Small ball — or, trying to emulate the success of the Dallas Mavericks circa 2004 or the Phoenix Suns now — is clearly all the rage in the NBA, with teams from Golden State to New York giving it a shot in various forms.
But a few teams — several that have looked successful so far — are going with some counter programming to the trend. The Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers back east, and the Lakers, Jazz and Clippers are having success so far with “tall ball.â€
First, let’s define “small ball,†which is not as easy as it sounds. I would characterize it as going with a quick, athletic but not as tall lineup in an attempt to speed up the tempo of the game and take advantage of the current way the game is being called on the perimeter, with every touch a foul (and a foul for anyone within 18 inches of Dwayne Wade). Phoenix is the poster child — their starting center is 6-9 Kurt Thomas (Amare, when he’s full back, will up that to 6-10).
Let’s compare that to the other front-lines having early success. The Lakers have 7-1 Andrew Bynum (to be replaced when healthy by 7-0 Kwame Brown), 6-10 Lamar Odom and 6-9 Luke Walton (who could someday give way to 6-10 Vladimir Radmanovic). Then there are the 6-6 and 6-4 starting guard combo of Kobe and Smush. The Lakers are off to a 3-1 start because they took advantage of their height and got 40% of their shots close to the basket according to 82games.com (a very high percentage, and many of the shots classified as jumpers are inside 10 feet).
Now, you can argue (and some have) that the Lakers don’t really represent tall ball because Odom is a classic 3-4 combo forward and Radmanovic (and Walton) are perimeter players. But I would counter that while not a classic station-to-station NBA team, the Lakers are working to be both tall and athletic take advantage of the way the game is being called.
Regular commenter JonesontheNBA made a good comment about Phil liking to go tall:
The Bulls last three peat and the Lakers first championship under PJ had a similar line up with all 6′7″ and up guys in their starting lineup. With playmaker such as Kobe, Lamar, and Walton all on the floor together, I could see that being a successful lineup. The question is how well that lineup could defend the pick and roll…
Look at some of the other teams having early success. Utah is 3-0 with a big front line of 6-9 Andrei Kirilenko at the three, powerful 6-9 Boozer at the four and 6-11 Mehmet Okur at the five. I think we all know the Clippers may have the best classic front line in the NBA, with Kaman (7-0) and Brand (6-10), plus they are starting 6-6 Livingston out at the point.
Look at the two trendy picks in the east: Chicago starts 6-9 Loul Deng at the three, 6-11 P.J. Brown at the four and I-don’t-care-what-he’s-listed-as Ben Wallace at the five; Cleveland gives you 6-8 LeBron, 6-10 Drew Gooden and 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
Can the length of the big teams clog up the lane for the smaller teams? The Lakers were able to do it to the Suns on opening night, even without Kobe.
But, it also depends on talent — you look smart going small when you can have Steve Nash dishing to Marion and Diaw and Stoudemire. You can go small if you’ve got the horses, if not you look, well….. like this.
It’s too early in the season to start saying, “The bigs are beating the smalls†or visa versa. But apparently some favorites are betting that big and talented will beat small and talented at the end of the day.
Kevin Pelton says
I feel like there are two somewhat unrelated issues you still aren’t accounting for here, Kurt.
The Jackson Bulls were tall — and especially long — but they were a perimeter-based team that got their scoring primarily from their wing players. The current Lakers are somewhat the same. That, to me, is very different from a team like the Clippers that gets a high percentage of scoring from its post players.
I’m not the first person to say this, but I don’t think height is a good way to distinguish smallball. The Knicks started Kurt Thomas at the five two years ago post-trade deadline alongside 6-8 Mike Sweetney. Those guys were no taller than a Suns front line of Thomas and Boris Diaw, but there’s a huge difference in the way Diaw and Sweetney play. Nobody said the Knicks played smallball.
Smallball is an easy shorthand way to describe this trend, but I think it’s really more in the skilled/quick vs. powerful/slow distinction. Length and actual height are their own issues.
Matt, your friendly Bulls Blogger says
I’d throw Orlando in the mix as well, with Howard/Darko/Turkoglu. And Grant Hill sometimes at the two.
Kurt says
1. Kevin gets to the core of my defintion problem, saying small ball is somewhat like saying West Coast Offesne. Who is running it and in what form? The edges are pretty fuzzy.
I still think it is just the flavor of the month most places — Oden and Love will come in and every GM will want a big like them (or Howard or Bynum or…)
kwame a. says
the bottom line is that you need to be able to be flexible, you have to be able to run out a line-up that has the ability to interchange, handle the ball, shoot it, and push the pace, but you also need a lineup where you could slow the game down, grind it out and run the offense from the post, the key to being able to do that is having depth, and luckily the lakers have it, thus they can figure out what type of lineup is successful for the team they are playing
Craig W says
If you have flexible, athletic, mid-sized players (6’5″ – 6’9″) and 2-3 big people you have the makings to handle all different types of teams. That is the basis of Phil’s bias for this type team, regardless the system.
