Spurs seek Barry's inside info
Web Posted: 05/07/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...24c3ceae5.html
The rest of his teammates had long since left the Spurs' practice court, even those not on the playoff roster who stay late to get in extra shooting and conditioning. Brent Barry was still there, walking through an instructional session with assistant coach Mike Budenholzer.
On this Friday afternoon, it looked a lot like the player was instructing the coach. This otherwise unusual tutorial really was not surprising, considering the five years Barry spent with the Spurs' Western Conference semifinal opponent, the Seattle SuperSonics.
The picking of fertile basketball brains such as Barry's is fair play when playoff time rolls around.
The Spurs went after Barry when he became a free agent last summer for two reasons: his ability to shoot from long range, and his basketball a en. Nobody, least of all the one-time SuperSonic, anticipated this playoff matchup. But if the Spurs can take advantage of his knowledge of the subtleties of the Sonics' offensive sets and defensive tendencies ... well, that's just how basketball business is conducted in the NBA.
Barry's decision to sign with the Spurs had most to do with wanting to be on a team he deemed capable of winning a championship. But he also had been told by Seattle coach Nate McMillan in an exit interview last April that he likely would come off the bench this season if he opted to re-sign with the Sonics. McMillan told Barry he planned to make Luke Ridnour a starter.
"I basically told him at the end of the season — not that it was in stone — but I was looking to bring him off the bench next season," McMillan said.
Combine that with Seattle's failure to make the Western Conference playoff field in 2003-04, and the chance for Barry to sign a four-year contract worth nearly $20 million with a team as good as the Spurs made the decision relatively easy.
Back in November, nobody expected the Sonics to win the Northwest Division, let alone a first-round playoff series. But they come into the second round off a convincing first-round victory over Sacramento, something of a dark horse to win the Western Conference le.
"It's just very interesting," Barry said after finally finishing up at the practice court on Friday.
"I talked to some of their players over the course of the season, and everybody was expecting us to do these things this season, but not so much Seattle. But those guys have had a phenomenal year, and you can't take anything away from the job that Nate's done, and each of those guys. It is surprising from this end and it's surprising from that end, too, I can guarantee you.
"I talked with (Seattle's) Ray (Allen) during the season, and he was surprised they were doing as well as they were doing throughout the course of the year. But I don't think anybody is surprised at the position either team is in now."
On Sunday, Barry may be in the Spurs' starting lineup for Game 1 at the SBC Center against McMillan, the coach who told him he should be prepared to come off the bench. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich started Barry in the final four games of the team's first-round series victory over Denver, but has yet to reveal his lineup plans for the second round.
McMillan told Seattle reporters he is expecting Popovich to go back to starting Manu Ginobili, who started all season whenever he was healthy. It seems logical, since Seattle presents some matchup challenges for the Spurs that Denver, the first-round opponent, did not.
Bruce Bowen, the Spurs' best defender, will take Seattle's top scorer, Ray Allen. That means the Spurs' starting big guard, either Barry or Ginobili, will have to contend with Seattle's 6-foot-10 All-Star Rashard Lewis. Since Ginobili is regarded as a better defender than Barry, McMillan's presumption about the Spurs' starter at big guard is understandable.
Barry says he can guard Lewis because of the help he gets from the Spurs' defensive scheme.
"In the playoffs, no matter what the individual matchups are, we have a defensive philosophy in case there are mismatches," Barry said. "In my case, if Rashard is down on the low block we're going to try and do some things to make him play a little differently. We're not going to change up the things we do offensively, but defensively, our schemes will be important and we'll try to do some of the things against Seattle that we carried out in the Denver series."
so Pops doing CIA again.
in 2002-2003 it was Steve Kerr doing some inside info on PhilJacks' triangle offense. He was actually included in the playoff team's coaches meetings.
now, he's picking on "Brent's fertile basketball brains'" some knowledge on Sonics offensive/defensive sets.
cool!
I'm not sure how much the offense for the Sonics is the same. With Barry as PG, the team ran much different sets than they are running now. Barry must be teaching the assistant coach the sideline out-of-bounds plays that Nate likes to go to.
If you think about it, it's pretty amazing what the Sonics have done. Their offseason consisted of trading Calvin Booth for Danny Fortson and letting Brent Barry walk. They went from lottery scrub to WCF Final Four.
Congrats.
That's exactly why I've been saying all season long that nobody should be even close to McMillan for Coach of the Year. His total talent pool is net negative from last year, as opposed to anyone else you want to talk about.
NM should definitely get coach of the year. Best turnaround I can remember, all things considered.
Good point ShoogarBear. You have a very strong argument there.
How can a guy be COY when he's letting Ray Ray and James cry like Karly men before they even play a game?
That's a really dumb argument.
I sure haven't seen anyone say Carlisle shouldn't be considered, and he showed less control over his players than anyone in history.
If Timmy didn't get hurt Pop would have the best regular season win record and he would be top Coach of the Year.
I didn't think Seattle would even win 35 games. I am shocked they have done so well.
I don't even really think Rashard or Ray even really got much better if it all. But their games are more appreciated now because they are winning and they have the role players who are playing their roles to PERFECTION.
I think the Spurs would have to do some serious choking not to win this series. I can see Seattle giving them a tough time, but to actually lose IMO would be a choke job. Seattle is much weaker on D, and the Spurs offense when clicking can be very good and not far off from Seattle's.
The Spurs would have to really play poorly to lose this series and really be mentally weak to lose it. It is possible that they do lose it, but to me they are not supposed to, regardless of the fact that they don't matchup well.
Shoogar,
Work with me here, I'm trying to ratchet up the Sonic hate.
I think Barry would most likely being "picked" for his knowledge of the inside and out on different guys' games and tendencies.
How much of Seattle and Phoenix 's significant improvement is related to coaching and how much to changes in reffing, the closer calling of contact by the defender on the perimeter for one but also, as one writer recently pointed out, the lax calling of moving screens that in particular has benefited Seattle and Phoenix to the point where Nash is MVP?
Yeah, I know.Shoogar,
Work with me here, I'm trying to ratchet up the Sonic hate.
They're our next opponent. Other than that, I don't buy having to look for things to have to hate about them.
Save the hate for the really special rivalries, like the Mavs, Rockets, and Lakers.
That's a new one for me. I don't know that moving screens are any worse now than previous years, but I'll have to start paying closer attention.
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