Lenny Wilkens' Remarkable Legacy as Player, Player-Coach, and Coach
Lenny Wilkens, the only person who earned recognition as both one of the NBA's 50 greatest players and one of the NBA's 10 greatest coaches, passed away yesterday at the age of 88. He coached the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1979 NBA title, and he ranks third all-time on the NBA's regular season wins list with 1332, trailing only Gregg Popovich (1390) and Don Nelson (1335). Wilkens became the all-time wins leader in 1994 after he surpassed Red Auerbach, who had held the record (938) since the 1960s. Wilkens was the NBA's all-time wins leader from 1994-2010, when Nelson broke his record. Wilkens won the NBA's Coach of the Year award in 1994, and he finished in the top five in seven other seasons (1971-72, 1978-80, 1989, 1992). He led five different franchises to at least one playoff appearance (Seattle, Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto, New York), winning at least 50 games in a season nine times with three different teams (Seattle, Cleveland, Atlanta).
Wilkens' coaching career was so long and successful that it is easy to forget how great he was as a player. He excelled at Providence, twice leading the Friars to the NIT during an era when the NIT was much more prestigious than it is now. Wilkens won the 1960 NIT MVP even though Providence lost to Bradley in the championship game. The St. Louis Hawks selected him sixth overall in the 1960 NBA Draft. As a rookie, Wilkens ranked fourth on the team in scoring (11.7 ppg) and fifth in assists (2.8 apg) as the Hawks reached the NBA Finals for the second year in a row and third time in four seasons. The Celtics defeated the Hawks 4-1 to claim their third straight NBA title en route to winning a record eight consecutive NBA championships and 11 championships in Bill Russell's 13 season career.
Wilkens averaged 18.2 ppg and 5.8 apg in his second season, but military service limited him to playing in just 20 games. In 1962-63, his third NBA season, Wilkens earned the first of three straight All-Star selections. Wilkens also made the All-Star team as a Hawk in 1967 and 1968, when he finished second in regular season MVP voting behind Wilt Chamberlain despite not making the All-NBA Team, which featured Oscar Robertson and Dave Bing on the First Team with Jerry West and Hal Greer earning Second Team honors.
On October 12, 1968, the Hawks traded Wilkens to Seattle for Walt Hazzard. Wilkens made the All-Star team in each of his first three seasons with Seattle while ranking second in the league in assists in 1969 (674; league rankings were then determined by totals and not averages, but he also ranked second with 8.2 apg). He led the league in assists in 1970 (683, with a 9.1 apg average that was nearly a full assist per game ahead of Walt Frazier). Wilkens ranked second in assists in 1971 (9.2 apg), the first season when rankings were determined by averages and not totals. He won the 1971 NBA All-Star Game MVP after scoring a game-high 21 points on 8-11 field goal shooting while leading the Western Conference to a 108-107 win over the Eastern Conference back when the All-Star Game was competitive. Wilkens ranked second in the league in assists in 1972 with a career-high 9.6 apg.
Wilkens began his coaching career by serving as Seattle's player-coach from 1970-72. The SuperSonics, a 1967-68 expansion team, won 30 games before acquiring Wilkens, and then won 36, 38, and 47 games during his three seasons as player-coach. Prior to the 1972-73 season, Seattle traded Wilkens and Barry Clemens to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Butch Beard. Seattle plummeted to 26 wins after Tom Nissalke and then Bucky Buckwalter replaced Wilkens as coach.
In his first season with Cleveland, Wilkens earned his ninth and final All-Star selection while averaging 20.5 ppg (the third best scoring average of his career) and 8.4 apg (again ranking second in the league). He also served as a great mentor for Austin Carr, who told me, "Lenny was very instrumental in me becoming a better guard. I was more of a shooting machine when I was in college. I had to learn
how to conserve my energy because I had to play a lot of minutes. At the
same time, I had to learn how to get the other four guys involved,
because I was so used to everything coming to me. Lenny taught me a lot
about how to make passes. I had a problem making backdoor passes and
Lenny taught me how to do that and when to do it--little things like if I
am going to pass the ball but don't quite have the angle, always pass
the ball at the guy's head or at his ear, because he has to react to
that. That gives you just enough time to get the pass through. I learned
those kinds of little things from Lenny that really helped me
throughout the rest of my career. Once I started having injuries, I had
to start using my mind to stay successful because I lost a step. Once
you lose a step in this game, you are in trouble."
Portland acquired Wilkens' rights prior to the 1974-75 season, and he finished his playing career as a player-coach for one year in Portland, averaging 6.5 ppg and 3.6 apg while guiding the squad to a 38-44 record, the best in the franchise's five year history up to that point. Rookie Bill Walton, who would later lead Portland to the 1977 NBA title, played in just 35 games. The 37 year old Wilkens retired as a player and spent one more year as Portland's coach, leading the Trail Blazers to a 37-45 record in 1975-76.
