I’ve seen a lot of discussion on the last play and there’s a couple things I wanted to point out.
Firstly, the play was created by Brad Stevens, who named it “Winner”. He ran it a few times at Butler, and even brought it to the Boston Celtics. The play was so successful that everyone, and I mean everyone, has that play in their back pocket for late game in need of a 3. It wasn’t until recently that teams started creating counters for it because opponents were starting to realize the lob towards the rim was a decoy. Even still, among its popularity, teams (like AU last night) are still able to get good looks from it.
Which brings me to my next point.. I’ve seen several people post “it wasn’t a good shot, he was fading away”. And i think there needs to be some education/a distinction between what a good shot with 17 minutes in the 1st half looks like, and what one with 3 seconds in the game looks like. The idea of a “clean look” at the end of the game means the player was able to get the ball off cleanly (no double clutch or weird shooting motion) in an area one can expect a player to make a shot from (not a full-court heave). If you can accomplish those 2 things, you’ve succeeded. Bruce and staff found a play that did both.
Firstly, the play was created by Brad Stevens, who named it “Winner”. He ran it a few times at Butler, and even brought it to the Boston Celtics. The play was so successful that everyone, and I mean everyone, has that play in their back pocket for late game in need of a 3. It wasn’t until recently that teams started creating counters for it because opponents were starting to realize the lob towards the rim was a decoy. Even still, among its popularity, teams (like AU last night) are still able to get good looks from it.
Which brings me to my next point.. I’ve seen several people post “it wasn’t a good shot, he was fading away”. And i think there needs to be some education/a distinction between what a good shot with 17 minutes in the 1st half looks like, and what one with 3 seconds in the game looks like. The idea of a “clean look” at the end of the game means the player was able to get the ball off cleanly (no double clutch or weird shooting motion) in an area one can expect a player to make a shot from (not a full-court heave). If you can accomplish those 2 things, you’ve succeeded. Bruce and staff found a play that did both.
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