Part VI of a Series of Team Analysis. Pace Space and Pass Basketball is the Mantra of Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown. But how good will this team become in each area? Judging by the 2015-2016 season, pretty good.
Pace Space and Pass. It’s the mantra of Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown, and is the legacy of the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
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Since the changing of the guard in the executive suite, Brown is the last bastion to the Philly Phenom known as “Trust The Process”. While much of the accolades for the inception of the pushing-the-NBA-patience-beyond-normal-limits-to-rebuild go to former executive Sam Hinkie, it was Brett Brown’s choice to buy in and coach a team knowingly on a seven year plan to become competitive in the post season.
This year is the hump. Year four of that seven year plan. While any other situation would refer to this as the crest of the hill and all downhill from here, in this situation this is the year of the nadir, and everything is uphill from here. And so, the grading scale which tended to focus on “attendance” and “participation” as keys for the past three years is sliding away now. Going forward the evalution of the players’, and team’s, performance will be based on what did they try to do, how well did do it, and how effective was it?
So reach for that glass of wine, cold beer, hot coffee, tea or even a tall glass of ice water. We have a lot of ground to cover.
Next: The San Antonio Sultan of Spurs
The San Antonio Sultan of Spurs
Gregg Popovich has been the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs since assuming the role in the 1996-1997 season after he, also serving as general manager, fired then head coach Bob Hill. Since that first season, where he won just 17 out of 64 games played, he has led the San Antonio Spurs to the playoffs for 19 straight seasons, including winning five NBA championships.
His championships came in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.
For the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs are as close to a championship franchise as there is in the NBA today. Yes, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors exchanged championships in two consecutive meetings, but the key is whether they can come back year after year after year.
That is exactly what the Spurs have done.
But how have they done it? By flexing the scheme to fit the players, but by following good sound basketball. The San Antonio Spurs have simply focused on what it takes to win basketball games, and then they go out and outperform their opponents.
The Spurs distribute the ball well (assists/pass), shoot accurately (both from the floor and from the perimeter), and score in bunches. Just ask Denver Nuggets coach Brian Shaw after his team was dissected.
"“This is a well-oiled machine,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who the personnel is…they play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. If you don’t have a shot, swing it over to your next open teammate and make the appropriate basketball play. They do that probably better than any team in the league, and that’s why they have success playing any style, whether it’s up and down or a grind-it-out halfcourt game.”"
The Spurs have defined excellence in the NBA in each of the past three decades. But there is a new coach about to compete in the excellence department.
Next: Everything's Waiting For you...
Everything’s Waiting For you…
Brown Town. This is the Philadelphia 76ers, and they are coached by Brett Brown. After all, Brett Brown learned from Gregg Popovich. But patience was something he had to engineer himself. You see, Popovich met with almost immediate success and never relinquished his hold upon it. Brett Brown began the journey with Sam Hinkie in the scorched earth of the remains of what was then the Philadelphia 76ers.
But rather than do the obvious: overpay for a moderately skilled free agent and hold on dearly to a sub-.500 team ad infinitum, the pairing concluded that the Spurs were the team to emulate – building NBA supremacy by crafting a team from the NBA draft, and filling in with niche veterans for a specific purpose. But it took Hinkie and Brown three years to get the NBA draft well primed, and when that happened, everything has begun to fall into place.
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Ben Simmons was the first selection in the 2016 NBA Draft. But more so, he was the first direction for the Philadelphia 76ers in five years. It was not since the team failed in their attempt to land Andrew Bynum and Arnette Moutrie into the same frontcourt that this team has reached for a cornerstone to build around. With Simmons as the point forward/guard this year, the team now has a rebounder, distributor, pace-setting, court general who can elevate the game of players around him.
Two red-shirted players: Joel Embiid, and Dario Saric, are already standing pretty tall in their own games. Embiid is a 7-foot-two center with remarkable athleticism and versatility, who has been rehabbing for two years. Saric is a 6-foot-10 power forward who has played internationally for two seasons, but has used the time to create quite a name for himself as he leads the Croatian national team to upset victory in the 2016 Olympics.