Seattle started the 1977-78 season 5-17 before hiring Wilkens to replace Coach Bob Hopkins. Wilkens led Seattle to a 42-18 record the rest of the way, and the SuperSonics reached the NBA Finals for the first time before losing 4-3 to the Washington Bullets in the NBA Finals. In 1978-79, Wilkens led Seattle to the best record in the Western Conference (52-30) and the second best overall record, trailing only the defending champion Bullets (54-28). In the first NBA Finals rematch since L.A.-New York in 1973, the SuperSonics defeated the Bullets 4-1. Dennis Johnson won the 1979 NBA Finals MVP, while Gus Williams scored a series-high 29.0 ppg on .500 field goal shooting. Williams scored at least 30 points in three
of the five Finals games, including a series-high 36 in Seattle's
114-112 game four win.
Jack Sikma played a key role for those strong Seattle teams. I interviewed Wilkens during the 2008 NBA All-Star weekend, and he described Sikma's impact: "Jack never shied away. He stepped up. That is why we drafted him. We felt that he was a guy who could contribute and who
would be consistent and when I took over as the coach of the Sonics I
started him. He had been coming off of the bench. He made free throws at
crucial times and was always in the game. When you have success early
in your career it makes you that much more confident."
Paul Silas, who had previously been a key player for Boston's championship teams in 1974 and 1976, provided defense, rebounding, and veteran savvy for Seattle. Wilkens told me how important Silas was for young Sikma's development: "Paul was aggressive and he could play. Any time
that I thought that another veteran team was trying to take advantage of Jack,
I'd insert Paul. He was a wise veteran; he knew what to do and how to do it. That
helped give Jack a reprieve, a chance to catch his breath before he had to go
back in the game. In practice, Paul would go against Jack. I would match them
up because I wanted Jack to learn from one of the best. Paul was huge in that
respect."
Wilkens coached Seattle until the end of the 1984-85 season, and then he moved back to Cleveland, where he had enjoyed success as a player late in his career. Wilkens coached the Cavaliers from 1986-1993, highlighted by 57 win seasons in 1988-89 and 1991-92. In the latter season, the Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference Finals for just the second time in franchise history before falling 4-2 to the Chicago Bulls, who then won the second of their sixth NBA titles in the 1990s. Brad Daugherty made the All-Star team five times with Wilkens coaching him in Cleveland, and Mark Price earned three All-Star selections plus three All-NBA Team selections during those years (Price earned his final All-Star selection and final All-NBA Team selection in 1993-94 after Mike Fratello replaced Wilkens).
Wilkens coached the Atlanta Hawks to a 57-25 record in 1993-94, tied with the New York Knicks for first in the Eastern Conference and tied with the 1986-87 Hawks for the best regular season record in franchise history; that mark stood until the 2014-15 Hawks went 60-22. Wilkens led the Hawks to the second round of the playoffs four times in seven years after the Hawks advanced that far just three times in the previous 13 seasons.
Wilkens' coaching career concluded with two playoff appearances in three seasons in Toronto, and one playoff berth in two seasons in New York.
In addition to his NBA coaching career, Wilkens was an assistant coach for Chuck Daly with the legendary Olympic gold medal winning 1992 Dream Team, and he was the head coach for Team USA’s 1996 gold medal winning squad.
Wilkens is one of five people inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (1989) and as a coach (1998); the others on this special list are John Wooden (1960, 1973), Bill Sharman (1976, 2004), Tommy Heinsohn (1986, 2015), and Bill Russell (1975, 2021). Other honors that Wilkens received include being inducted in the FIBA Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the College Basketball
Hall of Fame, and the Providence Hall of Fame. He also appears on the Cleveland Cavaliers' Wall of Honor.
After hearing that Wilkens passed away, Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said, "I ended up following [Wilkens] as president [of the National
Basketball Coaches Association]. He did a lot of things
to further the profession; the pension, benefits, coaching salaries
rose significantly during his time. He was a great representative to the
league office, advocating for coaches and the things that coaches
experience that a lot of people didn't know about. Lenny was a great
communicator with things like that. The thing that I'll always
remember, he was such a great gentleman, and such an eloquent human
being, along with being a super competitive coach. He is still way up
there in all-time victories. Very, very special man. He'll be missed,
but he'll be remembered."
There have been greater players than Wilkens, and greater coaches, but no one matches Wilkens' combined resumes as both an elite player and an elite coach. As Carlisle noted, Wilkens had a very positive impact on the sport because of the effective way that he communicated with players, fellow coaches, and the league office.
