The Art of the Timeout

Links (3)

Friday Bullets
Published 4/18/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Portland is the best team in the league after timeouts, according to research from 82games.com, compiled for Jon Weinbach of the Wall Street Journal, who writes: "In the past few years, as NBA analysts paid more attention to timeouts, they noticed some teams consistently played better after a break. And this season, nobody could hold a candle to Portland. In the first two possessions after a timeout, Mr. McMillan's Blazers morphed into a different team. On defense, they held opponents to 38% shooting compared with nearly 45% overall. On offense, they ...

:20 or a full? Doesn't matter for Sarge
Published 4/18/2008 by Sean Meagher, OregonLive.com at Blazers Blog - OregonLive.com
Great stuff from the Wall Street Journal today about the effectiveness of timeouts, and how Nate McMillan has perfected the art of the TO: In the first two possessions after a timeout, Mr. McMillan's Blazers morphed into a different team. On defense, they held opponents to 38% shooting compared with nearly 45% overall. On offense, they were more accurate shooters (46% to 44%) and made a basket or a free throw about 10% more often on those possessions than during the rest of the game. Portland also turned the ball over less often. On the first possession after a timeout, the ...

You be the GM: Nate McMillan
Published 5/7/2008 by Sean Meagher, OregonLive.com at Blazers Blog - OregonLive.com
... bench thanks to a long stretch of soft play), even those most critical of Nate were left speechless by his ability to pick and choose lineups and combinations that matched skills to situations and effectively covered up this roster's defensive liabilities. Sure, Nate rode Brandon and LaMarcus for heavy minutes, but you would do the same thing if your salary depended upon it. As for in-game management, his timeout usage and the team's late game acumen won praise from the likes of the Wall Street Journal . When the Wall Street Journal is breaking out the abacuses and graphing ...