Ime's tactical approach

[Who]

I’m not giving up on Ime.  I do wonder why we didn’t hire an experienced head coach to join his staff, though.  After Doc and Brad, watching some of Ime’s play calling out of timeouts has been a little rough.

Agreed.  I was at the Wiz game in DC last weekend, sitting close to Celtic bench.  During timeouts, Ime would huddle with his key assistants for nearly the entire timeout to figure out what they should do.  It struck me as very odd and indecisive.  Only at the very end of the timeout did he return to his players to discuss a plan.  His staff is very young.

Popovich does that a lot. He spends the first 30secs of a timeout consulting with his assistants and then moves back to the bench to say some things for the second / final 30secs of a timeout.

Udoka is doing what he learned from Pop.

Pop also likes to do this to give the players a chance to speak to each other before he intervenes. More player leadership. More voices. Not always reliant on him -- avoid tiring of hearing his voice.

[footey]

I’m not giving up on Ime.  I do wonder why we didn’t hire an experienced head coach to join his staff, though.  After Doc and Brad, watching some of Ime’s play calling out of timeouts has been a little rough.

Agreed.  I was at the Wiz game in DC last weekend, sitting close to Celtic bench.  During timeouts, Ime would huddle with his key assistants for nearly the entire timeout to figure out what they should do.  It struck me as very odd and indecisive.  Only at the very end of the timeout did he return to his players to discuss a plan.  His staff is very young.

Popovich does that a lot. He spends the first 30secs of a timeout consulting with his assistants and then moves back to the bench to say some things for the second / final 30secs of a timeout.

Udoka is doing what he learned from Pop.

Pop also likes to do this to give the players a chance to speak to each other before he intervenes. More player leadership. More voices. Not always reliant on him -- avoid tiring of hearing his voice.

Interesting. I did not know that. 

[Jvalin]

Generally speaking, I'm sceptical of defensive coordinators being promoted to head coaches. More often than not, they have no workable offensive plan other than ''move the ball'' and ''be aggressive''. I mean, it's easier to teach defense compared to offense. Not to mention, hiring a rookie head coach is always a massive risk. Obviously, we are way too early into the season. No need to overreact over 6 games. With this in mind, here are a few thoughts on how we've played thus far.

Defense

The way our PnR defense worked under Brad, Theis/Horford met the opposing ball handler at the level of dribble hand off and denied penetration. When Timelord was on the court, he usually dropped back to protect the rim.

The way our PnR defense works under Ime, Timelord/Horford switch pretty much everything. Timelord is a terrific rim protector, but he ain't got the lateral quickness to stay in front of explosive ball handlers on the perimeter. Horford is 35 years old. The Wizards were constantly attacking him on the perimeter last night. Can someone explain me why Horford was guarding Beal and Dinwiddie on the perimeter? If you ask me, it was a terrible tactical decision by Ime. The way I see it, both Timelord and Horford should be used in a drop scheme on defense. Horford did a terrific job close to the basket.

Rebounding

We usually start two bigs in Timelord and Horford, yet we rank 23rd in the league in RB%. Why? Cause we switch everything, hence they aren't necessarily under the basket to grab the rebounds (not to mention, they get exposed on the perimeter). Again, terrible tactical decision by Ime.

Offense

Brad was running a PnR-heavy offense. Tatum is an elite PnR ball handler for his size. If a team has the right players, PnR is quite possibly the most unstoppable team move in today's NBA.

Not sure what the plan is under Ime. Too much iso. Not enough team basketball. Yes, we shot poorly from 3pt range last night, but plenty of these 3s were bad shots. No wonder we were missing them. Terrible out of bounds plays as well. Brad was an amazing X's and O's coach. Here are some alarming numbers:

2021/22: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 21.7%
Schroder: 17.2%
Brown 9.1%

2020/21: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 18.6%
Brown: 7.1%
Kemba: 5.5%


2021/22: PnR ball handler frequency
Schroder: 30.3%
Tatum: 16.1%
Brown: 14.4%

2020/21: PnR ball handler frequency
Kemba: 47.2%
Tatum: 27.8%
Brown: 15.2%

Man management
Don't like the fact that Ime has been calling out his players in the media. Seems like everyone is OK with it for now, but it can easily backfire in the future.

All in all, I'm very discouraged by what I've seen thus far. It's not that we've lost 4 winnable games. It's how we play that bothers me a lot. Again, we are way too early into the season. Plenty of time to work things out. Hopefully, Ime is just experimenting with his roster.

I just went back to the Orlando game and reviewed over 20 PnR defensive plays. They are not pretty much always switching.