The key then becomes forcing your style on other teams, not adjusting to them. With experienced players, this becomes easier because they have been through this and don’t get flustered when a PHX suddenly runs out for 3 straight baskets.
We keep talking about our adjustments; instead we should talk about how to force adjustments on other teams.
Bryan says
Good teams get adjusted to. Other teams just play catchup. You didnt see the Showtime team pulling Magic because he couldnt keep up with the smaller/quicker guards. You saw them take advantage of his height by posting him up.
Go to your strengths. If you have Shaq or Wallace on your team, you go big. If you have Nash on your team, you go small. If you’re the Warriors, you just don’t go, period.
Kurt says
I guess I should have gotten more into matchups, I ignored something that I really beleive is key.
JONESONTHENBA says
I blogged about the small ball revolution last year….If you care to read some of my thoughts, here they are:
http://jonesonthenba.blogspot.com/2006/05/not-so-fast-is-small-ball-really-wave.html
Muddywood says
The key to defeating smaller, quicker, more ahtletic teams is discipline. You must have the discipline to impose you will and style of play on your opponent. You run your offense. You post them up wherever you have an advantage and you punish them on the inside and get them into foul trouble. Then, when they start double teaming you kick it out to the open man for the open Jumper or a cutter down the lane. Basketball 101. Size w/skill will always wear down a smaller team. You have to have the discipline not to get suckered into playing to your opponents strengths.
chris henderson says
small ball…tall ball… what I’m reading is that it takes smart ball to win, along of course with talent.
what this says to me is that it takes good management to win, 1) to bring in the good players, and 2) to have a coach who is strong enough to command respect and smart enough to guide the team to go the distance.
I was just commenting to a co-worker today that I sure am glad we have Phil as our coach. with all this talent, such a deep team, it’s really on the coaching staff now to bring this unit together, figure out rotations, match ups, playing time and deal with what will inevitably become personal problems, head cases, etc. (it’s a good thing we have some hungry players this year, Evans, Turiaf, farmar, andrew, and even sasha all bust their butts out on the floor). so, motivation, leadership, all sounds like the real challenge this year is on the coaching staff.
and, by the way, for years now all we’ve heard is complaints about our GM, and now, with all the positive buzz about the depth and talent of this young team, should ol’ Mitch be getting some of the credit?
JONESONTHENBA says
Yes he should, Chris. Jerry Buss made a great point in that other than Bynum, the Lakers have been drafting in the 20s every year, meaning it’s pretty difficult for them to find sure fire talent to re-tool this team with. As well, he’s hasn’t had much cap room to bring in free agents. So to have this team where it’s at already, two years after losing Shaq is a pretty good accomplishment. Obviously a lot of credit goes to Phil Jackson, but Mitch deserves a lot of credit for putting the team together…
Muddywood says
If Bynum and Farmar become the players that I think they will become then Mitch Kupchak be regarded as the second best GM the lakers ever had. He’s done about as good a job as you could do given the circumstances of the salary cap he inherited and having to trade Shaq. It will only be fair to judge him after the Lakers have dug themselves out of the salary cap hole they dug themselves, when he can truly wheel and deal.
DrRayEye says
Different shades of Laker tall:
Smush, Kobe, Walton, Odom, Bynum: Playground tall
Odom, Kobe, Turiaf, Radman, Bynum: Tall Tall
Farmar, Odom, Walton, Turiaf, Bynum: Playmaker tall
Farmar, Kobe, Walton, Odom, Brown: Defense tall
Sasha, Kobe, Radman, Cook, Evans: Perimetry tall
I could image other shades of tall for San Antonio, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, and other opponents.
But, to paraphrase Mae West: It’s not the (tall) man in your life: it’s the life in your (tall) man
Renato Afonso says
Last year, the Kwame at PF and Mihm at C didn’t go quite well… But this year we got Bynum plugging in some quality minutes.
Kurt, in your opinion, do you think that the team rotation could allow Kwame and Bynum to share the floor while Odom is resting? Odom should be playing at the 4 spot, but if Kwame and Bynum could share the floor for 10 mins or so, that would create a big headache for defenses. Of couse that some matchups don’t recommend this, but nevertheless, what’s your intake on this?
Kurt says
Retano, I’m not sure how well that works, their both back to the basket guys. But, with the way Phil is experimenting with lineups we may well see it. And with the right matchup (Clippers?) it could work.