Labels: Atlanta Hawks, Brad Daugherty, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Lenny Wilkens, Mark Price, Paul Silas, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Supersonics, St. Louis Hawks
posted by David Friedman @ 2:36 PM
Mark Price Shot, Passed and "Split" His Way Into the NBA's Elite
Here are the 12 year regular season NBA career statistics for two point guards. See if you can guess who they are:
Point Guard #1:
15.2 ppg, 6.7 apg, .472 FG%, .402 3Pt FG%, .904 FT%
Point Guard #2:
14.3 ppg, 7.9 apg, .485 FG%, .431 3Pt FG%, .897 FT%
If you are surprised to find out that point guard #1 is Mark Price and point guard #2 is Steve Nash, then you definitely should check out my CavsNews.com article about the very underrated Price, who developed the "split" move on the pick and roll play into a deadly
weapon that many guards who followed him have copied. Johnny Bach, the
de facto "defensive coordinator" for the Chicago Bulls during their
first three-peat, says that the Mark Price-Brad Daugherty pick and roll
play was "the best in the business" during that era (6/17/15 edit: the link to CavsNews.com no longer works, so I have posted the original article below):
It is
commonplace now for NBA point guards to split the two defenders on a pick and
roll play, compromise the defense by penetrating the lane and then either shoot
a runner or dish to a wide open teammate—but most people don’t realize that
Cavaliers guard Mark Price brought this split technique to the forefront. Amazingly,
the first time he pulled off the maneuver it was an accident.
“It’s a funny
story,” Price says. “It actually just kind of happened once in a game. I
remember vividly that we were playing Philadelphia.
It was probably my second year in the league and I was trying to develop
myself. I was being defended by Maurice Cheeks (a four-time All-Star and five
time All-Defensive Team selection). I came off the pick and roll and it just
seemed like it opened up like the Red Sea so I
just kind of slid in there and scored. I remember running back down the floor
and Cheeks said, ‘That was a sweet move.’ So I kind of locked that away and
watched it (on film) and I started looking for it a little bit more and it
became a mainstay in my repertoire.”
Johnny Bach,
who was the de facto “defensive coordinator” for the Chicago Bulls during their
first three-peat, says that the Mark Price-Brad Daugherty pick and roll
combination was “the best in the business” because of Price’s unique ability to
split the trap and get the defense back on its heels. Daugherty breaks the playdown from a technical standpoint: “Mark was obviously a tremendous
ballhandler and in order to get through the double-team you just have to have a
great angle and a great pick. Your big guy has to set the pick and hold the
screen and give the guy time to get through. A lot of times when you run the
pick and roll, your forward or your center is looking to roll immediately
because after you set the screen you are wide open. It’s hard sometimes to go
over to that point guard and really hold on to that screen because you know
that as soon as you roll that you have a chance for a shot. I think that the
number one key is making sure that the guard doesn’t move until the big guy
sets the screen and once the screen is set in place that the big guy does not
move until the guard comes off of his hip. It is easy to split it that way
because as the big guy sets the screen the big guy guarding him--the other
center or forward--has to pick up the point guard. Usually that big guy will
drop off because he knows that the point guard is quicker than he is. That
creates a gap and Mark was just really good at cutting through that gap.”
Defenders did
not dare to go under Daugherty’s screens because Price was a great three point
shooter, nor was fouling Price a good answer because to this day he is still
the leading free throw shooter in NBA history (.904). In 1988-89, just his
third pro season, Price shot .441 from three point range (third in the league),
.901 from the free throw line (fourth in the league) and .526 from the field
(16th in the league). Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash and Dirk
Nowitzki are the only other players who have ever shot at least .400 from three
point range, .900 on free throws and .500 from the field in the same season.
Price earned four All-Star selections (1989, 92-94) and he also made the
All-NBA Team in each of those years, including a First Team nod in 1993.
Steve Kerr
was Price’s teammate on the Cavaliers from 1989-93. Kerr led the NBA in three
point field goal percentage in 1990 (.507) and he says that playing
against Price in practice really honed his skills: “I had to guard him every
day in practice, which was impossible. But that was the best thing that I could
have done--it made me a better defender. I played with him a lot, which was
awesome because he was so quick and drew so much attention that he got me open
for a lot of shots. I learned a lot from Mark and I loved playing with him and
guarding him in practice every day was just a lesson.”
