Whoa Nellie!

My two most overrated coaches--Flip Saunders and Don Nelson--hit the fork in the road over the weekend. Flip is well on his way to the Eastern Conference final, while Nellie is fading into the Bay Area sunset. The Pistons have the look of championship stock right now; I thought the Bulls would play them much harder. Whether they can maintain the defensive intensity they need to get them to the finals is really a benchmark of Flip's progress as a coach. What happens when a team can stand up to that intensity and still execute? These playoffs have been intensely physical, and there's a significant difference between those teams who win the regular season and those who thrive in the post-season. Both Flip and Nellie strike me as better regular season coaches, because of their reliance on offensive strategies.

The Warriors-Jazz series has been most fun to watch, and is a case in point. Here we have two coaches--Nelson and Jerry Sloan--successful players in the 60's and early 70's, who have been among the elite in pro basketball for many years. Nelson's the offensive genius who never knew quite what to do with a center, Sloan is the tough, no-holds-barred coach who focuses on defense and team play. Both haven't won championships as coaches, and both are in the last years of their career. The Warriors are coming off their big upset of the Mavs and come in with their philosophy of spreading the floor, three point shooting and new found intensity. The Jazz have a new, younger cast of characters, but still have the Sloan lunch pail ethic--grinding, fouling, physical, and equally as intense.

Last night, bodies were literally being thrown around at each other in the paint, which favored the Jazz. The Warriors physical ethic is more of the individual thug variety, as witnessed by both Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis. Davis has been generally spectacular in the post season, but hit the wall last night and delivered a cheap shot to Derek Fisher after Fisher hit a couple of crucial threes in the fourth. Jackson's attempts to "take over the game" in the second half--trying to split defenses off the dribble and create contact in the paint--cost the Warriors last night along with poor team free throw shooting. Jackson and Davis are the poster children for today's NBA--a lot of individual talent, occasional flashes of brilliance, but in the end, punks. The Jazz's physicality is based on a team philosophy and effort--everyone gets into the act. It has a mental toughness strategy to it--grind it out for four quarters and we'll see who's on top. Even guys like Mehmet Okur--European style big men who like to play away from the basket--play physical and board on at least one end of the court. Mark Blount would be at the end of the bench on a Jerry Sloan team.

In the end, because coaches like Nellie and Flip have sacrificed defensive intensity for offensive execution, they have never been able to reach that final level. Sloan hasn't won a championship either, but at least has been in the finals; he was unlucky enough to run up into Jordan at his prime.

The other coach who has successfully advocated an offense-first approach--the Suns Mike D'Antoni-is also down against the Spurs. Of the three, it looks like Flip has the best shot to reach the Finals, but it will be because of the Pistons defense, not their offense.