Philadelphia 76ers Bank D’Antoni Brings Fast Break Fix

Bret Stuter

He Is The Basketball Offense Specialist, Philadelphia 76ers Bank D’Antoni Brings Fast Fast-Break Fix To NBA Worst Offense

91.1

If that were a body temperature, it would signal an urgent need to travel to an Emergency room and be resuscitated while warming the body gently.

91.1 points per game (PPG)

But when it’s a basketball team’s offensive production in average points per game, it needs immediate attention. Unfortunately, there is no emergency room to move the team’s offense to. So if the mountain cannot go to Mohammad, then Mohammad must go to the mountain. In this case, Mike D’Antoni, one of the NBA premier offensive coaching strategists, is on his way to resuscitate the offense of the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Philadelphia 76ers are currently the worst in the NBA in scoring – with a 91.1 points per game that is 4.2 points per game worse than the 29th team offense of the Milwaukee Bucks, and approximately 10 points per game worse than the league average. Yes it’s a young team and yes they are learning the game of basketball at the NBA level, but the team was looking to improve their offense this season while maintaining their hard earned defense of a year ago.

Now For Offense

The plan for the 2015-2016 was to change all that, to fix the offense while maintaining the improvements in the defense that head coach Brett Brown had painstakenly implement last season.

"“It’s taking these young guys who play downhill and play fast and have just come out of the summer where they put up thousands and thousands and thousands of shots and learning where can you play with your toy — it ain’t in the kitchen,” Brown said. “This is a problem and it’s a fine line to walk as a coach sometimes. When I talk about offense I say, ‘The pass is king,’ and I say it all the time,” Brown said. “So if I can avoid good-shot/bad-shot cop, and get them to understand what [a good shot is] and show them evidence that the pass is king, then you don’t need to have [an All-Star] point guard because you have a team. “And then I have a real post focus, to study what we did with (San Antonio Spurs) Timmy (Duncan) and David (Robinson) in the post back in the day. We have Jahlil and Nerlens, and we’re going to have to post perfectly in space. Those are the types of things I take pride in. The Spurs thing — it’s not a truly realistic example because of the nature of what we really are doing,” Brown says. “It’s just so different with this abundance of 20-year-olds that we have in Philadelphia. In San Antonio that whole team was veteran. Not once did we ever say it was a youth policy. It was a team riddled with veterans. That’s why I say this is not the Spurs. It’s so different dealing with a 20-year-old and with social media and Twitter and agents and the inner circle. – Brett Brown"

The point is obvious. With so many young faces needing so much attention, and only so much Brett Brown to go around, the Sixers have placed far too much on one man’s shoulders. Brett Brown is a keen coaching mind, and his record with the Philadelphia 76ers betrays the fact that he has been the glue, the mentor, the positive force that keeps the nose up on this plane while it crashes again and again as general manager Sam Hinkie’s plan underpowers it with talent today for the belief that the team will grow into an NBA powerhouse.

But therein lies the rub. To become that powerhouse, the team must develop. With too many consumers and too few suppliers of solid NBA strategy and expertise, the team has not truly taken off. The hire of Mike D’Antoni should change all that.

Next: Fast Break Basketball

Fast Break Basketball

Mike D’Antoni was once the offensive mastermind behind the Phoenix Suns, which is the source of association with Jerry Colangelo. The Sixer Sense’s own Larry Williams discussed this role that Colangelo had in persuading D’Antoni to return to the NBA after a distasteful stint as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. But if he couldn’t get the high powered offense of the Los Angeles Lakers on track, why bring him to Philly?

When he coached the Phoenix Suns, D’Antoni practically restored NBA scoring with his should-have-been-patented fast break offense. It’s the template for NBA offenses even to this day. The success of the Golden State Warriors is set, in part, in the scheme that Mike D’Antoni ran years ago.

Alvin Gentry tells me: "This is vindication for Mike D'Antoni." pic.twitter.com/Vqrhg9RB6w
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) June 17, 2015

The idea of Mike D’Antoni’s fast break is ruled by a singular strategy. It slides into the structure already designed by Brown’s offensive mantra of pace, space and pass. D’Antoni’s fast break needs two things, spacing and philosophy. The strategy is to get a shot within the first 7 seconds. That forces players on the defense to get up and down the court, which in turn, creates defensive breakdowns. Defenders need to slow a pace in order to reset and recover in time. Fast pacing an offense prevents that, while spacing becomes crucial as it creates gaps in which the ball can penetrate and either finish at the rim or kick out for a three.

