It would be insane if every team played like this....

[Starman]

... but thank god SOMEONE does.

http://grantland.com/features/nba-dleague-rgv-vipers-houston-rockets-future-of-basketball/

Could it work in the NBA? Probably not ... unless you had advantages in depth and athleticism which would mean you would win using most other systems as well.

But thank god SOMEBODY is doing something different than just run the same sludgeball grind-the-clock bull**** everyone else runs. There isn't only one "right way to play."

Special note: Krzyzewski, take notes for 2016. (Auriemma, you too.) Wanna figure out how LBJ, Durant and Melo can all average 20 ppg and you can have nine guys averaging in double figures? Here's how.

You can play grind-it-out sludgeball and win most of your games 85-67, and be vulnerable to shocking upset losses on the nights the refs decide to **** you, or you can win your games 155-103 and never care a lick about what the refs are doing.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be the best update ever about second-grade girls basketball.

 

[Starman]

Well, it would be insane if every team played like them, too.

:o :o :o

 

[Bob Cook]

I just finished Slick Leonard's book (heavy reading, to be sure), and it was his contention that ABA scores were so high not because defense was lousy, but because everyone was playing at such a fast pace. So what Houston is doing is a little back to the future. Actually, you can't play this style without depth and an active defense, or else you're going to be Philadelphia and lose 130-110 to Milwaukee every game.

By the way, the piece is worth reading just for RGV assistant coach Paul Mokeski's rousing halftime speech:

“Sit down and listen,” Mokeski began. “It’s not brain surgery, OK? I’m going to show you some easy ****ing numbers. I don’t care if you flunked ****ing math, you can get these numbers. They average 99 points a game. That’s what they average, 99. We let them score 72 in one half. They’ve never scored 72 in one half, ever. Twenty-five layups, 14 in the first quarter … Until we decide we’re going to ****ing guard someone, ****ing stay in front of somebody, ****ing get back in transition, ****ing put your body on the line, it’s going to be like that."