Its also not true that Robert Williams doesn't have lateral quickness to defend smaller players. He's one of the quickest bigs in the NBA. Not biting on a fake is more of a skill than a quickness issue. He's learning and is improving at this. In a couple of years this won't be a problem at all.

Yesterday's game was different cause the Magic were starting two bigs as well in Wendell Carter Jr. and Bamba. Still, we made tactical mistakes on defense. For instance, I remember one play where we went under the pick against Suggs and he instantly drained the open 3-pointer. If this was by design, imo it was a wrong tactical decision. I'd rather we went over the pick to give him the mid range. Timelord was right behind in case Suggs attempted to attack the basket. Plenty of small mistakes like this. I really don't like the way we play on either side of the ball. Our offense was stagnant. Minimal movement without the ball. Too much iso. Not enough PnR action when we had at least two reliable PnR ball handlers on the court. I could go on and on. Smart and Timelord had a couple of amazing PnR plays. Really don't understand why we don't constantly run the PnR with Timelord rolling hard to the basket. It seems like we don't know how to use Timelord on either side of the floor. At least Horford can shoot from the perimeter, otherwise he'd get lost as well in our stagnant offense.

Agreed to disagree on Timelord's switching defense. Perimeter defense is all about lateral quickness. I would argue Timelord is rather lethargic when moving laterally. No wonder Brad was mostly using him in a drop scheme. Having a massive wingspan and a 40-inch vertical leap doesn't necessarily mean you can stay in front of guards on the perimeter. Obviously, he's an elite rim protector.

[LilRip]

The past 2 games, Ime has relaxed his switch-everything philosophy. It’s nice to see guys fighting through screens more instead of letting the ball-handler handpick his mismatch.

But the first few games of the season? Oof all that switching was rough. And it’s not like teams didn’t figure it out either. They did. That’s why we can’t defend that dribble hand off pull-up 3.

[td450]

Generally speaking, I'm sceptical of defensive coordinators being promoted to head coaches. More often than not, they have no workable offensive plan other than ''move the ball'' and ''be aggressive''. I mean, it's easier to teach defense compared to offense. Not to mention, hiring a rookie head coach is always a massive risk. Obviously, we are way too early into the season. No need to overreact over 6 games. With this in mind, here are a few thoughts on how we've played thus far.

Defense

The way our PnR defense worked under Brad, Theis/Horford met the opposing ball handler at the level of dribble hand off and denied penetration. When Timelord was on the court, he usually dropped back to protect the rim.

The way our PnR defense works under Ime, Timelord/Horford switch pretty much everything. Timelord is a terrific rim protector, but he ain't got the lateral quickness to stay in front of explosive ball handlers on the perimeter. Horford is 35 years old. The Wizards were constantly attacking him on the perimeter last night. Can someone explain me why Horford was guarding Beal and Dinwiddie on the perimeter? If you ask me, it was a terrible tactical decision by Ime. The way I see it, both Timelord and Horford should be used in a drop scheme on defense. Horford did a terrific job close to the basket.

Rebounding

We usually start two bigs in Timelord and Horford, yet we rank 23rd in the league in RB%. Why? Cause we switch everything, hence they aren't necessarily under the basket to grab the rebounds (not to mention, they get exposed on the perimeter). Again, terrible tactical decision by Ime.

Offense

Brad was running a PnR-heavy offense. Tatum is an elite PnR ball handler for his size. If a team has the right players, PnR is quite possibly the most unstoppable team move in today's NBA.

Not sure what the plan is under Ime. Too much iso. Not enough team basketball. Yes, we shot poorly from 3pt range last night, but plenty of these 3s were bad shots. No wonder we were missing them. Terrible out of bounds plays as well. Brad was an amazing X's and O's coach. Here are some alarming numbers:

2021/22: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 21.7%
Schroder: 17.2%
Brown 9.1%

2020/21: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 18.6%
Brown: 7.1%
Kemba: 5.5%


2021/22: PnR ball handler frequency
Schroder: 30.3%
Tatum: 16.1%
Brown: 14.4%

2020/21: PnR ball handler frequency
Kemba: 47.2%
Tatum: 27.8%
Brown: 15.2%

Man management
Don't like the fact that Ime has been calling out his players in the media. Seems like everyone is OK with it for now, but it can easily backfire in the future.

All in all, I'm very discouraged by what I've seen thus far. It's not that we've lost 4 winnable games. It's how we play that bothers me a lot. Again, we are way too early into the season. Plenty of time to work things out. Hopefully, Ime is just experimenting with his roster.

