Spur
Years ago
36ers and The Law of Too Many Guys
While reading Bill Simmons NBA Article, i thought about the 36ers in relation to The Law of Too Many Guys.
Adelaide all year, has had the one star player, and the other 9 players are around the same talent. We play 10 deep, but overall, the talent isn't that great. They all demand 10-30mins but nobody really stands out, and players don't get the time they need to really take over the game.
Ballinger - Star
Same-Sames
Johnson
Shannon
Bruce
Carter
Creek
Hill
Holmes
Howard
Dowdell
You only need eight and a half guys to win in the NBA: five starters, three bench guys, then an 8½th man who doesn't mind playing 0-10 minutes a night and being on call if a rotation guy gets into foul trouble, gets hurt or whatever.
More time for the players, better flow to the game, less momentum kills and better chemistry. Now that says "to win in the NBA", however that is for an 82 game marathon season playing multiple games a week with 48min games.
NBL is 28 games, 40min games and no more than 2 games in a week, majority 1 per week. It stands to reason that you can use the "eight and a half guys" law effectively.
Of those eight and half guys, ideally, you need two scorers, one ball handler, one perimeter defender and one rebounder.
This year, who was our two scorers? Who was our rebounder? Perimeter defender?
We didn't really have two scorers or a rebounder. Explains the two areas we were most horrible at, apart from defending...
Ballinger could be one scorer, SG Import another, C Import the rebounder, Gibson ball handler, Herbert perimeter defender.
You need to be able to play defense.
Our defense was horrible this year, both inside and out.
Big C Import provides a presence down low, Herbert/Gibson/Carter help form a strong D team.
You need everyone to know their roles.
We had too many players playing, interchanging roles and so on, offensive movement was crap and defensive switches sucked.
You want your key guy inside, key scorer (Import SG), key 3pt shooter.
You need to know who's playing crunch time and who gets the ball in those last few minutes.
We got killed in crunch time. Our offensive movement was between stagnant and non-existent at times.
We need a player that we count on to lead the ship before it wrecks.
What would i do for 8 and a 1/2 players?
C Import/Johnson (6th)
F Ballinger/Dowdell (8 1/2 - 0-10mins)
F Herbert/Creek (8th)
G Import/Carter (7th)
G Gibson/Daly
It's a common-sense thing. Ask any NBA starter how many minutes would make them happy and they'd say 36 to 38 (one rest per half). There are 240 minutes available in a basketball game. That means you need to allot 180-190 minutes for your five starters to be happy. Now, ask any bench player how many minutes they need to play well and you know what they'd say? Two stretches per half for 8-10 minutes. They need time to run around, break a sweat, get a feel for the game and get comfortable. That means you need to allot 50-60 minutes for your three bench guys and your 8½th man.
So let's split the difference: 185 minutes for five happy starters, 55 minutes for the three and a half bench guys. That adds up to ... wait for it … 240 minutes! What a coincidence.
Subtract about 6 mins from the starting 5 and 2 mins from the benchies, and that's a good amount of time for each player.
Starting 5:
Ballinger 32
Gibson or SG Import 32
Other 3 = 30
= 154/200
Benchies 3 = 16 mins
8 and 1/2 man, Dowdell = 6 mins
= 200 mins
