Minnesota Sports Forum

It seems Most successful teams in the league play similarly now. The league has transitioned from a 2-man game that ruled the 90's and part of 0's. Now it's all about spacing the court with good shooters and playing inside out. The question I have for you all is this: Would it be smarter to mold our team to fit this mold, or would it be better to figure out the next big thing and make everyone adapt to us?

If like the Wolves, I didn't have many shooters, the coach in me might try a high post / low post offense and make the other team pay for playing 3 guards and stretch 4's. You can still space the floor in this type of offense, but you need to have good cutters at the wings and good passers at the point and post positions. We probably don't have that in our post options.

I'm not smart enough to predict what the next trend will be. But I know the game evolves in cycles, and I wish our coaches could be the innovators that identify the next big thing. Pat Riley did it, Phil Jackson did it, Greg Popovich did it, and to a degree even Don Nelson did it. These coaches have a lot of commonality among them, most notably championships and 50 win seasons.

What do you guys think? Get in late on the current cycle or figure out something else?

I love watching the current style. But I will have to go with being the innovator. We don't have the personnel to play the way the spurs and hawks do. The truth is, only a few teams have the personnel to play that style and only a few players that would be very good at it.

I have no idea what the next trend will be as well but what I know is that if we want to copy the current trend, it will take a lot of trades and maneuvering from us and im not sure it will payoff in the end for us.

I think the Hawks and the Spurs are the new trend. Think about it. Before last season's championship series the game was dominated by who had the most stars on their team (aka the Heat, Lakers and Celtics). SA won with ball movement and unselfishness and Dallas snuck in a title year with great teamwork as well, but for the most part it has been a star dominated feat. What's happened this year? The Hawks have picked up that style. The Warriors have been a hybrid monster of great team play with star power. Memphis only has 1 star, but they have been really good this year playing as a team. I think the move away from stars towards ball movement and teamwork, while far from a new idea, is the new trend of the trend of the league.

I think it is all about what positions have the dominant talent in every era. Small ball, pushing transition and jacking up 3s has been a trend because there have been some really talented wings that play multiple positions. I personally think you can't teach size and now that some legit superstar big men (Boogie and Davis)are going to emerge again there will be another round of playing inside out from more of a 90s style (good passing out of post ups etc). The teams that just run and gun won't cut it if they don't have the size. I think you will see that Golden state will only go as far as Boguts health for instance. This is yet another reason why I am so pumped about the diversity of bigs in this draft. I think there will be a bit of a reemergence of teams that slow it down with lock down d.

I think a team needs to have a combination. Copy what works... but tweak it. Improve it. Don't simply settle to reach a level that may disappear by the time the team gets there.

Here today... gone tomorrow.