Pacers strategy
O'Brien has no qualms about 3s
New coach sees shot as a key weapon in team's arsenal
The standard approach is to get the ball to a player close to the basket, kick it out if he doesn't have a good shot, reverse it, and look for another good shot.
Coach Jim O'Brien has no problem with that, and will incorporate such a strategy into his offensive game plan with the Indiana Pacers next season. But he's also fine with flinging 3-pointers.
More than fine, actually.
"We're going to shoot the 3," he says matter-of-factly. "I don't know (how often), but we're going to shoot the 3."
Based on his history as an NBA head coach, which covers 21/2 seasons with Boston and one with Philadelphia, the Pacers could set a franchise record for 3-point attempts next season if they collect enough shooters on their roster.
Their single-season record is 1,575, set in 2004-05, when coach Rick Carlisle turned loose the perimeter shooters on his shook-up roster following the Detroit brawl and resulting suspensions.
That, however, was merely sticking a figurative toe in the water compared to O'Brien's head-first dive in Boston. The two Celtics teams he coached for a full season averaged 2,051 attempts. The Philadelphia team he coached in 2004-05 took 1,453 3-pointers despite a shortage of serious threats.
The ones he had, however, were utilized. Allen Iverson took more 3-pointers that season (338) than in any of his 10 seasons since he was a rookie. Kyle Korver had 558 attempts, the most of his four-season career, and tied for the league lead in made 3-pointers with 226.
Consider that former Pacer Reggie Miller, the NBA's all-time leader in 3-point field goals made and attempted, took more than 500 3-pointers just once in his 18 seasons -- in 1996-97 when the line was closer to the basket and injuries made him the team's only legitimate scoring threat most of the season.
O'Brien believes getting three points for a shot that many NBA players can hit with reasonable frequency is too good an opportunity to pass on. It brings the added bonus of spreading the floor and creating opportunities for players who can post up by making it difficult to double-team them, and allows teams not blessed with great rebounders to compete on the boards by going after long rebounds.
"I just think it's a hell of a weapon," O'Brien said. "It's very difficult to guard if you have three or four guys on the court who can shoot the 3, with one good low-post player.
"The formula of good, tough defense and unpredictable offense is very important. Teams that are utilizing that (philosophy) are teams that are succeeding.
"I can't have enough perimeter shooters."
O'Brien's 3-thinking philosophy, honed in part by the years he spent as an assistant to Rick Pitino, has won over assistant Dick Harter, a classic, old-school coach who came up through the college ranks.
"He has a great ability to make his player confident to take 3s or open shots," Harter said. "A lot of coaches don't have that ability, particularly old college coaches. We tended to restrict guys a lot. Maybe you got a little better shots that way, but you don't shoot as confidently."
Harter believes the NBA 3-point line should be moved farther from the basket, but otherwise has come to agree the shot should be utilized to its fullest.
"I think it's good for the game," he said. "It makes it more spectacular. It makes the swings quicker and bigger. Whether it's good for the sanity of coaches, I don't know."
O'Brien doesn't have a knee-jerk response to the shot. He'll give players the freedom to miss a few and keep taking them if they have proven themselves capable of hitting them in the long term.
"The main thing is, I don't want to send mixed messages to our team," he said. "Danny Granger, Stephen Graham or Troy Murphy, if they miss three 3s in a row, you're not going to see me holding the side of my head. They have to know we believe in it and they have to be cold-blooded about it."
O'Brien's belief in the 3-pointer is so strong that he doesn't want to see too many shots taken a step inside the line.
"It's the worst shot in basketball," he said. "Sometimes you have to shoot it and some guys, that's their forte. I'm not going to take that away from them. But generally speaking, guys who can shoot mid-range jump shots can also shoot 3s.
"It's not 3s at all costs; it has to be a standstill, open 3. We're not going to shoot challenged 3-point shots."
Second-year forward Shawne Williams has first-hand experience with the new philosophy. He was told by Pacers president Larry Bird not to shoot any 3s when he began his offseason workouts last spring. O'Brien had different instructions after he took over.
