Depending on Rambis, the Wolves could make the playoffs this year.

[LA_33]

Originally Posted by Rolf

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2..._fact_gladwell

Really interesting Malcolm Gladwell article from a year ago touching on the same concept. If you google "Malcolm Gladwell How David Beats Goliath" you can find a lot of support and critiques of the concept that are well worth reading.

That column is one of the things I was thinking about when I wrote my long post above.

There are a couple factors at play that minimize the grandiose "david beating goliath" narrative of Galdwell's piece (which I really like, BTW; I just don't think it actually translates to a constant full-court press being an effective strategies at the highest level.

First, the core example of that unorthodox team making the national finals behind a constant press is VERY different than a press working against top-level NBA teams. Even the very best 12-year-old girls are still relatively unskilled players, and they're also probably not going to be accustomed to the level of effert that the pressing team was displaying. It's not at all surprising that a constant press rattled those opposing teams.

But a team of top NBA players is still going to find the inherent flaws in a press much more often than not, so a less talented team using the press to facilitate NBA upsets is going to create many more lopsided losses than extra wins.

The 1996 UK example is also exactly what I was thinking about when I said that pressing is actually a better "goliath" strategy, for teams that already have the skill and athleticism advantage. There were nine NBA players on that 1996 Kentucky team, including three lotto picks. They were the most talented team in the NCAA at the time, by far.

There have also been plenty of other coaches that employed a press at the college level (like Richardson at Arkansas), but those teams only won when they were also at least among the most talented teams at the time (the Razorback team that won the 1994 NCAA title was led by Corliss Williamson, Corey Beck played three seasons in the NBA, and Darnell Robinson was a McDonald's All-American who was drafted by the Sixers, but never made it in the NBA; Scotty Thurman, who was the second-best player on that 94 team, also played professionally in Europe for a long time; and yes, I had to look all that up...).