball) have been producing fantastic content as part of their Dwight Week series. You should visit and learn everything you’d ever want to know about the newest Laker big man.
  • There’s a general sense that the Spurs are boring. It’s been talked about for years and has come to be what they’re known for. Well, I know of at least one Spur that isn’t: Greg Popovich.
  • One thing I love most about the off-season is that it gives me a chance to watch film, dive into the numbers, and give me a bit more insight into the league at large heading into the next season. In that regard, I’m always looking for more places to help me learn more. So, you can only guess at how happy I was when Tom Haberstroh (of ESPN and the Heat Index) dropped a link to VORPed. There’s so much time lost surfing around that place. Be careful.
  • Thing I can’t stop smiling over: Steve Nash’s shot chart from this past season. In case you were wondering, green and yellow are the colors you want. Good luck double teaming off that guy.

  • Lastly, a while back several of us at FB&G did a roundtable review of Jack McCallum’s Dream Team book. One of the themes touched on in that book was that regardless of what other guys had accomplished at that point of their careers, the trio of Michael Jordan, Magic, and Larry Bird were always held at a higher level of esteem. They were the exclusive club that no one else could penetrate. I’d imagine that today, the same is likely true. Those names ring out like few others in basketball history. Last week I was reminded of this by a great video. Check it out for yourself:

In Dwight Howard, Fast Break Thoughts, Steve Nash, video
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The Cult Of Personality, The Lakers’ Lockerroom, & Leadership

Darius Soriano —  August 28, 2012

After what’s been a stellar offseason of work for the Lakers, the questions about this team are starting to come up more and more. It’s not so much that there are doubts about how good they can be (over the past week we’ve heard several players comment about how good the Lakers are on paper), but rather a closer examination of some of the things that can potentially trip this team up from reaching their ceiling.

One such question revolves around leadership. After all, the Lakers have brought in two players in Nash and Howard who are accustomed to being the face(s) of their team(s). With them joining Kobe and, to a somewhat lesser extent Pau Gasol, the Lakers now have multiple players who are used to having a voice in the deciding the direction of a team.

The initial question — Kobe/Nash question — is one that’s been raised by several people, but most notably Henry Abbott at TrueHoop. In a very good post that explored multiple angles to the potential pitfalls of their divergent leadership styles, Abbott cites some situations that show this partnership in leadership could work out quite well. In referencing the perception that their leadership styles won’t mesh:

Not so, says former Suns front office guy Amin Elhassan, who knows Nash well and carries a healthy fear of Bryant. He told me on TrueHoop TV recently that he sees the pairing as “the perfect marriage of good cop, bad cop. Kobe’s the guy who gets on guys — which some people would criticize and say Steve didn’t do enough of in his career. And on the other hand you have Steve to kind of build guys up and build their confidence up, which obviously has been a criticism of Kobe. … I think it’s a perfect, perfect marriage.”

I started to wonder if there were examples of teams that really had paired both kinds of leaders side-by-side. How did that turn out?

A clue comes from a footnote of Bill Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball.” In the tiny type at the bottom of page 478, there’s a Phil Jackson quote, borrowed from a must-read 1999 S.L. Price Scottie Pippen profile in Sports Illustrated:

“On the Bulls,” says Jackson, “[Scottie Pippen] was probably the player most liked by the others. He mingled. He could bring out the best in the players and communicate the best. Leadership, real leadership, is one of his strengths. Everybody would say Michael is a great leader. He leads by example, by rebuke, by harsh words. Scottie’s leadership was equally dominant, but it’s a leadership of patting the back, support.”

Wow. Take a note, Laker fans. Elhassan is looking like a genius: “Good cop, bad cop” is how most people’s pick as the best team ever was led.

I’d point out that you don’t have to actually stray far from recent Lakers’ (and Kobe’s) history to find an example of good cop, bad cop working out quite well. Derek Fisher and Kobe shared a similar leadership dynamic for a recent group of players that went to three straight Finals and won back to back championships. Much like Nash is perceived to be, Fisher was the man that would inspire his mates through his words and pick them up when they were down.

Of course, this current incarnation of the Lakers isn’t just a good cop and a bad cop. They’ve also added Dwight Howard to the mix. And with the big man comes a more fun loving approach to the game (an approach that’s received a fair amount of criticism, I might add) that can surely affect a team and its locker room.

However, I don’t think Howard’s loose, kind of goofy ways will be much of a problem (if one at all), even though there are some doubts. As I told D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog in a recent conversation, I think Dwight’s approach can actually provide another balance to the leaders already in the room.

When the Lakers made their surprising run to the Finals in 2008 one thing that stood out to me was the fun that team had playing together. That team enjoyed being and playing together; had fun on and off the court together. One of the reasons for that was having some young players like Bynum, Farmar, Sasha, and Ariza and the exuberance they had in making that run.

But another reason was because of Lamar Odom. LO was known to keep the locker room loose, to never get too up or too down, and to always have a smile on his face. While they’re certainly different individuals with different life experiences (and levels of — perceived, at least — maturity), that sort of sounds like Dwight Howard. Having him in the fold may end up being the perfect compliment to aging, grizzled veterans Kobe and Nash. Every team needs to take their jobs seriously, but they also need to enjoy playing the game together in order to mesh fully. A team can only reach its full potential if they’re 100% together, after all.

Of course, leadership is never that simple and the characterizations presented above are a bit simplistic. I’ve seen Dwight be as demonstrative as any other player in talking to a teammate. The same can be said of Nash, who I’ve observed barking for one of his guys to get to the right spot on the floor. I’ve also seen Kobe take a guy aside and explain to him calmly what to expect on the upcoming possession (as well as heard teammates recount all the times he’s taken them under their wing to aid in their development). All these guys are complex; they’re human. They’re going to show all sides of their personality when trying to get the most out of their guys.

Next year, we’ll see the many sides of these men in their quest to guide this team to where they want to be. But, from where I sit, they look to have the right mix of personalities to get where they want to go. And, I’d much rather have that be the case than not.

In Dwight Howard, Kobe, Laker Analysis, Steve Nash
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