"The first day he worked me out, I was shooting 3s," Williams said. "I was hardly hitting the rim because I wasn't used to it."
Williams should be an interesting test case for O'Brien's philosophy. He hit 37 percent of his 3-pointers last season after hitting just 31 percent in his lone college season at Memphis. He expects to improve his percentage next season, although he was hitting 33 percent of his attempts through the first three summer league games.
"I'm a totally better shooter than last year," he said after the summer league practices. "Right now, my legs aren't there. I'm not used to running like that and then shooting 3s.
"I love it, though. I like to play that way."
Most players do.
Most fans like to watch it, too.
So will former old-school coaches like Bird and Harter . . .
"When they go in," Harter said, smiling.
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Three at a time
A look at how the Pacers have utilized the 3-point shot throughout their 40-year history:
1967-68: They take 360 3-pointers in their inaugural season, hitting just 27 percent. Jimmy Rayl makes 57-of-175 attempts (.326).
1970-71: Their 1,024 attempts are the most they will take until the 1996-97 season, when the line is closer to the basket. Their team percentage is .299. Team leader Billy Keller shoots .365 percent.
1976-79: There is no 3-point shot for their first three seasons in the NBA.
1985-86: They attempt a franchise-low 143 3-pointers. That's a good thing, as they hit just 23 of them (.161). By comparison, five players on last season's team attempted more than 143 3-pointers.
1994-97: The NBA moves the line in to 22 feet for three seasons to increase scoring. Coach Larry Brown, who had not utilized the shot much in his first season with the team, relents and opens the offense. Reggie Miller attempts a franchise-record 536 in Brown's final season (1996-97).
1999-2000: They hit a franchise-record .392 percent on their way to the NBA Finals. Derrick McKey, Chris Mullin, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose all shoot better than 39 percent, while Austin Croshere (.362) and Travis Best (.376) also provide legitimate threats.
2004-05: They attempt a franchise-record 1,575 3-pointers during the suspension-depleted brawl season, with eight players taking more than 100 of them.
-- Mark Montieth
http://<br /> http://www.indystar.c.../1088/SPORTS04
O'Brien has no qualms about 3s
New coach sees shot as a key weapon in team's arsenal
The standard approach is to get the ball to a player close to the basket, kick it out if he doesn't have a good shot, reverse it, and look for another good shot.
Coach Jim O'Brien has no problem with that, and will incorporate such a strategy into his offensive game plan with the Indiana Pacers next season. But he's also fine with flinging 3-pointers.
More than fine, actually.
"We're going to shoot the 3," he says matter-of-factly. "I don't know (how often), but we're going to shoot the 3."
Based on his history as an NBA head coach, which covers 21/2 seasons with Boston and one with Philadelphia, the Pacers could set a franchise record for 3-point attempts next season if they collect enough shooters on their roster.
Their single-season record is 1,575, set in 2004-05, when coach Rick Carlisle turned loose the perimeter shooters on his shook-up roster following the Detroit brawl and resulting suspensions.
That, however, was merely sticking a figurative toe in the water compared to O'Brien's head-first dive in Boston. The two Celtics teams he coached for a full season averaged 2,051 attempts. The Philadelphia team he coached in 2004-05 took 1,453 3-pointers despite a shortage of serious threats.
The ones he had, however, were utilized. Allen Iverson took more 3-pointers that season (338) than in any of his 10 seasons since he was a rookie. Kyle Korver had 558 attempts, the most of his four-season career, and tied for the league lead in made 3-pointers with 226.
Consider that former Pacer Reggie Miller, the NBA's all-time leader in 3-point field goals made and attempted, took more than 500 3-pointers just once in his 18 seasons -- in 1996-97 when the line was closer to the basket and injuries made him the team's only legitimate scoring threat most of the season.
O'Brien believes getting three points for a shot that many NBA players can hit with reasonable frequency is too good an opportunity to pass on. It brings the added bonus of spreading the floor and creating opportunities for players who can post up by making it difficult to double-team them, and allows teams not blessed with great rebounders to compete on the boards by going after long rebounds.
"I just think it's a hell of a weapon," O'Brien said. "It's very difficult to guard if you have three or four guys on the court who can shoot the 3, with one good low-post player.