In these three, the team is debuting a trio who are very capable on their own. Together, they will form the core of the team going forward. This is a team which will resemble nothing like last season’s ten win roster. This team is built for speed, for distributing the ball, and for knocking down three point shots.
Next: What's So Different This Year?
What’s So Different This Year?
Much has been made of the change in attitude of the Philadelphia 76ers since Bryan Colangelo has taken over. But to the show-me-don’t-tell-me fans of the Philadelphia 76ers, it’s only been a change of rhetoric. Former Sam Hinkie said virtually nothing, fearing to give away key elements of his strategy and affording an opportunity to another team to take more immediate advantage. Under Bryan Colangelo, he broadcasts the intentions of the team months in advance, but when it’s time for action, his path has been remarkably similar to the path chosen by his predecessor.
The reality is that whether or not the team had changed executives, virtually each of the player transaction so far would have been identical. This year was simply following a script that was written four years ago.
While the team awaited the first player to arrive who could truly be a difference maker for the franchise, Brett Brown showed remarkable patience and positivity in developing players to fill their roles in the NBA. Now that the starters are showing up this year, the team has invested heavily on a roster with starting caliber reserves.
But better than upgrading the bench, this is the first season where Brown truly has a roster capable of running his Pace Space and Pass system to its fullest potential. Pace is the quickness of the NBA team that runs from getting the basketball to making the shot. Space is placing shooters at sufficient intervals on the floor to force the defense into man coverage, or risk leaving a man open for a shot. Pass is the ability to distribute the ball to the open man just as his shot opens up.
Simmons, Saric, and Embiid are more than three talented players. They are athletic enough to play multiple positions for the Philadelphia 76ers. For a team that is emphasizing Pace Space and Pass, that is the final and important ingredient.
Next: Pace
Pace
If head coach Brett Brown sits down to explain his philosophy to the press, inevitably he will turn to the following mantra:
"“Pace, space, and pass.”"
But that same mantra changes when he sits down to address his youth-infused players. Instead he goes to another variation of the phrasing:
"“Pace and poise.”"
But when he was running the offense through center Jahlil Okafor, he had to change that to accomodate the scoring acumen of his rookie center, and so it became:
"“Pace and post.”"
Accommodating players’ skills is what Brown learned from his instructions under Popovich. But in the NBA, judgement is passed on results, not mantras. and so, regardless of the wins or losses column, just how fast was the 2015-2016 Philadelphia 76ers squad?
NBA.com Stats has a very nice way of measuring that. In advanced team stats, they measure PACE by the number of possessions per 48 minutes of play (a full league game). Surprisingly, the Phiadelphia 76ers came in sixth (100.23) behind the Sacramento Kings (102.24), Golden State Warriors (101.65), Boston Celtics (101.15), Phoenix Suns (100.86) and Washington Wizards (100,63).
So the team is playing quickly. If you recall, that was an area Brown immediately identified as an area needing improvement. But pace has a way of exaggerating what a team is. If the team is good (ala the Golden State Warriors), pace gives the team more shots per game – more opportunities. But if the team has few shooters (ala the Philadelphia 76ers), well, that gives the other team opportunity to shoot.
So pace unto itself is just that, the pace of the game. Can it prove to be an advantage?
Next: The Future of Philadelphia Pace
The Future of Philadelphia Pace
Early in the 2015-2016 season, the Philadelphia 76ers slowed down the pace quite a bit. Per Brian Seltzer covering a loss to the Utah Jazz in an October 31, 2015 article, he pointed out that the Philadelphia 76ers were playing at 97.8 possessions per game, nearly 2.5 possessions less than the season average.
