Warriors vs. Rockets will be a battle for the future of basketball

Former NBA players and old fans who comment on the lack of attacking variety in today’s competition has always been an important part of the discourse of the sport, and one that becomes more penetrating every year. Critics call the NBA a copycat League, where a team comes out an adventure -attacking schedule or action, and follow the rest of the teams and start running the same.

That is certain Subject Truth for those greenhouse teams are always generously stolen of each other’s most effective arrangements, as organizations do in all sports. But if you look actively in the competition, there is more variation than there has ever been. The Celtics play insulation basketball to force defenses to bring two defenders to the ball, while the Cavalier trust in the ball movement and cut to throw the set defense.

Oh, and if you think that each team only throws three, you show Probabry how the Oklahoma City Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who do nothing of this species and actually live in the middle of the route to the best solution of the competition.

But perhaps the best illustration of the attacking diversity of the competition is the matchup of the Golden State Warriors against the Houston Rockets in round one of the play -offs. This series Court is a struggle for the prevailing attacking philosophy and the soul of basketball, and the future of NBA attack could rest in balance.

The missiles are a new twist on an old basketball truism

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty images

On the one hand of the most fascinating matchup of De Ronde are the Houston Rockets, a team that leans completely to old-school tactics and strategy, but with modern athletics and skills. Unlike most teams in the competition, Houston starts and plays two big men (Steven Adams and Alps Sengun) for large parts of the game. In contrast to modern distance beliefs and shoot that suggest that opening the floor by playing four or five shooters on the perimeter is the most effective official strategy

After All-Star Break, line-ups with Adams and Sengun, a ridiculous 49.7% of the shots of their own team are offensive while they are on the ground. They practically just throw the ball to the edge and hope that one of Bigs will clean him up. Do you think the NBA is soft and everyone just shoots? View the Twin Towers in Houston, who both spend a lot of time in the paint and someone who is brave enough to put together to see what happens to the edge with those trying.

The guard and wing of the rockets also exudes toughness and grit. They play ultra-physical on the perimeter and check you with your hand in Oblivion-Dillon Brooks is perhaps the most 80s-bath-bath-bath-boy-pistons-Sques player in the competition and set the tone defensive for them (and with his continuous waste talk). They also have Amen Thompson and Fred Vanvlet; Two physical, handy defenders in themselves. Oh, and they are led by a coach who not only has an embroidery, but also finds physicality and waste talent, as evidence “To cry.” Oter-coaches can refer to similar points in a passive-GGRSive presser, but Fem would be just as unabashed and blunt as OD school Udoka.

The warriors push a small ball to his natural end point

On the Oher side are the Golden State Warriors, perhaps the most innovative attacking team of the competition. Of course the Warriors are at the forefront of modern basketball tactics nothing new. They are credited to start the revolution in the Kleine Ball, and their family “Death line-up (s)” of the 2010 are a perfect example of how they brought basketball forward. While the rest of the competition still played two large men who usually kept in or around the paint, the most dangerous line -ups of Golden State in the year) on the wing spots.

This year’s Warriors team goes even further. Not only are they still green in the middle, but the rest of their line -up is even smaller than they have usually been; Their “Power Forward” is Jimmy Butler, who is only 6’7. They start the small trend, but now Elder is pushing it to a new height … with players who are closer to the ground than ever.

It all goes up to philosophical collision

The juxtaposition of these two styles – with the Twin Towers on one side and smallball at the other – presents the matchup. Will the frontline of the Rockets manage the Warriors to the point what they are forced to go with Kevon Looney on the 5? Or, Conversley, will the off-ball movement of Golden State and Positions Houston force versatile to match them at more speed and speed? Both teams will probably come into the series to play the Ball brand that has brought them so far – 2000’s ball for the rockets and Modern Small Ball for the Warriors – but who is forced to adjust the first best basketball team building and tactics.

That may sound hyperbolic, but it is not surprising to say that the outcome of this series could change the NBA strategy. If Golden State wins, the competition can lean even further to having as many shooters as possible and ball handlers on the field, regardless of their heights. However, if Houston pulls the upset – they are the underdogs (+138 at Fanduel), after height of Bullyball and massive front lines.

In short, the dominant offensive schedule in the coming years could be determined in a sub -undercaptive way by whether the Warriors can strengthen the light that they are eleven again, or that Houston’s size can cause them problems.