[quote="Beast of the East" post=331838]I think we've all gotten lost in the simplistic realities. Not making our shots, not rebounds, teams packing it in, etc.
Here's what I would say strategically:
1. you beat a good zone with great ball movement and not standing around and dribbling. Motion and overloading allows opportunities to find seams in the zone and opportunities to get good looks on midrange and short jumpers. We sometimes play like it's either a 24 foot shot over the zone, or a forced layup. The old rules rules of physics apply. The ball moves faster than the zone. Good crisp ball movement, flashing to open spots on the floor will get us better looks.
2. Rebounding. With our athleticism we can be a much better rebounding team, but not rely only on athleticism. The solid fundamental of finding your man and putting a body on him when the ball goes up works about as well as a 40 inch vertical leap. Our guys should try it.
3. Transition. We should push the ball at every single opportunity, even in bounding after a basket. USe our inferior bench to give short blows to our guys to keep them fresh without having 2 or 3 bench players on the floor at once.
4. Breaks. Just because we push the ball doesn't mean every possession has to be 5 seconds and very few breaks should result in an open 25 foot shot. A 5 on 4 is an advantage, but less so of course than a 3 on 1. Our guys have to be smart in transition, and use it to wear down bigger, slwer opponents.
5. Dumb fouls. Most important thing is not committing rebounding fouls, fouls away from the basket, or fould when you've hopelessly lost your man and challenge him late. It's much more important that our starters have the capacity to be on the floor for 32-40 minutes than be on the bench saddled with fouls.
We do these things and suddenly we are formidable and not an easy out whatsoever.[/quote]
And when we have a three on one fast break I don't want to see the pass to the corner for a three pointer, instead a pass for an easy lay up. BTW, I don't care if the three point shot goes in.