This is not a fast break for the faint of heart. You have to have players that are fearless as shooters, a point guard vision and a coach who can ride the waves.

I. The offense begins with the point guard, who must get the ball up the floor as quickly as possible. He is always looking to penetrate for a layup or kick out for a shot.

II. Meanwhile two long range shooters set up at the corners beyond the arc in anticipation of a three point shot.

III. The best shooting front court player (Covington?) He charges down on the opposite side of the ball towards the foul lane.

IV. The fifth man is the post trailer.

V. The play begins with the point guard (PG) looking to immediately penetrate for the score or dish the ball.

VI. If the lane is sealed, the PG dishes the ball to the near corner for a quick three pointer.

VII. If the near corner is well defended, PG pushes the ball to the middle and dishes the ball to the far corner for a three pointer.

VIII. If both corners are defended, PG pushes the ball down side of court and passes back to the best shooter for a trey or penetrate for a mid range two.

Notice no where in this offense is the primary design to get the ball to the man at the post. That’s where the fun comes in. The ball moves so quickly and the decisions are so rapid in this offense that is designed to attack from the perimeter. Once the defenders charge out to stop the artillery on the hill, the offense can then feed the ball to the post man for the easy two.

Once this basic set is perfected, the offense can begin to layer in the pick and roll, flare break, screen and roll, screen and pop, penetrate and kick out, backscreen, or any number of offensive variations.

Next: Vanilla Doesn't Sell

Dec 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown consoles guard

T.J. McConnell

(12) on the bench during the second half against the San Antonio Spurs at Wells Fargo Center. The Spurs won 119-68. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Vanilla Doesn’t Sell In The NBA

Brett Brown has wanted to implement a D’Antoni offense, or a derivative, since becoming the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. But the team has been assembled each year with new and younger faces of players who are still learning basic vanilla NBA.

"“That’s the stage that this program is at. It’s all vanilla and it’s all vanilla off the court, too. With just basic routines and showing up on time and interaction with teammates and how we travel and cell phones. It’s everything. I like the responsibility. It’s a different set of circumstances because of what their birth certificates say and what their NBA resume says. It’s not anything that I’m shying away from. I enjoy it. We start at what is vanilla and as vanilla as vanilla can be. It’s just very simple and deliberate and we try to focus on the teaching part of vanilla. Everybody around me knows what I want to leave the week with, and we haven’t let it go. We’ve been disciplined to have pace in our practice, pop in our practice and a rhythm, and it moves quick and we’re so much better organized. It’s done in an environment that has an incredible feel and pace to it.” – Coach Brett Brown discussing limits to offensive playbook"

And so, Brown is not limited by what he can teach, but in how quickly his players can learn. Limited is what the Sixers offense has been so far this season. When one player steps up offensively, another cools off. With so much tethered to who and for how long players offensive production shows up, the team is a cascade of bad quarters of basketball with a sprinkling of good quarters intermingled.

The team has talent. The team has a quality coaching staff. The team simply does not have consistency. That’s where D’Antoni can help. By fitting the Sixers players into a highly structured offense that is proven over and over to score at a high pace in the NBA, the team now has the offensive template to judge who will work going forward. This setup does not take well to a rigid veteran team – such as the Los Angeles Lakers team D’Antoni took over as their head coach. This setup works optimally with young players, whose NBA habits remain fluid enough to be shaped by a well-structured offense.

Growing pains will happen. The team may falter before it begins to show signs of improving. But the D’Antoni hire was a true coup of the Philadelphia 76ers organization. Not only did they land a premier offensive basketball coach, but they may have intercepted him from taking on a coaching role with such NBA powerhouse the Golden State Warriors and the resurging Denver Nuggets. What is the draw for an accomplished coach to come to the Philadelphia 76ers? If you can fix this team, it’s clear that D’Antoni will write his ticket to a head coaching position.