I just went back to the Orlando game and reviewed over 20 PnR defensive plays. They are not pretty much always switching.

Its also not true that Robert Williams doesn't have lateral quickness to defend smaller players. He's one of the quickest bigs in the NBA. Not biting on a fake is more of a skill than a quickness issue. He's learning and is improving at this. In a couple of years this won't be a problem at all.

Yesterday's game was different cause the Magic were starting two bigs as well in Wendell Carter Jr. and Bamba. Still, we made tactical mistakes on defense. For instance, I remember one play where we went under the pick against Suggs and he instantly drained the open 3-pointer. If this was by design, imo it was a wrong tactical decision. I'd rather we went over the pick to give him the mid range. Timelord was right behind in case Suggs attempted to attack the basket. Plenty of small mistakes like this. I really don't like the way we play on either side of the ball. Our offense was stagnant. Minimal movement without the ball. Too much iso. Not enough PnR action when we had at least two reliable PnR ball handlers on the court. I could go on and on. Smart and Timelord had a couple of amazing PnR plays. Really don't understand why we don't constantly run the PnR with Timelord rolling hard to the basket. It seems like we don't know how to use Timelord on either side of the floor. At least Horford can shoot from the perimeter, otherwise he'd get lost as well in our stagnant offense.

Agreed to disagree on Timelord's switching defense. Perimeter defense is all about lateral quickness. I would argue Timelord is rather lethargic when moving laterally. No wonder Brad was mostly using him in a drop scheme. Having a massive wingspan and a 40-inch vertical leap doesn't necessarily mean you can stay in front of guards on the perimeter. Obviously, he's an elite rim protector.

Why would a coach decide to change his switching strategy because Orlando started two bigs? Especially if we did too? We have problems on defense, but one thing that isn't happening is that our guards are getting punished on switches by centers. Kemba isn't here anymore and Smart, Shroder and Richardson are really good against bigger guys.

Perimeter defense is all about lateral quickness? Really? How come the quickest players in the league aren't the best perimeter defenders? Why has Marcus Smart been a top perimeter defender for years?

Quickness definitely matters but defense is a set of skills too. Robert Williams is clearly quicker laterally than Al Horford. His stance and his footwork isn't as good, and he reacts to fakes more.

[PhoSita]

I think "tactical approach" is too flattering a way to describe what we've seen on the court so far.

[Goldstar88]

I thought Ime’s tactical approach was “TBD”

He’s still formulating it in the Lab and should be ready sometime next season.

[Jvalin]

Why would a coach decide to change his switching strategy because Orlando started two bigs? Especially if we did too?

Because our bigs matched up perfectly against Orlando's bigs. Most teams start one big man and they constantly attack the mismatch. There was no such mismatch yesterday. If Ime wants to impliment a switch-heavy defensive scheme, the least he can do is replace one of Timelord/Horford with a switchable defender. What's the point in running a switch-heavy defensive scheme with two drop bigs in the starting lineup? Not to mention, Schroder cannot switch screens either. This is madness! Mind you, Ime was a defensive coordinator for crying out loud! To be fair, I didn't watch the game against the Bulls. LilRip posted above that we didn't switch everything in that game. If so, perhaps Ime is gradually coming to his senses. Time will tell.

We have problems on defense, but one thing that isn't happening is that our guards are getting punished on switches by centers.

Agreed. What's happening is the exact opposite: Our Centers are getting punished on switches by guards.

Perimeter defense is all about lateral quickness? Really? How come the quickest players in the league aren't the best perimeter defenders? Why has Marcus Smart been a top perimeter defender for years?

To a large extent, yes. On-ball defense on the perimeter is mostly about lateral quickness. You gotta be able to stay in front of your opponent in order to keep him away from the basket. Quickest way to do that is by moving laterally. Smart ain't a top on-ball defender. What makes him special is his brute strength relative to his height. He's ''just'' 6'3'', but he's built like a tank which allows him to switch on taller opponents. I would argue he's the second most versatile/switchable guard defender in the NBA behind only Ben Simmons. Being physically strong comes at a price cause it hinders his explosiveness. Very few players are both strong and explosive (Giannis, Bam and Simmons come to mind). For instance, prime Avery Bradley was an elite on-ball defender cause he was lightning quick, but he wasn't strong/tall enough to switch on bigger opponents. Smart is nowhere near Bradley's level when it comes to on-ball defense. Personally speaking, I value versatility over on-ball defense. Both are very useful skills though.

Robert Williams is clearly quicker laterally than Al Horford.

Agreed, but this means close to nothing. Horford is 35 years old. He ain't a mobile big man anymore.