Even with the roster limited by injury and inexperience, Brown clearly accomplished speeding up the game for the 76ers. This year, he may be the one asking to slow things up. Ben Simmons can move the ball coast to coast from a rebound to a drive to the hoop, and do it quickly. But why should he? The team will have excellent distribution on the court in Sergio Rodriguez and Dario Saric. Even T.J. McConnell has upped his game,
Players like to stay involved in an offense. When the play has two options: Jahlil Okafor primary and an outlet shooter at the perimeter, players not involved tend to slow down and disengage on the play. With Simmons on the court, anyone in a Sixers jersey is an option, regardless of the defense. Simmons has the ability to thread defenses with passes.
When Simmons is sitting it out? Don’t look for much degredation. Rodriguez, Saric, and even McConnell are solid in bring the ball up the court and getting it to the right shooter at the right instant.
Pace is something Brown holds very dear. The Philadelphia 76ers will improve a great deal from last year’s average, where they ended up sixth. This year the team will very likely rest atop the NBA, as they had in the 2013-2014 season, Brown’s first year.
Next: Space
Space
Space is more than just the distant between the players of the Philadelphia 76ers. Its the choreography of placing the right players at the right point to make a clean shot.
It involves the shooter, the movement setting up the shot, the ball handler, and the precision pass. It is the motion of the shooter, and not just three guys perched beyond the three-point line assailing the basket as though they were mortar rockets anchored to the ground.
You see, Brett Brown does not believe basketball offense will be ruled by the three point shot. He merely agrees that it has it’s place. In a telling interview with Grantland’s Zach Lowe, Brown shared his thoughts about the three point shot in offense, and his belief in defending it:
"Everybody in analytics tells me (that the three point shot) is (the future of the NBA), but I don’t like it. There is no stat that talks about the disappointment and frustration of an interior player not getting touches while running rim to rim to rim to rim. Look at the extreme of last [Thursday’s] game, with Houston and Oklahoma City. (where Houston scored 70+ points in the first half to just 19 points in the second half). I’m just so curious to see what happened. In my opinion, it just ends up a carnival. I don’t see it [as the future]. And I could be entirely wrong. You have to embrace the three. We embrace the three. We’ve embraced it as much as anybody, I hope. We’ve encouraged Spencer [Hawes] and Thaddeus [Young] — dragged them out and spaced the floor. I think the future of the game is the Ryan Anderson type. One of your bigs has to be able to do that. But to just scream up and down the floor, and jack 3s — I don’t like that."
And so, it’s not just jacking 3’s.
So what is it?
It’s the choreography. It’s similar to taking the Ish Smith to Nerlens Noel alley-oop pass and dunk and using that same precision and wow with a number of players, shots, and moves. It’s the pick and roll, its the corner three, it’s the drive and lay up to the basket, it’s the alley-oop.
It’s placing folks into motion and when they break to the shot, the ball arrives just where it needs to. It’s something we have not yet seen in Philadelphia for some time.
Next: The Future of Philadelphia Space
The Future of Philadelphia Space
The future of the Philadelphia 76ers is Ben Simmons, and Simmons will likely be the player bringing the ball down the court. That really does nothing for the spacing issue.
What it has done is forced the Philadelphia 76ers to focus on space with the roster. Each of the 76ers free agents: Sergio Rodriguez, Jerryd Bayless, and Gerald Henderson, can manufacture their own shots. In the draft, the team selected Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz. Finally, debuting this season are Joel Embiid and Dario Saric.
While the overall impact to the team will be generated from less than half of this number of players, the impact will be huge. The Philadelphia 76ers will not only be a fast team, but the players will be in motion. We may not be able to keep tabs on who is going where, but we won’t need to. Ben Simmons will be responsible, and that is why his arrival means so much for the 76ers.
Moving forward, Both Luwawu and Korkmaz are the type of shooting guards who can move without the ball, defend very well, and reinforce the team at the shooting guard position.
Conceivably, the team may be incredibly proficient at the fast break next year as well. Either Saric or Simmons can start the play with a rebound and a pass downcourt. A guard breaking for the basket would be a terrific way to end a heads up play.
