Post by LDG on Aug 23, 2012 5:50:36 GMT -8
NBA head coaches often play it cool when talking about trades made by their teams, but when it comes to the Los Angeles Lakers’ acquisition of center Dwight Howard, head coach Mike Brown didn’t hold back.
“I got a little excited,” Brown said in an interview with ESPN Los Angeles. “I tried to jump up and down, but my mind was telling me to do something that my body wouldn’t allow me to do,” I almost pulled my hamstring sitting down. I don’t know if that’s ever happened to anybody, but I was so excited that my leg tensed up. I almost tore my hamstring. So I got up slowly and gave (GM Mitch Kupchak) and (owner) Jim Buss a hug. That might be the first hug they’ve gotten from their coach, ever, when it comes to a trade happening.”
From the Howard trade, talk turned very quickly to the hiring of assistant coach Eddie Jordan and the Princeton offense he will look to install in Los Angeles.
“I like some of the things that we did last year, and we’re going to keep some of those things in place,” Brown said. “But in the same breath, I’ve always been infatuated with what Eddie did when he was in Washington. I think if you take away the individual players and how talented they are — obviously if you have certain players it doesn’t matter what you run as long as you run something to their strengths, you’re going to have success offensively. So if you take away the individual players and their strengths and all that and just look at the purity of different offenses and how to defend them on a night in, night out basis, I always felt that the stuff (Jordan) did in Washington was difficult to defend. It was difficult to come up with a game plan because of the spacing and ball movement, and stuff like that.
“It’s a stress free offense, because of the counters that are built in, and so on and so forth. So I started looking into that at the beginning of the summer a little bit, and talked with a couple of guys that have done it on the collegiate level and on the professional level, and then I brought Eddie in for a while. I spent about a week or so with him, talking about it. So there’s a good chance we’re going to go down that road to incorporate some of that, or a lot of that, into what we did last year.”
Since the hiring of Jordan, some have questioned whether or not trying to run the Princeton offense with Steve Nash at point guard is really the way to go. It could stifle Nash’s inherent knack for running an effective offense, but Brown quickly laid those concerns aside.
“The way that we’ll put it together, Steve’s going to have an opportunity — he’s going to quarterback the team — and so he’s going to have an opportunity to come down the floor every possession and in early offense play pick-and-roll if he wants to,” Brown said. “It’s up to him, based on where he decides to take the ball or a call that he makes or an action that he does, it’s up to him to get us into some of the looks of the Princeton offense. So again, with him quarterbacking, or making that decision, he’ll still have a chance to get the ball back after he moves or after bodies move. I don’t want to completely give away what we’re trying to do, but in a nutshell, he will have an opportunity to play pick-and-roll at the beginning of almost every play set coming down the floor in early offense. And if not, he can also choose to get to some of the looks out of the Princeton by making a pass or doing an action or doing a call or whatever.”
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lol Can't imagine a coach jumping up and down after a trade... I mean yes, it's Dwight Howard... but it's not like he was coaching a bunch of scrubs before that. Hopefully Eddie Jordan's offense will work because Brown needs all the help he can get.
“I got a little excited,” Brown said in an interview with ESPN Los Angeles. “I tried to jump up and down, but my mind was telling me to do something that my body wouldn’t allow me to do,” I almost pulled my hamstring sitting down. I don’t know if that’s ever happened to anybody, but I was so excited that my leg tensed up. I almost tore my hamstring. So I got up slowly and gave (GM Mitch Kupchak) and (owner) Jim Buss a hug. That might be the first hug they’ve gotten from their coach, ever, when it comes to a trade happening.”
From the Howard trade, talk turned very quickly to the hiring of assistant coach Eddie Jordan and the Princeton offense he will look to install in Los Angeles.
“I like some of the things that we did last year, and we’re going to keep some of those things in place,” Brown said. “But in the same breath, I’ve always been infatuated with what Eddie did when he was in Washington. I think if you take away the individual players and how talented they are — obviously if you have certain players it doesn’t matter what you run as long as you run something to their strengths, you’re going to have success offensively. So if you take away the individual players and their strengths and all that and just look at the purity of different offenses and how to defend them on a night in, night out basis, I always felt that the stuff (Jordan) did in Washington was difficult to defend. It was difficult to come up with a game plan because of the spacing and ball movement, and stuff like that.
“It’s a stress free offense, because of the counters that are built in, and so on and so forth. So I started looking into that at the beginning of the summer a little bit, and talked with a couple of guys that have done it on the collegiate level and on the professional level, and then I brought Eddie in for a while. I spent about a week or so with him, talking about it. So there’s a good chance we’re going to go down that road to incorporate some of that, or a lot of that, into what we did last year.”
Since the hiring of Jordan, some have questioned whether or not trying to run the Princeton offense with Steve Nash at point guard is really the way to go. It could stifle Nash’s inherent knack for running an effective offense, but Brown quickly laid those concerns aside.
“The way that we’ll put it together, Steve’s going to have an opportunity — he’s going to quarterback the team — and so he’s going to have an opportunity to come down the floor every possession and in early offense play pick-and-roll if he wants to,” Brown said. “It’s up to him, based on where he decides to take the ball or a call that he makes or an action that he does, it’s up to him to get us into some of the looks of the Princeton offense. So again, with him quarterbacking, or making that decision, he’ll still have a chance to get the ball back after he moves or after bodies move. I don’t want to completely give away what we’re trying to do, but in a nutshell, he will have an opportunity to play pick-and-roll at the beginning of almost every play set coming down the floor in early offense. And if not, he can also choose to get to some of the looks out of the Princeton by making a pass or doing an action or doing a call or whatever.”
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lol Can't imagine a coach jumping up and down after a trade... I mean yes, it's Dwight Howard... but it's not like he was coaching a bunch of scrubs before that. Hopefully Eddie Jordan's offense will work because Brown needs all the help he can get.