Kerr agrees
with Bach’s praise of the Price-Daugherty pick and roll tandem, adding, “Mark
really revolutionized the way that people attack the screen and roll. To me, he
was the first guy in the NBA who really split the screen and roll. A lot of teams
started blitzing the pick and roll and jumping two guys at it to take the ball
out of the hands of the point guard. He’d duck right between them and shoot
that little runner in the lane. Nobody was doing that at that time. You watch
an NBA game now and almost everybody does that. Mark was a pioneer in that
regard. He gave people fits with that little split. I think that during his era
he was one of the top few point guards in the NBA and if you look at the
history of the league you have to include him among the upper echelon of all
the point guards who have ever played.”
Although Bach
believes that Price took some extra physical punishment from bigger defenders
who felt embarrassed when Price split them in the open court, Price does not
completely agree with that assessment: “I
did take punishment, no question about it, but I don’t think that move in
particular is what led to a lot of the punishment. The rules were different
back then and there was a lot more hand checking and bumping. The rules changes
have made it a little bit less physical than it used to be and I think that in
that era the game was just more physical in general.”
Price led the
league in free throw shooting three times, ranked in the top ten in assists on
five occasions and won the All-Star Three Point Shootout in 1993 and 1994. His
shooting and playmaking skills earned him a spot on Team USA in 1994, the last time that the United States
won the FIBA World Championship. Price led Team USA in steals (12 in eight games)
and ranked second in three pointers made (19), second in assists (29) and sixth
in scoring (9.6 ppg). Shaquille O’Neal (18.0 ppg, .713 field goal percentage)
and Reggie Miller (17.1 ppg, 30 three pointers made) were the team’s top two
scorers.
Price
averaged 17.4 ppg and 7.0 apg in seven playoff appearances with the Cavs. He
had a particularly outstanding postseason in 1991-92, averaging 19.2 ppg and
7.5 apg while shooting .496 from the field, .362 from three point range and
.904 from the free throw line in 17 games. The Cavs made it to the Eastern
Conference Finals but lost 4-2 to the Chicago Bulls, who eliminated the Cavs
from the playoffs five times during Price’s career. Magic Johnson once
predicted that the Cavs would be the team of the 90s but the Bulls went on to
claim that distinction, winning six titles, including two in seasons during
which they eliminated the Cavs.
Price
averaged 15.2 ppg and 6.7 apg in 722 regular season games during his 12 year
career but during the eight years that he was Cleveland’s starting point guard
he averaged 17.6 ppg and 7.8 apg, including 19.6 ppg and 9.1 apg in 1989-90;
those numbers would earn a player MVP consideration today but Price did not
even make the All-Star team that year (the East backcourt consisted of Michael
Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Reggie Miller). In comparison, Steve
Nash’s career averages after 12 seasons are 14.3 ppg and 7.9 apg; Nash’s career
high scoring average is 18.8 ppg (2005-06) and his career high assists average
is 11.6 apg (2006-07). Keep in mind that during the 1980s and 1990s, Robert
Horry’s hip check on Nash would have looked like a love tap compared to the Rick
Mahorn body blow that slammed Price into a basket stanchion. What kind of
numbers would Price have put up in today’s game, when perimeter defenders are
not allowed to even touch offensive players?
“I tell
people all the time that the rules changes helped to make Steve Nash an MVP in
this league,” Price says. “Steve’s a great player but just the ability to be
able to go where you want to and not have guys hold you and grab you just opens
up so many options for you. Steve obviously has great court vision, probably a
little bit better of a passer than I was. I felt like I was a good passer. I
was probably a little bit more of a pure shooter than Steve, although he is a
very good shooter.”
A true point
guard has a feel for what all of the players on the court are doing. “I think
that you can improve your court awareness but I think that at some level you
just have guys who have the instincts for that and it is a gift,” Price
explains. “You can either see things happening or you can’t. I think that is
the difference between guys who are point guards and guys who aren’t. You can’t
just take a guy and put him at the point guard position because it takes that
little bit of extra vision and court sense to really make that work.”
Price faced
many outstanding point guards but he says that Kevin Johnson was probably the
toughest one for him to defend. Of course, Price and Johnson were teammates in
1987-88 before the Cavs shipped Johnson to Phoenix in exchange for All-Star forward
Larry Nance. Imagine what the Cavs would look like now if they had even one
future All-Star point guard, let alone two of them!
