‘The ball jumped. It feels good’ – Mercury News

Kyrie Irving flashed a smile, then died.

He knows the basketball world is watching, listening, and reading all about his networks and their changing offense this summer. Some of these eyes and ears belong to opposing teams, so he doesn’t want to reveal any secrets about the schemes his team is installing this off-season.

“Nah,” Irving said. “I got some players there in the league [listening], so you just have to wait and see. “

However, the changing offense may be the team’s worst kept secret, as the elephant in the room forced the head coach to rely on the property of solitude so often, it became to be expected.

Steve Nash never got a chance to get creative on his team’s offensive. Between Irving’s unavailability due to NYC’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Joe Harris suffering an early season-ending ankle injury, Kevin Durant losing a month and a half to an MCL sprain and James Harden requesting a trade with the Nets who greeted Ben Simmons (who didn’t play Never), Nash spent several nights leaning heavily into solitude because there are quite a few other ways his team could score.

“You look at some of our possessions last year, it was a one-on-one,” said Irving, one of the most talented players in NBA history. “youths [beat reporters] We talked about him a lot and were very familiar with him. who – which [kind of] Offensive, when the ball sticks, it’s not the best basketball brand you can play. We give the defense some nights when we play one-on-one.”

However, this stagnant attack is on its way out the door – at least the team says so – due to a combination of factors that opened the team’s offensive just three days into training camp. The Nets enjoy the influx of shooters, laying out a fresh attack and putting the ball in Simmons’ hands as a primary playmaker alongside Irving.

“After Ben is one of our key guards going up and down the field, the ball jumps. It feels good. Everyone feels good. That’s all that matters,” Irving said. Chief guard, whatever you want to call my position. It’s good to get off the ball and get him up and on the ground. Just wait for it to look like it’s in star condition again, and I know it will soon.”

ball movement

Through her ups and downs last season, Patti Mills has remained the most consistent.

Mills played 81 games at team level and didn’t even miss the time when three-quarters of the roster entered health and safety protocols.

But Mills comes from a background that includes both the San Antonio Spurs and the Australian National Basketball Team. Both organizations are proud of their ball movement, specifically Team Spurs, who have won five NBA championships since 1999 to show their brand of selfless basketball.

So of course Mills was frustrated, at times, when the ball sticks in the net attack. That’s both the gift and the curse of creating a team around two of the deadliest scorers in NBA history.

“She definitely felt the crime type stagnated last year, but she was just trying to find ways to stay engaged and keep moving,” Mills said. “It was a challenge.”

The attack had a philosophical shift from forcing Durant and Irving to take tricky shots on defense to creating an appearance for them, according to Mills.

“I think what we have set out this year is definitely different and we are learning from those [iso-ball] times [last season]like he said. “How do we get easy buckets for Kevin? How do we get easy looks for Kai, and Ben makes a big difference in that sense too, [with him] Bring the ball over the field. I think all these little changes make a big difference.”

Of course, much of this transformation is a byproduct of the presence of new bodies.

When Harris sprained his ankle in mid-November, the Nets not only lost the only shooter they lit up, but the 6-7 body they helped smash onto the boards and defend on the flank. After Harris was injured and before the Nets took over Seth Curry in the Harden trade, Mills was the only other player on the roster to shoot better than 35% from downtown.

Now with Mills, a healthy Harris, a healthy Curry soon, and at least two other players – Royce O’Neill and TJ Warren – who are expecting to be highly efficient shooters this season, there will be much more room for Offense to work. The Nets also has a Markieff Morris center and is a shooter with 34% of a three-point range.

“I guess I’m trying to compare it to previous seasons [in Philadelphia] With JJ Redick, Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli,” Simmons said. “We were playing with Miami in the first round and the way we flowed and played, that’s how I know how to play basketball. I kind of like to see everyone score and contribute in any way they can. This is how you have to play in order to win.”

A key to networking capabilities

If the offense is successful, it starts with the player whose reputation does not include scoring.

Networks will use Simmons all over the land, from protecting the paint to defending the best players in the opposing team’s perimeter; From being a ball screw handler to adjusting the screen and rolling to the edge.

“There will be formations where he is the defensive five, but the base [offensively]. There will be lineups where he is there [starting center Nic Claxton]Nash said. “He can protect different players in different formations and has slightly different roles in attack. That what makes him special is his versatility.”

The Nets have more bowlers and work on a reimagined attack, but coincidentally, it’s the player who died in open immersion in the playoffs two seasons ago that holds the key to activating the best Nets version. In a team full of snipers, Nash is in no hurry for Simmons to start shooting three.

“You don’t need him to shoot,” the coach said. “I wouldn’t tell him to shoot. If he was open and he wanted to shoot, I wouldn’t take him out of the game. But that’s not what he’s doing.”

What Simmons do other than shooting is the key to unlocking what could be the most deadly crime in the NBA. Nets have the size and shoot needed for proper spacing. They have a healthy third star and they have new offensive blueprints Nash ready to roll out.

Now, they need to test it against the NBA defense and pre-season starts on Monday.

“I have confidence our attack will be good, it’s just a question of how early we can go and how many layers we can get,” Nash said. “Attack is one of the things the team shows you. They show you what remains.”

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from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/the-ball-jumped-it-feels-good-mercury-news/