Next: Every Architect Needs A Foreman

Dec 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers special advisor Jerry Colangelo (L) goes over first quarter stats with owner Joshua Harris (R) during a timeout against the San Antonio Spurs at Wells Fargo Center. The Spurs won 119-68. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Every Architect Needs A Foreman

The Philadelphia 76ers are a young organization, period. President and general manager Sam Hinkie is running his first NBA program after being executive vice president of basketball operations for the Houston Rockets. From executive washroom to gymnasium shower room. The first significant act by newly ordained president and general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers was to hire currently head coach Brett Brown. Previous to his hire, Brown had been an NBA assistant head coach for the San Antonio Spurs and served as the head coach of the Sydney Kings of the Australian National Basketball League. But his resume for head coach of an NBA head coach was as thick as Sam Hinkie’s resume was in running an NBA program as a general manager.

Both are counting on On-the-Job-Training (OJT).

When news broke of the hire of Jerry Colangelo as the new Philadelphia 76ers consultant and chairman of basketball operations, many viewed the team as moving current general manager to the unemployment line. But the reality is that it may have solidified Sam Hinkie’s role as architect to the “grand rebuild”. In a nutshell, the Sixers new structure allows Sam Hinkie to wield the power of the “deal” while Jerry Colangelo works behind the scenes to mortar the cracks. His role, as mentor and facilitator, to Sam Hinkie and the process means that the dream of a championship has more traction now. Colangelo is the foreman of the build, the guy who takes the plans, makes suggestions for improvements, and then identifies the best talent to get the job done.

Some have equated the hire to a stock market exchange, with a room filled with insane shouting and Colangelo’s voice now bellowing like thunder in that room, silencing the voices of anyone else in an almost biblical analogy of God speaking to Moses. Not happening.

The first example of that is the coaching staff. Brett Brown is the hire of Sam Hinkie. IF the Philadelphia 76ers are going in a “new direction”, they most certainly would NOT want to retain the services of the man most loyal to Sam Hinkie – the head coach personally hand picked by him. But in a clear sign of what’s to come, the first order of business was to extend Brett Brown for two more years.

Next: Mentoring The Mentor

Nov 21, 2015; Miami, FL, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown talks with his players during a timeout in the first half of game action against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Mentoring The Mentor

Then and only after retaining the current head coach, they lifted the burden from him by hiring Mike D’Antoni. Not Colangelo’s son Bryan Colangelo as was rumored, but D’Antoni. Mike D’Antoni is an associate head coach who will do as much for Brett Brown as Jerry Colangelo will do for Sam Hinkie. Turning from a rapid to descent to a sustainable climb requires a significant amount of expertise. That expertise is immigrating to the Philadelphia 76ers now. The team had already set up the supporting cast under Sam Hinkie’s guidance. Now the team is upgrading the front office to championship caliber.

Mike D’Antoni is the expert at scoring offenses in the NBA. He fathered the Phoenix Suns fast break. Now the Sixers are asking him to repeat history. But moreso, he knows the demands and the ins and outs of the NBA. He’s been there. Brett Brown has been far too often placed in front of a microphone with hard pointed questions that have no answers except “Trust The Process”. Now the process gets more robust. Now Brown will have help on the court. The questions may not get answers for weeks, but the team is working on the solutions.

There will be those who believe one win today is far more important than championship success tomorrow. They will continue to believe this Sixer’s team is wrong, heading for disaster, plumetting uncontrollably, and heading for disaster. There are the core Sixer fans, whose intelligence shines forth to me constantly, and whose understanding of the process has been far greater than my own, who are solid in their knowledge that this rebuild is like nothing the NBA has ever seen before.

ALSO ON SIXER SENSE: Philadelphia 76ers Top 20 Performances Of All Time

This team has disconnected components of a great team. Players on this roster are still getting better, and still learning how to become a team. Additions of Colangelo and D’Antoni will only augment that process, identify players and coaches who can accelerate the learning curve and then coach them up in areas the team is struggling in badly. The take-away from this season is NOT how the team begins the year, but how it ends it.

When it boils down to free agents, it will be about the money. When it boils down to the NBA draft, its about the number of picks. Right now, the Philadelphia 76ers are sitting on a huge amount of both. It doesn’t require expertise to succeed in this formula. But the Sixers just signed up two of the best in the NBA. Sam Hinkie loves stacking the deck with insurance policies.

Bret Stuter

Bret Stuter is the site expert for Ramblin Fan who has covered the Los Angeles Rams for 5 years. Swept up into loving professional sports from a family that listened to games on the radio, he is at home cheering for HC Sean McVay and the Rams. Articles have been featured on B/R, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Sporting News, and Washington Post. Bret loves to fish, and watch games at sports bars over pizza.