Summer League Team: Run, Run, and Run Some More....

[ABM]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/07/trail_blazers_look_to_run_at_l.html

TUALATIN — Under the direction of coach Nate McMillan and with the steadiness of All-Star Brandon Roy, the Trail Blazers have developed into one of the NBA’s most deliberate and calculated offensive teams.

Neither of those words will not be used to describe the style of the Blazers’ summer league team.

With a talented mix of speed, athleticism and versatility on the roster, coach Kaleb Canales has spent the bulk of the first two days of summer league practices urging the Blazers to run, run ... and run some more.

“We want to get up and down, we want to run and we want to be explosive on offense,” Canales said. “And we’re just kind of grinding that into their minds.”

Canales envisions speedy guards Patty Mills and Armon Johnson pushing the tempo relentlessly, feeding the ball to athletic forwards Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph for easy dunks and layups and to Luke Babbitt and Cunningham for open transition jump shots. And Canales hopes to see it from the opening tip until the final buzzer.

During a film review session prior to Thursday afternoon’s practice, Canales showed the team a clip of Pendergraph streaking the length of the court and finishing a fast break with a dunk. The play came in the closing minutes of a scrimmage.

The message? Look to stimulate fast-break opportunities at every moment, no matter how much time remains on the clock.

“I really tried to tell these guys we want to run the last five minutes of the game as much as we want to run the first five minutes,” Canales said. “(Pendergraph’s dunk) was one of the last possessions of the day and I wanted to show them ... it’s OK to run anytime. If the situation dictates itself, we want to slow down and get into a set. But our first option is to run and get easy baskets.”

Through two days, Canales has encountered two obstacles with his push-the-pace mentality: conditioning and mindset.

The Blazers have only gone through three practices and a substantial amount of time has been spent on conditioning to get the team prepared for eight days of uptempo play. Meanwhile, another sizable chunk of time has been spent urging players to think, “push the pace.”

“It’s something that needs to be drilled and talked to these guys about,” Canales said. “I saw improvement today. I think we got better today.”

 

[Further]

That should be fun to watch. I hope Canales gets a little more input with Coach Nate now that his two main assistants are gone. I would love to see come running added into the real Blazers repertoire.

 

[julius]

so their plan for the summer league team is to be the polar opposite of their regular season team. Brilliant.

 

[maxiep]

"Run now because come October, there will be no more running."

 

[jlprk]

This is career planning by Canales. When the Vulcans can McMillan, Ferry will replace him with a fast break coach.

 

[Mediocre Man]

This is dumb. Why run in summer league when they won't run in the regular season?


I know that all the Nate supporters will come in here and scream about how he implores them to push it every game, but reality says that in 9 years he hasn't ever pushed it.


At least summer league will be enjoyable

Through two days, Canales has encountered two obstacles with his push-the-pace mentality: conditioning and mindset.

The Blazers have only gone through three practices and a substantial amount of time has been spent on conditioning to get the team prepared for eight days of uptempo play. Meanwhile, another sizable chunk of time has been spent urging players to think, “push the pace.”

“It’s something that needs to be drilled and talked to these guys about,” Canales said. “I saw improvement today. I think we got better today.”

LOL, I can't imagine why?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

What's so confusing? First: in case you were unaware, none of the Summer League players is likely to get much burn at all come regular season. Second, McMillan has always wanted "units" that can operate differently. And, for example, the Suns beat us with a bench unit that played very differently from their starters. Roy plays methodically. But that doesn't mean you can't have a bench unit that comes in and scrambles and creates havoc. The Suns' assortment of Dragic, Dudley, Amundson et. al. played like that.