Spurs: Panathinaikos’ schemes intrigue Popovich
Web Posted: 10/14/2007 11:31 PM CDT
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
Spurs players got a day off Sunday, but coach Gregg Popovich went to work early.
Eager to analyze some of the plays used by renowned coach Zelimir Obradovic to get easy baskets for his Panathinaikos team in Saturday night’s preseason game, Popovich was watching film with his morning coffee.
“Coach Obradovic may be the best coach in Europe at this stage and one of the best in the world,” Popovich said. “He could easily be over here coaching an NBA team, in my opinion. I can’t wait to watch the films and see some of the things they run, because he does a lot of good things.”
Thirteen-year veteran Brent Barry likened playing Panathinaikos to facing Phoenix, the NBA’s fastest-paced team.
“All of a sudden, we’re having flashbacks of playing the Suns,” Barry said, “with guys setting pick and rolls all over and guys flying around. It’s the way basketball was meant to be played. That’s the beauty of the game: ball movement and player movement.”
By season’s end, expect to see a little bit of Obradovic’s frenetic offense added to Popovich’s system. That system has been a work in progress through the 12 years Popovich has been Spurs head coach.
“The base is always there,” Popovich said before the preseason game between reigning European champion Panathinaikos and the reigning NBA champions Spurs, "but we subtract from it and add to it. It could be something major. It could be a wrinkle. It could be a call out of a timeout or a change in how we run the basic motion, but it evolves every year.
“Sometimes it’s based on players’ advancements. Sometimes it’s based on something they might do that we see and like, something that wasn’t planned.”
And sometimes it is based on something picked up from a Greek team with a very smart coach.
Popovich has been an admirer of the free-flowing European style longer than most NBA coaches. He has seen NBA teams embracing the motion the European teams use and he believes it has been good for the league and its fans.
“I think the league went through a period where it was obvious players were deficient in skills,” he said. "We had started to depend on one guy with the basketball and a good number of people watching.
"I think over the past three or four years it’s changed with the addition of foreign players, with the change in rules, by the success of European teams, in getting back to the fundamentals we all used to play with. Fundamentals like throwing the ball ahead, hitting the open man, moving without the ball, first open man gets the pass, all those sorts of things.
“The pendulum is swinging back to the more pure basketball than just the basic dribble the ball and everybody watch a guy go one-on-one.”
Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who came to the club in 2002 after playing three seasons in Italy, saw a dramatic shift in Popovich’s offensive approach after the Spurs won the NBA title in 2003. Then, with center David Robinson and power forward Tim Duncan, Popovich ran most of the Spurs’ offense through the post. When Robinson retired after that championship run, the Spurs’ offense began to expand.
“I think the biggest difference was from my first year to the second and third years,” Ginobili said. "My second year I felt it was very different. The offense (before) then was more stagnant, less moving the ball. We were depending a lot on (Duncan). We still depend on him, but not as much. I think with Tony (Parker) and me, we have found other weapons, too, so we are not predictable.
“There is a lot more motion, and the good thing is that Pop keeps asking us to play faster. He wants us to kick the ball and penetrate and pitch. I try to play in transition more. That’s a great thing. I am trying to learn to play faster.”