Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Swartz
As a series-long strategy, that's probably true, but I'm not talking about doing that. Case in point: the game much earlier in LeBron's career when he scored the last 25 I think it was points of the game at the Palace against Detroit. Afterwards Flip Saunders said they did all they could to take it out of his hands -- which wasn't true. They doubled him about 40 feet away, James passed, eventually got it back with like 8-10 on the shot clock ... and then they just let him do whatever which usually ended in a made shot. Only a very few times did anyone else shoot -- and they missed every single time. Absolutely no good reason why they couldn't have doubled again, the only difference being this time there's a lot less time on the clock for the offense to do something.
I've also seen analyses at places like 538 which argued that a 'bad'
shot for an elite shooter like Curry(I think it applies to James when he's in the zone as well, esp. considering how much more accurate his deep ball is these days) is better than a good shot for almost anyone else. I just don't see a reason not to try it for a couple minutes to shake things up. If nothing else it can throw a team/player potentially out of the rhythm.
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If you're advocating for early/aggressive doubles I like that. I thought you were arguing for doubling him off ball and playing 3v4 like Jimmy Patsos did once vs Steph Curry in college, which I do not think would work. It's a guaranteed open layup or open 3 for a guy like Korver, and puts you at a big disadvantage on the defensive glass even if they miss.