Nellie ball

Nellie ball is an unconventional offensive strategy in basketball developed by NBA head coach Don Nelson. It is a fast-paced offense relying on smaller, more athletic players who can create mismatches by outrunning their opponents. A true center is usually not needed to run this type of offense. A large volume of three-point attempts is generally a staple of Nellie Ball as well.^[1] This offense is most effective against teams that do not have the athleticism or shooting ability to keep up with the fast pace. It is similar to run and gun.

Background

Nelson first became known for his unorthodox, innovative style of basketball as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. As he was developing Nellie Ball, he introduced the concept of the point forward, a tactic wherein small forwards would play the role of point guard and direct his offense. First, he used 6-7 Marques Johnson as a point forward.^[2] Later, he would use 6-5 Paul Pressey in the same role.^[3] This enabled shooting guards Sidney Moncrief and either Craig Hodges or Ricky Pierce to be on the floor at the same time despite the absence of a pure point guard. To further create mismatches, Nelson would place a center who wasn't a threat on offense, such as Alton Lister or Randy Breuer, at mid-court while running a play. This forced a shot-blocking center out of the paint, making him less of a threat on defense. Nelson's high-scoring Bucks earned multiple Central Division titles, and were a perennial playoff contender throughout his time as Milwaukee's coach.

Nelson continued to perfect Nellie Ball in his next three coaching stops. Nelson would again utilize Nellie Ball with the Golden State Warriors, where his offense was centered around the high-scoring trio of NBA All-Stars Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin, collectively known as "Run T-M-C". Nelson used an unconventional lineup that featured three guards (Richmond, Hardaway and Šarūnas Marčiulionis) and two forwards (Mullin and the 6-8 Rod Higgins at center). This incarnation of Nellie Ball led the Warriors to many winning seasons and postseason berths despite an undersized lineup.

While coaching the Dallas Mavericks, Nelson employed Nellie Ball once again, utilizing the All-Star trio of Steve Nash, Michael Finley, and Dirk Nowitzki. Nelson often would play Nowitzki, a natural power forward, at the center position, placing him at the three-point line in order to stretch out the defense. Nelson's trio of star players spear-headed the Mavericks' transformation into a promising young franchise capable of reaching the NBA Playoffs.

Nelson's latest success with Nellie Ball came with his second stint as head coach of Golden State, with a lineup consisting of Baron Davis and Jason Richardson, who were both larger-sized guards, and smaller forwards and centers such as Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. In the 2007 NBA Playoffs, his 8th-seeded Warriors met his former team, the 1st-seeded Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks had posted a franchise best 67-15 record, which was also good for the best record in the NBA in 2007. Dirk Nowitzki, in particular, enjoyed a memorable season of his own, winning the NBA MVP Award that year. Despite these obstacles, Nelson's Warriors executed one of the greatest upsets in NBA history by defeating the Mavericks in 6 games.^[4] Then-Mavericks head coach Avery Johnson, Nelson's protege and successor in Dallas, had abandoned Nellie Ball in favor of a more traditional offensive lineup, which had reached the 2006 NBA Finals.

Opponents of Nellie Ball

Nellie Ball has a fair share of opponents, who claim that the strategy is fatally flawed. Many basketball critics contend that no team can ever win a championship playing Nellie Ball, mainly because the strategy puts such an emphasis on offense and scoring that a team playing Nellie Ball will not have the energy to play defense.^[4] Nellie Ball also tends to rely very little on basketball's defensive fundamentals. In addition, these critics argue that Nelson's offense, while innovative and exciting, is only successful to a point. Skeptics contend that his offense is unable to disguise deficiencies, such as the inability of an undersized power forward or center in Nelson's system to dominate in terms of defense and rebounding. Plus, they claim that it is even more difficult to play Nellie Ball when guards are on a cold streak in terms of shooting the ball, making it difficult for teams running the offense to win basketball games. Nowhere is this more evident than during playoff time, where teams tend to get more serious and play tougher defense.^[5]

To his credit, Don Nelson has amassed a huge amount of victories by running his fast-paced brand of offense. He has won the NBA Coach of the Year Award 3 times: in 1983 and 1985 with the Bucks, and in 1992 with the Warriors. Nelson is also the NBA's all-time winningest coach with 1,335 regular season victories. But detractors could still point out that while his coaching record is somewhat impressive, Nelson has never coached a team to the NBA Finals, let alone won an NBA title. On more than one occasion, his teams were eliminated by more superior opponents. For instance, as coach of the Bucks in the 1980s, Nelson's teams were beaten in the playoffs by either Julius Erving's Philadelphia 76ers or Larry Bird's Boston Celtics. During his coaching tenure in Dallas, the Mavericks lost twice in the playoffs to the defense-oriented San Antonio Spurs, who in turn were led by Tim Duncan. Thus, Nelson owns the rather dubious distinction of having recorded the most coaching victories without making an NBA Finals appearance.

Avery Johnson, Nelson's protege and successor in Dallas, had abandoned Nellie Ball in favor of a more traditional offensive lineup, which had reached the 2006 NBA Finals. Enroute to reaching the finals, Johnson's Mavericks had defeated Mike D'Antoni's Phoenix Suns, the latter using an up-tempo style centered around former Mavs superstar and 2-time NBA MVP Steve Nash. Although the Mavericks lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals that year, Johnson won the 2006 NBA Coach of the Year Award for making Dallas a better defensive team while still keeping their up-tempo style of offense.