Labels: Brad Daugherty, Cleveland Cavaliers, Johnny Bach, Mark Price, Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr, Steve Nash
posted by David Friedman @ 5:22 PM
Brad Daugherty: From the Court to the Race Track
Brad Daugherty and Mark Price might have become Cleveland's version of "Stockton-to-Malone" if a back injury had not ended Daugherty's career at the age of 28. Daugherty had three straight 20-10 seasons before his back went out in the 1993-94 season; he did not officially retire until 1997 but he never played again. While Daugherty set the screens, grabbed the boards, made good passes and showed a soft shooting touch, Price pushed the ball up the court, shot an excellent percentage and was a very good distributor. In 1988-89, he shot better than 40% from three point range, better than 50% from the field and better than 90% from the free throw line, a feat only matched by Larry Bird, Reggie Miller and Steve Nash; Price finished 10th in MVP voting that year even though, as I noted
a couple weeks ago, his numbers were in the same ball park with what two-time MVP Nash has done the past two seasons--but don't just take my word for it. Johnny Bach, who has seen six decades of NBA players and was the de facto "defensive coordinator" of the Bulls' first "three-peat" team, told me this about the Daugherty-Price pick and roll combination: "They were the best in the business. Cleveland was the best in the business because of Price; he could get across that screen and make that pass. He actually probably shortened his career because he used to love to make the change (change of direction move) in between the screen and the defender who came up. He was knocked down a lot of times.”
Daugherty is a life-long racing fan and he has found an outlet for that passion as the newest member of ESPN's NASCAR broadcasting team. I recently spoke with Daugherty about Michael Jordan, NASCAR--and the pick and roll play he ran to perfection with Mark Price (10/5/15 edit: the link to HoopsHype.com no longer works, so I have posted the original article below):
Brad Daugherty patrolled the lane as an All-American center at North Carolina and then as a five-time All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He never forgot his childhood love of racing, though, and now he will share that passion with a wide audience as the newest addition to ESPN's crew of NASCAR broadcasters.
Daugherty arrived at North Carolina as a 16-year-old freshman in 1982, just after Michael Jordan hit the jump shot that propelled the Tar Heels to Dean Smith’s first NCAA title. Daugherty played two seasons alongside Jordan. "Michael was an outstanding one-on-one basketball player and he had a lot of talent and was a super player when we played pickup basketball," Daugherty recalls. "But a lot of guys had a chance to expose the guy who was guarding them in pickup basketball. You knew that he was a better player than most of the guys there--you could see that--but not at that level (that he achieved in the NBA). I mean, that was unbelievable. There was no one outside of maybe Coach Smith who could see that. I know that Mike Krzyzewski said that he and Len Bias were two of the best players he ever coached against. Guys like that may have been able to see it, but there was no way that any other player could see the future for Michael Jordan at that point in time. You'd never think that he would become, probably, the greatest player to ever play."
The Tar Heels twice made it to the Elite Eight and on two other occasions made it to the Sweet 16 but did not win a championship during Daugherty's career. "It is so difficult to do," Daugherty says of capturing that elusive NCAA title. "We had some weird things happen injury-wise. My whole four years, there was always some odd thing that would happen. My sophomore year we were a really good basketball team and Kenny Smith, who was a freshman, broke his wrist. Steve Hale broke his collarbone--injury after injury after injury. We found out how fragile our existence was as a basketball team."
The Cleveland Cavaliers selected Daugherty with the first overall pick in the 1986 draft, and he made a smooth transition to the NBA game, averaging 15.7 ppg and 8.1 rpg and earning a spot on the All-Rookie Team. "I give all of that credit to Coach Smith and that's why I say that his impression upon my life was just incredible," Daugherty tells of how he was able to so quickly adapt to both college and pro basketball. "He took me and was almost like a father to me because I was so young. There were so many things that I had to make adjustments to, not only athletically but socially. He just spent a lot of time helping me hone my skills as a basketball player and as an individual. He prepared me throughout my four years there to be able to take that next step and do it seamlessly."
Daugherty's coach in Cleveland, Lenny Wilkens, eventually broke the record for most NBA coaching wins; Smith held the NCAA career wins record until Bobby Knight recently passed him. "Coach Smith was more of a mentor and really worked hard on implementing life lessons into the game of basketball," Daugherty recalls. "It was a tremendous learning experience being around Coach Smith and he made indelible impressions upon each of us because of his ability to really take (lessons) from the game of basketball and help you grow as a person. That impact was everlasting. Lenny Wilkens is just a classy guy. The similarity between he and Coach Smith was the manner with which they approached the game. They both approached the game with a high level of integrity and sportsmanship. They wanted to win, but they wanted to do it fairly and in a just manner. They wanted to compete above board at all times. That is the quality that is similar. The difference is that Coach Smith could be really fiery, not in the sense of a Bobby Knight or Mike Krzyzewski with the profanity laced tirades--he wasn't that kind of guy--but he was very competitive and very fiery and challenging his guys to be their best. Lenny Wilkens was very strategic, but he also was more apt to take a guy who was willing to do things himself and give that guy an opportunity to flourish. If you didn't bring your best product to the table, then he would just move on. So that was the difference. Both very effective, but both different."
