The Book of Basketball Read Free Page A

’09 Paul, ’01 Allen (bench). Check out the plethora of options we have with those twelve guys.
Best crunch-time lineup: Kareem, Bird, Duncan/McHale, Jordan, Magic.
    With the following caveats: if McHale is on fire, maybe we play him over Duncan … if Bird/Magic is getting killed defensively, maybe we throw in Pippen/LeBron and/or Paul/Wade … and if we want to downsize, we can play Duncan/McHale at center and insert LeBron or Wade for Kareem. If we need a basket, we run something for Jordan or go inside/outside game with Bird/Kareem. We also have Duncan on the high post if we want torun a play through him. And we have Magic ready to run off every miss with Bird, Duncan, and Jordan. Put it this way: we have options, and then some.
Best defensive lineup (bigger): McHale/Duncan/Kareem (two of three), Pippen, Jordan, Wade/Paul. You’re not scoring on those guys. Period.
Best defensive lineup (smaller): McHale/Duncan, LeBron, Pippen, Jordan, Wade/Paul. Ditto. 10
Best fast break lineup: Walton/Duncan, Bird, LeBron/Pippen, Jordan/Wade, Magic/Paul. Holy schnikes. Lots of options here. We can run with some combination of nearly every guy on our team.
Best smallball lineup: LeBron, Pippen, Jordan, Wade, Paul. Fascinating because you could get away with this quintet defensively if you pushed the pace and trapped all over the place (it would be like the ’07 Warriors on acid). Admit it, you’re moving to the edge of your seat when this lineup comes in. You could also insert Magic for Wade or Pippen if you wanted to relive the Magic/Nixon salad days.
Best bigball lineup: Kareem, Walton/Duncan, McHale, LeBron/Pippen, Bird. With LeBron or Pippen at point forward. Yes, you could play them together and it would work—no different from Walton, Parish, McHale, Bird and DJ flourishing in the ’86 Playoffs. In fact, this might be my favorite look yet.
Best three-point shooting lineup: LeBron, Bird, Jordan, Allen, Paul. My least favorite wrinkle since I only have two deadly bombers and I’d muchrather have three. (Note to Steve Nash: You almost made the Wine Cellar Team simply as a better version of the ’96 Steve Kerr.) On the other hand, I have Larry Bird and Ray Allen. So all isn’t lost.
Best free-throw-shooting lineup: Bird, Jordan, Paul, Magic, Allen. Nobody under 85 percent and two over 90 percent. We would not blow a lead in the final 45 seconds.
Most intriguing lineup: Walton, Bird, LeBron, Magic, Jordan. Four superior passers with Jordan. I am giddy.
The murderous press: Duncan, LeBron, Pippen, Wade, Paul. I’m borrowing this idea from Rick Pitino, who told Malcolm Gladwell that if he ever coached in the NBA again, he would pick five of his bench guys to practice exclusively on a full-court press, then play them once a half for four or five minutes at a time. Their sole purpose would be to create havoc, wear opponents down, exploit opposing bench guys and shift momentum. And they would. Would you want to bring the ball up against a press with these five guys prowling around like cheetahs? It would be like throwing against a ten-man secondary, right? 11
    Here’s how my playing time would ultimately break down. Keep in mind, we want these guys going all out at all times.
First quarter. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Duncan and Kareem start the game. At the 6:00 mark, McHale comes in for Duncan. After the mandatory 3:00 minute timeout, it’s time for a Paul-Wade-Pippen-McHale-Walton quintet.
Second quarter. Four minutes of hell with our killer press (Duncan-LeBron-Pippen-Wade-Paul). At the 8:00 mark, Walton, Bird, Magic and Jordan return and play with LeBron at power forward for a little “holy shit, look at this passing” interlude. For the last four minutes, Kareem replaces Walton and McHale replaces LeBron.
Third quarter: Same starters. At 6:00, McHale comes in for Duncan and Walton replaces Kareem. At 3:00, Paul-Wade-LeBron-McHale-Walton.
Fourth quarter: Four more minutes of hell with our killer press (and Duncan anchoring it).