Similar styles

Paul Westhead

Former NBA coach Paul Westhead is well known for an unorthodox, run-and-gun style. However, most of Westhead's coaching stints with basketball teams have been brief.

Westhead won the NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980 with NBA superstars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. However, he was fired by the Lakers early in the 1981-82 NBA season. Pat Riley, who had been Westhead's assistant when Los Angeles won the title in 1980, stepped in as head coach soon afterwards. Under "Riles" the Lakers went on to earn four NBA Championships during the 1980s. Riley's team continued to employ a fast-paced style of basketball known as "Showtime," and featured 3 future NBA Hall of Famers in Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy.

Meanwhile, Westhead's tenure at Loyola Marymount rewrote many NCAA records and reached the West regional finals.

Returning to the NBA as head coach of the Denver Nuggets, his team averaged a league-best 119.9 points per game in 1990-91, but it also surrendered an NBA record 130.8 points per game, including 107 points in a single half to the Suns, which remains an NBA record. Under Westhead, the Nuggets were sometimes called the "Enver Nuggets" (as in no "D", lacking defense), and he was fired after two seasons with a combined W/L record of 44-120.

While coach of George Mason University from 1993-1997, his run-and-gun style did not succeed as he compiled a 38-70 record.

Westhead again found success with his up-tempo style of basketball as head coach of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury from 2006-2007. In 2007, Westhead directed Phoenix to the WNBA Championship, thanks to Mercury superstars Cappie Pondexter and Diana Taurasi. By winning a title with the Mercury, Westhead became the first head coach to win both an NBA title and a WNBA title. Westhead left Phoenix at the end of the 2007 season and was replaced as head coach by Corey Gaines.^[6] However, Gaines had prior experience with Westhead's offense, having played for him at Loyola Marymount University and with the Nuggets. Gaines kept the same offense that Westhead employed, and in 2009, he directed the Mercury to their second WNBA title. Diana Taurasi became the second player in WNBA history to win the regular season scoring title, the WNBA MVP Award, the WNBA Championship, and the WNBA Finals MVP Award in the same season.^[7]

Mike D'Antoni

Like Nelson and Westhead, Mike D'Antoni favored a fast-paced offense-oriented system when he was head coach of the Phoenix Suns. This up-tempo style of basketball required smaller and more athletic players with the capability to outrun and outshoot their opponents, and was dubbed "Seven Seconds or Less".

With the acquisition of free agent Steve Nash before the 2004-05 season, who was experienced in this run-and-gun style from his previous stint with the Dallas Mavericks, this began an incredible turnaround for the Phoenix Suns. D'Antoni won the NBA Coach of the Year Award after his Suns went 62-20 to finish first in the regular season. Overall, his Suns won fifty or more games in four consecutive seasons, while Nash earned NBA MVP honors in 2005 and 2006. In addition to Nash, D'Antoni's Suns also featured All-Star power forward Amare Stoudemire and high-flying small forward Shawn Marion. They made consecutive appearances in the conference finals in 2005 and 2006, losing to the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks, respectively. The Suns were eliminated in the playoffs by the Spurs in 2007 and 2008, after which D'Antoni left Phoenix for the New York Knicks.

D'Antoni's successor, Terry Porter, preferred a more traditional style of basketball, but the Suns had difficulties adapting to this new system, which contributed to them eventually missing the 2009 playoffs. ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz described Nash as “a hummingbird trapped inside a sandwich bag”. Porter was fired in mid-season and replaced by Alvin Gentry.

Gentry figured out how to blend the two styles of D'Antoni and Porter. Comparing his coaching to D’Antoni, Gentry said “We are not seven seconds or less. We’re 12 seconds or under. We don’t take a lot of really quick shots. We don’t play with that breakneck pace. We play with a rhythm.” In 2009-2010, the Suns returned to the playoffs as the third seed, where in the second round they defeated the Spurs in a four game sweep. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich remarked “One thing about Phoenix is they are better defensively than in the past. They’re much more active, much more committed, they’ve taken responsibility to a much more significant degree than ever before.” ^[8][9] However, after the season Stoudemire left as a free agent to rejoin D'Antoni in New York.

References

1. ^ Jenkins, Lee (May 13, 2007). "Nellie Ball Energizes Warriors and Confounds Opponents". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/sports/basketball/13warriors.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
2. ^ "Original point forward". hoopshype.com. http://hoopshype.com/articles/johnson_ferranti.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
3. ^ "Basketball U on Swingmen". www.nba.com. http://www.nba.com/canada/bu_swingmen.html. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Thompson, Marcus, II (November 2007). "Do You Still Believe?". Oakland Magazine 4 (9). http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/media/Oakland-Magazine/November-2007/Do-You-Still-Believe/. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
5. ^ Kahn, Mike (May 29, 2008). "Defense dominating playoff basketball". Foxsports.com. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8187266/Defense-dominating-playoff-basketball. Retrieved 2008-05-31. 
6. ^ Dixon, Oscar (2007-11-06). "Gaines announced as Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury". www.usatoday.com. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/wnba/mercury/2007-11-06-gaines-coach_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
7. ^ "Taurasi, Pondexter lead Mercury to second title in three years". www.espn.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/recap?gameId=291009011. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
8. ^ Abrams, Jonathan (2010-05-10). "Suns Stop the Bleeding". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/sports/basketball/11suns.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
9. ^ Abrams, Jonathan (2010-05-09). "A Tough and Bloody Test Ends in the Suns' Favor". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/sports/basketball/10spurs.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.