Daugherty's teammates Ron Harper and John Williams joined him on the All-Rookie Team as Cavs' GM Wayne Embry assembled a young nucleus that Magic Johnson later predicted would become the "team of the 90s." Another rookie, Mark Price, did not receive much playing time in 1986-87, but would soon become a key piece in the Cavs' resurgence. The next season, Embry pulled off a multi-player trade with Phoenix--the key element being the exchange of point guard Kevin Johnson for power forward Larry Nance. That move both shored up the frontcourt and paved the way for Price to become the starting point guard. Daugherty and Price became one of the deadliest pick-and-roll combinations in the league.
"They were the best in the business," declares Johnny Bach, one of Phil Jackson's assistant coaches during the Chicago Bulls' first three-peat. "Cleveland was the best in the business because of Price; he could get across that screen and make that pass. He actually probably shortened his career because he used to love to make the change (change of direction move) in between the screen and the defender who came up. He was knocked down a lot of times."
That extra contact happened because Price did not simply use the screen to get a step on his defender to shoot an open three-pointer or make a pass to a big man who now had a mismatch down low. "He dove through," Bach explains. "In other words, he would change direction and split the defenders. Split was an invitation to disaster because the big guys consider that an insult and he (Price) has to go down. Well, he went down a lot. Coach would say, 'Explain to me how he got through there.' So next time or next game, he wasn't going to get through. He's going to be knocked down."
"Splitting the double-team, obviously you had to have a good pick," Daugherty says with a chuckle. "Mark was obviously a tremendous ballhandler and in order to get through the double-team you just have to have a great angle and a great pick. Your big guy has to set the pick and hold the screen and give the guy time to get through. A lot of times when you run the pick-and-roll, your forward or your center is looking to roll immediately because after you set the screen you are wide open. It's hard sometimes to go over to that point guard and really hold on to that screen because you know that as soon as you roll that you have a chance for a shot. I think that the number one key is making sure that the guard doesn't move until the big guy sets the screen and once the screen is set in place that the big guy does not move until the guard comes off of his hip. It is easy to split it that way because as the big guy sets the screen the big guy guarding him--the other center or forward--has to pick up the point guard. Usually that big guy will drop off because he knows that the point guard is quicker than he is. That creates a gap and Mark was just really good at cutting through that gap."
Daugherty is not convinced that Price's ability to split the double-team led to him getting injured. "I don't know if I agree with that," Daugherty says. "In the era that we played in, you could still use your hands and take people to the ground and most times that guards drove to the basket they got popped pretty good. I don't necessarily think that it was in retaliation for Mark embarrassing someone...When little guys went to the basket they were going to get hit, just because the rules allowed for that."
Jordan's Bulls were the main stumbling block that prevented the Cavs from becoming "the team of the 90s," eliminating them from the playoffs in 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1993. "Michael, by the time I got to the pro game when he had already been there for a couple of years, had started to blossom and mature," Daugherty remembers. "He had changed the dynamic of the game somewhat from the generation before when they really tried to have the post play and the inside-out game. Phil Jackson was innovative enough to come in and make he and Scottie Pippen the primary ballhandlers for that basketball team. His first couple years he was not a very good jump-shooter, but he got better as a jump-shooter and that just made him impossible to guard. He could just take his game to such levels. It was fun playing against him. He was a heck of a player."
Daugherty's best NBA season was probably 1991-92, when he averaged 21.5 ppg and 10.4 rpg, earned an All-NBA Third Team selection and led the Cavs to the Eastern Conference Finals. Daugherty put together three straight 20-10 seasons before a 1994 back injury ended his career. He averaged 19.0 ppg and 9.5 rpg in eight years.
Daugherty is well prepared for his NASCAR assignment with ESPN. He already has on-air experience as a basketball commentator for various outlets and his roots in racing are very deep. "Growing up as a kid, my dad was a race fan," Daugherty explains. "I had uncles who were race fans. I watched a lot of races with my dad. As I grew up, one of my best buddies was Robert Pressley, whose dad is a legendary short track racer throughout the Southeast...I've done some stuff with a couple of NASCAR boards--I've been on the Rules and Competition Committee and I've just been in and out of the sport doing a lot of different things with NASCAR over the years."
Daugherty co-founded a late model stock race team in the late 1980s with Robert Pressley, who drove that team's car to back to back Mid-Atlantic Region championships. Daugherty's experience as a Busch Team owner influenced his perspective on the sport.
"The racing environment is such a fickle environment. When you have someone who is just truly dominant--say like Jimmie Johnson, who is just a tremendous racer and has the best of the best equipment--those people get on rolls when everything is going right and they're not having any problems and they're going to win. But for the smaller guys, the independent guys who go out and bust their butts and they don't get on the rolls and they have the little problems that leak into every team and they can't overcome those little problems because they don't have the support that they need, it can be a catastrophic day because of small things. There is a huge gap there and I'm all for the little guy. Hopefully we are going to get to do a lot of diving into topics covering those guys who are there working just as hard as the guys on the mega teams but maybe don't get the attention."
