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Originally Posted by Dtownsfinest
The reason small ball is having so much success now is because the teams that play small ball have a team full of athletic players who can play defense good enough to win. The Mavs team Nellie coached and Aldeman's Kings were far from athletic. They relied on jump shooting and the jump shooting was so good we nearly made it out of the WCF one year. Not to mention the Mavs never once got themselves an Amare. Not even an Amare just a guy in the paint who can score. Jamison could score at will in the paint but never was a banger.
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I don't think you can really say "the reason small ball is having so much success
now", emphasis on now....
some variation of small ball has always had some success....the high flying warriors in the awful thugball 90's won a few games, and the suns for that matter were very much an earlier incarnation of a team comprising a point guard and a bunch of 'tweener forwards -- they played a couple of guys (Chambers and sub) who were under 6'10 at the 5 spot and 6'5" CB at the 4 spot...that's not the world's biggest line-up.
and Paul Westphal was Mike Dan Tony long before Mike Dan Tony became the coach with three first names**....
Small ball teams aren't having more success today than ever before....they're having about the same amount of success, to wit...lot's of regular season W's, some thrilling playoff games and then a predictable dispatch from the playoffs by a quality big.
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as a point of fact, the '92 Phoenix Suns had a higher pace factor than the 2007 Phoenix Suns...........