Posts Tagged ‘Jim O’Brien’

Rating The Coaching Picks

July 24, 2011  ·  11:08AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Spend 20 minutes talking basketball with Lawrence Frank and I promise you, it’s impossible not to be both impressed with his knowledge of the game and won over by his straight-shooter personality.

Spend the same amount of time with former Hawks coach Mike Woodson and I guarantee you’d come away feeling the same way. When the Detroit Pistons’ coaching search came down to Frank and Woodson as their final two candidates, there was no way they could lose, right?

Try telling that to Pistons fans (I’m Michigan born and bred, so I’ve got more than a few Pistons diehards dangling from the family tree), who from what we could gather didn’t seem particularly enthused about any of the options they were presented.

Still, for a franchise in need of a strong personality in that head coach’s chair, after several years of misses, Frank offers offer the qualities needed to deal with a young roster that needs shaping.

His selection over Woodson, an offer is coming soon as first reported by Yahoo! Sports, signals more than just an apparent shift in philosophy — the Pistons’ last three coaches have all had some connection to the organization, either player or assistant coach, prior to taking over the top bench job. It’s also a sign of the influence the new ownership group is placing in the hands of Dave Checketts, hired as a consultant by new owner Tom Gores to advise and assist alongside Pistons president Joe Dumars.

Franchises wish the process was as simple the brain trust coming together and choosing between two worthy candidates that also happen to be ideal fits.

But we all know that the only thing tougher than lucking into a transcendent talent at the top of a draft is finding the right coach for the right team at just the right time.

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Blogtable: Disappointing players

March 30, 2011  ·  11:11AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Which player has let you down like none other this year, expectations-wise? No fair picking someone who’s hurt.

David Aldridge: Nobody’s “let me down–”; it’s not like I loaned somebody $20 and they haven’t paid it back. I would say I’m surprised that Steve Blake didn’t play better for the Lakers this season. I know it takes a couple of years to really learn the triangle, but I thought he’d pick it up quicker than he has and not have to be coaxed to shoot. I suspect he’ll play a lot better in L.A. next year.

Steve Aschburner: Seeing as how I picked Indiana center Roy Hibbert to be the NBA’s Most Improved Player and Hibbert, in many ways, has actually regressed, he’s my pick again for all the wrong reasons. Hibbert did not boost his game in significant ways — his shooting percentage is way down, his scoring and assists are off on a per-minute basis and his rebounds have ticked up only a little. The Pacers’ pivot man did not take responsibility as a leader on or off the floor, and his inconsistent, largely lost season was a major factor in coach Jim O’Brien’s firing. He did get in a great shape and worked hard last summer, but a couple of days working with (and hearing about John Wooden’s pyramid of success from) Bill Walton didn’t have much carry-over.

Fran Blinebury: Though he’s played better lately, Hedo Turkoglu has the distinction of under-performing for two different teams this season.  He never was a fit in Phoenix and overall hasn’t been the same Hedo who was a key factor in Orlando’s run to the Finals in 2009. (more…)

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The Knicks’ Worst Nightmare

March 16, 2011  ·  1:26PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Danny Granger delivered the final dagger.

His step back jumper with :00.3 left to play gave the Pacers their second straight win over the Knicks since, the first Sunday in New York ended the Pacers’ six-game losing skid. They’ve now moved a half-game ahead of Charlotte for eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

But the man the Knicks really need to fear is Tyler Hansbrough.

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O’Brien: Hibbert ‘not having good season’

December 13, 2010  ·  8:20PM

CHICAGO – Roy Hibbert might have to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award two years in a row.

That’s what it might take for Hibbert, the Indiana Pacers center who has made what many observers see as significant progress in his third pro season, to elicit the same sort of reaction close to home. For now, to hear Pacers coach Jim O’Brien tell it Monday, Hibbert ain’t done nothin’ yet.

“I think that Roy would say – and I certainly share this belief – I don’t think he’s having a very good season,” O’Brien said to a surprised cluster of reporters before the Pacers’ game against the Bulls at United Center. “I think that he can play at a much, much higher level right away than he’s doing right now.”

Not having a good season? At 14.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.91 blocks in 29.8 minutes, Hibbert appears to be having a breakthrough season across the board. He earned praise for his offseason workouts, which lowered his body fat, and he has accepted responsibility as one of Indiana’s team leaders. The team’s own Web site touts him as a Most Improved candidate and, in the season’s first week, so did this guy.

But O’Brien was like The Great Santini, all tough love and apparently unimpressed, on this night.

“I don’t think he’s being the facilitator of our offense that I think he’s going to become; I think he’s a great passer,” O’Brien said. “I think he can be a much better rebounder. And my expectations probably aren’t as high as Roy’s expectations. So even though he could be mentioned as Most Improved, I think he has a long way to go and he has a long way to go this year.”

That might have been O’Brien’s way of keeping Hibbert focused and hungry with another 60 games to go. It might have been payback for the shaky performance the former Georgetown center had at Atlanta Saturday, when he managed just six points, eight rebounds and two assists in a 97-83 defeat.

This is the same coach, remember, who gives up compliments about young point guard Darren Collison as eagerly as most of us give up bicuspids. O’Brien did have a few kind words about Hibbert’s activity this season at both ends, but he even followed up the good stuff with some backhanded praise.