"The formula of good, tough defense and unpredictable offense is very important. Teams that are utilizing that (philosophy) are teams that are succeeding.
"I can't have enough perimeter shooters."
O'Brien's 3-thinking philosophy, honed in part by the years he spent as an assistant to Rick Pitino, has won over assistant Dick Harter, a classic, old-school coach who came up through the college ranks.
"He has a great ability to make his player confident to take 3s or open shots," Harter said. "A lot of coaches don't have that ability, particularly old college coaches. We tended to restrict guys a lot. Maybe you got a little better shots that way, but you don't shoot as confidently."
Harter believes the NBA 3-point line should be moved farther from the basket, but otherwise has come to agree the shot should be utilized to its fullest.
"I think it's good for the game," he said. "It makes it more spectacular. It makes the swings quicker and bigger. Whether it's good for the sanity of coaches, I don't know."
O'Brien doesn't have a knee-jerk response to the shot. He'll give players the freedom to miss a few and keep taking them if they have proven themselves capable of hitting them in the long term.
"The main thing is, I don't want to send mixed messages to our team," he said. "Danny Granger, Stephen Graham or Troy Murphy, if they miss three 3s in a row, you're not going to see me holding the side of my head. They have to know we believe in it and they have to be cold-blooded about it."
O'Brien's belief in the 3-pointer is so strong that he doesn't want to see too many shots taken a step inside the line.
"It's the worst shot in basketball," he said. "Sometimes you have to shoot it and some guys, that's their forte. I'm not going to take that away from them. But generally speaking, guys who can shoot mid-range jump shots can also shoot 3s.
"It's not 3s at all costs; it has to be a standstill, open 3. We're not going to shoot challenged 3-point shots."
Second-year forward Shawne Williams has first-hand experience with the new philosophy. He was told by Pacers president Larry Bird not to shoot any 3s when he began his offseason workouts last spring. O'Brien had different instructions after he took over.
"The first day he worked me out, I was shooting 3s," Williams said. "I was hardly hitting the rim because I wasn't used to it."
Williams should be an interesting test case for O'Brien's philosophy. He hit 37 percent of his 3-pointers last season after hitting just 31 percent in his lone college season at Memphis. He expects to improve his percentage next season, although he was hitting 33 percent of his attempts through the first three summer league games.
"I'm a totally better shooter than last year," he said after the summer league practices. "Right now, my legs aren't there. I'm not used to running like that and then shooting 3s.
"I love it, though. I like to play that way."
Most players do.
Most fans like to watch it, too.
So will former old-school coaches like Bird and Harter . . .
"When they go in," Harter said, smiling.
================================================== ================================================== =================
Three at a time
A look at how the Pacers have utilized the 3-point shot throughout their 40-year history:
1967-68: They take 360 3-pointers in their inaugural season, hitting just 27 percent. Jimmy Rayl makes 57-of-175 attempts (.326).
1970-71: Their 1,024 attempts are the most they will take until the 1996-97 season, when the line is closer to the basket. Their team percentage is .299. Team leader Billy Keller shoots .365 percent.
1976-79: There is no 3-point shot for their first three seasons in the NBA.
1985-86: They attempt a franchise-low 143 3-pointers. That's a good thing, as they hit just 23 of them (.161). By comparison, five players on last season's team attempted more than 143 3-pointers.
1994-97: The NBA moves the line in to 22 feet for three seasons to increase scoring. Coach Larry Brown, who had not utilized the shot much in his first season with the team, relents and opens the offense. Reggie Miller attempts a franchise-record 536 in Brown's final season (1996-97).
1999-2000: They hit a franchise-record .392 percent on their way to the NBA Finals. Derrick McKey, Chris Mullin, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose all shoot better than 39 percent, while Austin Croshere (.362) and Travis Best (.376) also provide legitimate threats.
2004-05: They attempt a franchise-record 1,575 3-pointers during the suspension-depleted brawl season, with eight players taking more than 100 of them.
-- Mark Montieth
http://<br /> http://www.indystar.c.../1088/SPORTS04
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