But it can mean feeding the ball to a dominant center as well. Joel Embiid should be able to defeat single and double teams at the post. Simmons will place the ball in just the right place to ensure that he does.
Next: Pass
Pass
The final piece to this Brown blueprint is the pass. In short, it’s the ball movement that involves more than one player. Ultimately, ball distribution moves the ball from the point to the shooter for a score, and generates an assist. In the 2015-2016 season, the Philadelphia 76ers were twelfth in the league (out of 30 teams) in assist percentage.
While not earth-shattering, it’s impressive in that it happened with a rather loosely constructed roster. But can the team improve upon that?
They can and will.
Last season, the team was led on assist percentage by T.J. McConnell with 37.1 assists per 100 possessions. While it’s not uncommon for a point guard to lead the team, the starting guard, Ish Smith, came in at nearly 10 assists less with 27.3 assists per 100.
The epitome of ball movement is the Golden State Warriors. On their roster, the team has three players with better than 30 assists per 100: power forward Draymond Green, point guard Shaun Livingston, small forward Andre Iguodala, and center Andrew Bogut fell just short with 29.7 assists.
This year, the Philadelphia 76ers will likely have Joel Embiid/ Nerlens Noel at center, Dario Saric at power forward, Ben Simmons at small forward, and Sergio Rodriguez at point guard. While they may not all match the Warriors, you can bet they’ll do well on the statistic.
Next: The Future of Philadelphia Pass
The Future of Philadelphia Pass
This will be the source of highlight reels, of a spike in enrollment in NBA.TV subscriptions, and in the silencing of critics of the team.
Passing is that art form of basketball, the aspect of the game where spectators truly can be amazed, as though they are seeing a significant work from one of the world’s great masters. This season, the team has brought on three players who have wowed spectators by making circus like passes and making it seem easy.
But passing is more that getting the ball to a shooter, it’s also upon the shooter to recognize whether they can take the shot, or move the ball to the next option. In Philadelphia’s 2015-2016 offense, once the ball got to Jahlil Okafor, it went no further.
This year, that will not happen. Should Okafor be playing the post, the movement around him will give him the all important outlet pass – preventing him from trying to outmuscle as many as three defenders on his shot. That’s something new, and will force teams to play looser. When Okafor gets space, he gets points.
That ball movement does not simply benefit Jahlil Okafor, but nearly everyone on the roster with less than a full compliment of shots. Many of the team’s players last year were dependent upon a specific type of play to get them a good look at the basket. If defended, the team had minimal alternatives. Ultimately, with time running out on the shot clock, Ish Smith found himself making the shot out of necessity.
Next: Can Pace Space Pass Win Games?
Can Pace Space Pass Win Games?
The proof is in the pudding. The San Antonio Spurs have used these principals to maintain their advantage over the competition in the NBA. The fundamentals of the small ball phenomenon also rely upon “out-hustling” their opponents.
Surprisingly, the Philadelphia 76ers were better than expected in a very poor season. They will likely come out of the gates with some troubling moments in the three areas, or perhaps for an entire game.
But this is not academia. This is the NBA, and both Brown and then assistant head coach Mike D’Antoni agreed that this was the way to go. Their jobs are on the line, and they’ve made successful careers in the NBA by making good decisions.
The Philadelphia 76ers will not just land atop the NBA in these categories. The coaches do not fully understand the players, nor do the players fully understand the NBA. Even the lineups will need time and effort to build the very important familiarity with one another.
Eventually, things will begin to click. When that happens, this team could score huge amounts of points in less time than you might think.
Next: Brett Brown Says Dario Saric is Like a Young Manu Ginobili
Can a Pace Space Pass system win in the NBA? Yes, it can. But whether the Philadelphia 76ers can win with this system is what this season will need to determine. But win or lose, this will be a very entertaining season. Coming from the bottom of the NBA and finding the success will not be easy. But overcoming those odds will ensure this team becomes legendary, even if just to the fans of the Philadelphia 76ers.