Second Unit a Pressing Unit. What do you think?

[sk7326]

I was talking with the gf about this during the Cavs game, saying it was kind of dumb that Nate was pressing full ct by himself... When is the last NBA team to succesfully press consistently?  I can't think of any - the ball handling and passing is just too good at this level, and a full court press generally gives up layups

not to say an occasional catch you by surprise press doesn't work, but if you have a "pressing unit" I don't see it being too effective. 

Didn't Pitino want to do this?

Yes.  But I think he envisioned the entire team doing it for 48 minutes, 82 games a year. 

Which is why his players hated him. He ran them into the ground in practice. Doc is on the other end of the spectrum. He is a players coach and I bet he hated practice as a player. I have to say though, conditioning is an issue with alot of our players. Maybe its time to start running these guys a little harder in practice.

When I played ball, this is when our coach would ramp up the intensity. He would ratchet it down right before the playoffs started. We won 3 state titles in my four years at the school. I know its different but these guys should be hitting their stride as far as stamina goes right now and they look like theyre playing preseason games.

Riley was legendary for beating up his players.  That wasn't why they hated Pitino - it was because he also took zero accountability for defeat.  He sold out every single one of his players to the media when the pressure came.  Basically he was the anti-Francona (at least in Boston, the epitome of treating players like grownups).  It was no wonder that they started succeeding immediately when Jim O'Brien took over, just by understanding how to talk to adults.

Doc is trying to manage the guys legs - though it has been weird ... he wants to manage minutes but the bench has either been injured or wretched at points all season ... so even if he had an inner Popovich, he wouldn't have been able to use it.