Labels: Brad Daugherty, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dean Smith, Johnny Bach, Lenny Wilkens, Mark Price, Michael Jordan, NASCAR, Steve Nash
posted by David Friedman @ 10:29 PM
Phil Hubbard: Playing Within Limits
Phil Hubbard might have become an NBA star if not for a serious knee injury. Instead, he persevered, accepted his limitations and had a solid 10-year NBA career. Here is a link to my HoopsHype.com article about Hubbard (10/8/15 edit: the link to HoopsHype.com no longer works, so I have
posted the original article below):
Phil Hubbard seemed destined to be an NBA star. He made a splash right from the start of his college career, producing 15.1 ppg and 11.0 rpg and shooting .546 from the field while leading Michigan to the 1976 NCAA Championship Game versus Big Ten rival Indiana. The Hoosiers were one of the great teams in college basketball history. They went 29-0 in the 1975 regular season, only to lose in the NCAA Tournament after star Scott May broke his arm, and followed that up with a 27-0 record in the 1976 regular season. Indiana lost starting guard Bobby Wilkerson to a head injury in the opening moments of the 1976 Championship Game and Hubbard’s Wolverines led 35-29 at halftime. Hubbard fouled out in the second half, finishing with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, and Indiana pulled away, winning 86-68. Hubbard is one of the few freshmen who scored at least 25 total points in the Final Four, a group that includes Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Webber and Carmelo Anthony.
In the summer of 1976, Hubbard won an Olympic gold medal as Team USA streaked to a 7-0 record. The youngest player on the team, Hubbard ranked fourth on the squad in rebounding. "The players have gotten a lot better," Hubbard says. "When we played, we were college players and we came together for two months. Other than the Russians, they (the players from other countries) were still just grasping the game. Overall, it's changed because so many of the players that they have now play in our league. That's made the difference."
Hubbard averaged 19.6 ppg and 13.0 rpg while shooting a sizzling .556 from the field in his sophomore season, good enough to earn selection to the AP All-American Team. Michigan won the Big Ten with a 16-2 record and finished the regular season 24-3 overall. The Wolverines lost in the Elite Eight to a UNC-Charlotte team led by future Boston Celtic Cedric Maxwell. Hubbard led the NCAA Tournament in rebounding average (15.0 rpg).
A serious knee injury forced Hubbard to sit out his entire junior year. While he was able to return for his senior season, he clearly had lost a lot of his explosiveness and his numbers declined across the board: 14.8 ppg, 9.1 rpg, .495 field goal shooting. He still showed enough skill and savvy for the Detroit Pistons to select him in the first round with the 15th pick overall in the 1979 draft.
Hubbard had a solid rookie season (9.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg) for the dreadful Pistons, whose 16-66 record was the worst in the league by eight games. Not surprisingly, that was the last season for the team's coach--none other than Dick Vitale. Hubbard became a starter in his second season, averaging 14.5 ppg and leading the team in rebounding (7.3 rpg). He was particularly strong on the offensive glass, quite an accomplishment considering the severity of his knee injury. "I had to adjust my game and just work harder--be able to play below the rim instead of above it," Hubbard explains. "Rebounding is just effort," he adds. "To get rebounds you have to work at it. It's not an easy task but if you work at it you can get rebounds."
On February 16, 1982, the Pistons sent Hubbard to Cleveland in a multi-player deal that included Bill Laimbeer, who became the starting center for the "Bad Boys" teams that later won two titles. For Hubbard, it meant going from a bad team to an even worse one--the Cavaliers were the laughingstock of the league and won only 15 games that season. That December, help arrived in the form of World B. Free, acquired from Golden State in exchange for Ron Brewer. The flamboyant Free had legally changed his name from Lloyd to World because he was--at least in his own estimation--not just All-Star caliber but in fact "All-World."
Free came to Cleveland with great fanfare, arriving in a helicopter and receiving much media coverage. "They made a big production out of it but it worked out," Hubbard recalls. "World was good to play with because he was a guy who could get a basket on his own. He could help us get open, too."
Hubbard’s first impression of Free can be expressed in one word: "Arrogant." Hubbard hastens to add, "But he turned out to be a good guy."
Free's confidence and scoring ability did improve the Cavaliers but not enough to get into the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Hubbard had found his niche in the NBA, playing about 23 mpg and averaging roughly 10 ppg and 5 rpg. The Cavaliers improved to 23 wins in 1983 and 28 wins in 1984.
