Rick Carlisle, present coach of the Indiana Pacers, played a limited role for the Boston Celtics from 1984 to 1987, averaging a mere 2.2 PPG, 1.0 APG and 0.8 RPG. He collected one Title ring as a player with Boston in 1986, and a second one, this time as coach of the Dallas Mavericks, in 2011.
Carlisle employed what he calls a :"free-flowing Boston offense" in the 2011 playoffs, taking out the Miami Heat, loaded at the time with the likes of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, in six games (per Rick Carlisle):
"By the time we got into the playoffs in 2011, we were calling virtually NO plays. (It was a) random style we called "flow"
Rick likened that free-flowing style to what he and his Celtics teammates did in 1986. In 2011, Carlisle had six players carrying most of the scoring load, from Dirk Nowitzky's 27.7 points/game to Peja Stojakovic's 7.1 PPG. That crew also included Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, J. J. Barea and Tyson Chandler. The top-3 scorers, Dirk, Jason and Shawn, all shot better than 47% from the field.
Count me as one that wants that free flow back on the parquet. I recall the smoothness of the Celtics 1986 offense very well, and there is no reason, even though Larry Bird is not walking through that door, to have it back in 2021-22. Many NBA coaches seem to fear stepping away from overly-intricate offensive and defensive schemes and be accused of "under-coaching". But I doubt Ime Udoka is one of them.
.
Comments
Post a Comment