“The good thing about Roy is, he was drafted by a team that was not a very good basketball team and needed him to play his first two years a lot of minutes,” O’Brien said. “If he slips another 10 spots, he’s playing his rookie year and his second year on a contender and he doesn’t get the repetitions that he got with us.”

UPDATE: After scoring six points on 2-of-7 shooting with three rebounds, no assists, no blocks and two turnovers in 20 minutes of the Pacers’ 92-73 loss to the Bulls, Hibbert called O’Brien’s bet and raised him some. “I’m playing like crap now,” he told Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star. “It’s been like that since we got back from out West. … I have to get my head back. Mentally I’m not there. I’ve got to figure something out.”

Hibbert talked to the NBA TV crew before Monday’s loss. See what he had to say:

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Some Love for the Pacers

November 23, 2010  ·  11:43AM

The Miami Heat are the talk of the NBA universe this morning, and deservedly so. They have two of the best five players on the planet and they’re 8-6.

But along with the criticism for the talents in South Beach, there should also be a little love for the fellas from Naptown. Yes, the Heat played turrible on Monday, but the Indiana Pacers had a lot to do with that.

Yesterday, I moved the Pacers up five spots to No. 14 in the Power Rankings because none of the other teams around them could win a game, not because I thought Indiana was one of the best 14 teams in the league. About 10 hours later, it looked like a brilliant move.

The Pacers are just 6-6 with last night’s win, but statistically (point differential per 100 possessions), they’re the 10th best team in the league, ahead of teams like the 10-4 Thunder and 10-5 Jazz.

The first thing you might notice about Tuesday’s box score is the Pacers’ 35-point second quarter. But it was the other end of the floor where the Pacers dominated, forcing the Heat into their worst offensive performance of the season (even worse than the season opener in Boston).

And even though the Pacers’ other quality win came thanks to an 85-point half, it’s their defense that has been their strength this season. Currently, Indiana ranks eighth in the league defensively, allowing just 100.3 points per 100 possessions. They were actually decent defensively last season (ranking 15th), but are the third most improved team on that end this year.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star writes on last night’s win…

The hype surrounding the Heat all season has been centered on their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Pacers coach Jim O’Brien countered their threesome by changing his starting lineup and inserting Brandon Rush in place of Mike Dunleavy so Rush could defend Wade.

The move paid off because Rush and [Danny] Granger hounded James and Wade into a tough shooting night.

James led all scorers with 25 points, but he shot less than 50 percent from the field.

Wade was 1-of-13 from the field, including 0-of-5 on 3-pointers, and he missed four free throws on the way to three points.

How impressive was Rush’s defensive job on Wade? Well, never before in his career had Wade taken at least 10 shots or played at least 32 minutes and not made at least two field goals. He was 1-for-13 in 37:32 of playing time on Monday.

And the Pacers deserve a little love for that.

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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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The Magic Number is 45

October 12, 2010  ·  4:26PM

Is there a magic number when it comes to defense? According to some coaches, there is.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star talked to Pacers head coach Jim O’Brien about his team’s goals defensively…

O’Brien said his team has to hold opponents to less than 45 percent from the field while also getting better play from team leader Granger. Opponents shot better than 45 percent against the Pacers 39 times and scored at least 110 points against them 27 times last season.

“We want to be in the top 10 in the league in field goal defense,” O’Brien said. “If you can be a team that holds opponents under 45 percent for the year, you’d be a playoff team. That’s our defensive goal.”

Sixers coach Doug Collins has the same target.

“If we keep our opponent under 45 percent shooting, we think we have a chance to win some games,” Collins told me on Saturday.

Avery Johnson doesn’t just talk about it. He’s got a sign up in the Nets’ practice gym that reads “Defensive FG% = 44%.”

Now, this is obviously a simplistic way of looking at things. For one, saying that holding opponents under 45 percent doesn’t account for how well your team does offensively. And second, there are other factors that affect how good your defense is: your opponents’ 3-point shooting, forcing turnovers, fouling, and rebounding.

If you keep your opponent under 45 percent shooting, but allow them to get to the line 40 times in a game, they’re probably still going to score a lot of points. You’ve also got to control the boards, obviously.

It’s possible that neither O’Brien nor Collins are versed in advanced statistics and would rather talk points per game and field goal percentage than points per possession. It’s also possible that they have autographed copies of Basketball on Paper, but prefer to keep things simple for their players and the media.

Either way, for the purposes of this blog post, I went over the 10 years of data, and found the following…

In the last 10 years, 135 teams have held their opponents under 45 percent shooting (actually 44.950 percent) over the course of a season, and 102 of those teams have made the playoffs. So if you hold your opponents under 45 percent, you’ve got a 76 percent chance of making the playoffs. That’s pretty good, but not quite a magic number.

But perhaps we’re looking too far back. After all, league-wide offensive efficiency has come a long way in the last 10 years.

And indeed, over the last four seasons (2006-07 through 2009-10), 29 teams have held their opponents under 45 percent shooting, and all 29 have made the playoffs. The last teams to finish under the magic number and fall short of the postseason were the Rockets, Timberwolves and Jazz in 2005-06.

So yeah, I’d say that 45 percent is a good target. The numbers back it up.

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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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