Then, Cleveland hired George Karl to be the team's head coach. The Cavaliers started the season horribly, chafing under Karl's micromanaging ways. But then he loosened the reins and a funny thing happened--the team caught fire and made the playoffs. That turnaround is Hubbard's fondest memory of his 10 year NBA career. "We were able to make the playoffs after starting out the season 2-19," Hubbard says. "That’s probably the most memorable. Being able to come back and do that was big."
"It was his first coaching job," Hubbard says of Karl. "He's a good motivator. He's always getting on you and riding you. We listened to him. We all just came together for him and it was a good thing." The Cavaliers went 34-27 down the stretch. "It was a good experience because World was our leader," Hubbard says. "He scored the points for us and we worked off of him. He was probably one of the most prolific scorers of that era. He was a good player to play with. He turned out to be a good teammate. A lot of people didn't get to know him as well as we did but he was a real good teammate."
Cleveland battled the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics extremely hard in a 3-1 first round loss; the teams actually scored exactly the same amount of points and each of Boston's victories was by three points or less. Hubbard enjoyed the finest season of his career, averaging 15.8 ppg and 6.3 rpg in the regular season and 15.5 ppg and 5.0 rpg in the playoffs versus the Celtics' Hall of Fame frontline of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
Hubbard says that Bird and Bernard King, who had his best years with the New York Knicks, were the two toughest players for him to guard.
What made them so hard to handle? "They got to shoot a lot," Hubbard says with a chuckle. "That makes it hard. (When you guard) guys who get to shoot a lot and get a lot of opportunities you have to make sure that you make them work to get their points and that they are not getting any easy points. Guys who get a lot of shot opportunities always have a chance to score."
The Cavaliers were unable to sustain their good play in 1985-86. Injuries forced Hubbard to miss 59 games, Karl was fired near the end of the season and Cleveland finished 29-53. New Cavaliers' General Manager Wayne Embry put together a promising nucleus of young players in the offseason, trading for the rights to draft center Brad Daugherty and also drafting Ron Harper and Mark Price. He hired Lenny Wilkens to be the team's coach. The Cavaliers only won 31 games as their young players learned the ropes, but Daugherty, Harper and John "Hot Rod" Williams (drafted in 1985 but forced to sit out a year by the NBA before being cleared of point -shaving charges) each made the All-Rookie Team in 1986-87. Hubbard, now 30, was the oldest player on the team, and he averaged 11.8 ppg and 5.7 rpg while providing a steadying influence.
The emergence of Price as a top tier point guard enabled the Cavaliers to ship the talented Kevin Johnson to Phoenix for Larry Nance and in 1987-88 the Cavaliers improved to 42-40. Williams was now the versatile sixth man, filling in at forward or center, and Hubbard started alongside Nance and Daugherty, the team's two leading scorers. "Mark was a phenomenal player--great shooter," Hubbard recalls. "He really surprised people with his quickness with the basketball--they didn't realize how quick he was with the basketball. He was just a constant competitor and he would knock down the big shot." The Cavaliers were a promising team but another team was also rising in the East: the Chicago Bulls, who paired rookies Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant with the incomparable Michael Jordan. The Bulls eliminated the Cavaliers in a hard fought first round series.
The Cavaliers soared to 57-25 in 1988-89 but Hubbard only played sparingly as Nance, Daugherty and Williams received the bulk of the frontcourt minutes. Price earned his first All-Star selection and also made the All-NBA Third Team. "He was really a big key to us making that run to winning 57 games--he was a big part of that," Hubbard says. "With his quickness he was able to read the defense and cut through a little space. He was just such a good player in terms of knowing how to use the pick-and-roll and knowing how to split the pick-and-roll. He was a good passer and when he got in the lane, by the time they came over to help, he would make good passes that enabled us to get layups."
This was by far the best NBA team that Hubbard played for, but their title hopes were ended by Michael Jordan's famous shot over Craig Ehlo. Hubbard retired after that season with career averages of 10.9 ppg and 5.3 rpg.
Hubbard worked as the New York Knicks' scouting coordinator for five years before Wilkens--then coaching the Atlanta Hawks--hired him as an assistant coach. Later he spent some time on Dave Cowens' staff at Golden State. In 2003, Eddie Jordan of the Washington Wizards hired Hubbard as one of his assistant coaches, a position that Hubbard has held ever since. In 2005, he helped Jordan guide the franchise to its first playoff series win in 25 years and the team returned to the playoffs in 2006, Washington's first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1987-88.
Labels: Brad Daugherty, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, George Karl, Larry Nance, Mark Price, Phil Hubbard, Washington Wizards, World B. Free
posted by David Friedman @ 6:22 AM
