Once upon a time a two-time MVP point guard named Steve Nash spearheaded a frenetically efficient offensive attack that came to be known as “7 seconds or less.” A book was written about the approach (former Nets' assistant) then head coach of the Suns Mike D'Antoni devised; a reference to how quickly into the 24 second shot clock their team wanted to get shots up.
When Nash, now the Brooklyn Nets head coach, talks about what he'd like to see in his team offensively, it's no surprise then he often refers to pace and trying to avoid being too stagnant.
Nash's Suns ran lots of pick-and-rolls (Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire were a lethal combination) and put up some of the most 3s in the NBA. The 2005-2006 season, the year Nash won his second consecutive MVP, the Suns jacked up a league high 25.2 triples per game. (Just for context, this season's leader is the Minnesota Timberwolves who attempt 43 triples per game). We've come a long way since then in terms of tempo and 3 point tries.
This year's Nets (13-5) rank top 17 in pace with 98.7 possessions per game. That's about average but still it seems pretty fast, when you consider that their top stars in Kevin Durant and James Harden don't profile as players who play at breakneck speeds.
The Nets and their Monday opponent the Cleveland Cavaliers both actually make up the 29th and 30th ranked teams in terms of field goals attempted per contest. The Nets and Cavs don't put up a ton of shots per game. Brooklyn hoists just 85.1 shots per game, second to last in the category. They take the 19th most triples.
Durant, by many accounts the best player in the NBA right now, likes to take his time and calculate just how he's going to get off another mid-range dagger. He's unselfish, and he's a surgeon.
Sopan Deb of The New York Times recently wrote
“Durant is shooting a whopping 70.3 percent between 16 feet away from the basket and the 3-point line. To put that in perspective, he has shot better than 50 percent from that range over a whole season just twice in his past 13 active seasons.”
Kevin Durant is keeping the mid range alive and well. pic.twitter.com/QsIfcOqnKp
— Jac Manuell (@JacManuell) November 12, 2021
The Nets' other top gun is James Harden, who earned three consecutive scoring titles often by taking his time, sizing up defenders via isolation, then ripping their heart's out.
Oh baby, James Harden is cooking with gas now pic.twitter.com/c4Vs8KlPtu
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) November 13, 2021
Their third leading scorer is LaMarcus Aldridge who might be said to play patiently as well, and feast in the midrange. The team is in 1st place so if it ain't broke…
But the identity that coach Nash sees for this team doesn't rely on one-on-one play and may not be as slow-paced as his top duo got used to in years past.
Steve Nash, recently spoke about what he would like to see offensively from his team, somewhere down the road.
“Some of it is trying to push in a direction where we play early,” said Steve Nash, evoking notes of 7 seconds or less. “We attack and try to get into the paint and if it's taken away we move it, play on the second side so that we’re not just playing against a loaded defense all night.”
The team's biggest test of the season came against the first place Golden State Warriors. They got blown out 117-99, but this play below might resemble what Nash envisions when he stresses the importance of attacking the paint or swinging it to that “second side.”
One of the few highlights in a poor showing from the Nets.
Aggressive penetration leading to quality ball movement makes good things happen. pic.twitter.com/FvIspR1Wrg
— Jac Manuell (@JacManuell) November 17, 2021
“But at the same time these things also have to play out in real space and time,” continued Nash, channeling his inner Stephen Hawking. “They can't just be theoretical. And the personalities, the skill sets, the blending of those things has to happen naturally, and so there's no fast answer to that.”
How can they achieve that?
“It's something,” explains Steve Nash “that we have to monitor, we have to nudge, we have to provoke,” said the second year head coach.
If there is a championship team here, it seems like they will need to find a balance between the methodical approach that suits their top two stars and the break-neck pace their head coach once utilized as a player. As Steve Nash has noted, the defense has been there, to their surprise as well as everyone else's. But the offense is going to take time. He's right that if they want to maximize what they're getting from their role players, they will want to get stops, push the pace, attack the paint then swing the ball to that second side when the first look isn't there. That's how they'll get everyone not named Kevin or James involved.
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