LeBron James Cruises at His Own Speed Wherever He Goes
Pace is a topic that comes up more often than it used to on NBA broadcasts these days, and in different contexts.
Announcers used to talk about it strictly in terms of which team was controlling the flow of the game (and they still do), but now it is also used to differentiate between teams and players who might have wildly different counting stats because of the speed at which they operate.
With that in mind, it's a good idea to check out some interesting team pace numbers and see what they can tell us about how a particular team is playing, and possibly why.
Let's start, as many NBA conversations do, with LeBron James, but not before showing you a graph of league-wide pace to give you a better idea of where each team falls on the spectrum.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs are playing at a pace of 93.32 possessions per game, according to NBA.com, slower than many expected given the talent on hand. Take a closer look, though, and maybe we should have seen this coming.
The following chart shows the team pace for LeBron's final year in Cleveland, his four years in Miami and this year's Cavs:
You may or may not have noticed that the number falls between 93.20 and 93.66 in each of those six seasons. That is very little variation on a year-to-year basis.
The fact is, though he is may be the most athletic player in the league whose gifts would seem to lend themselves to getting out in transition early and often, LeBron's teams most often play at a pace right around the league average.
They do still excel at scoring fast-break points (seventh with 15.0 per game this season), but they pick and choose their spots in terms of when to run and when to get into the half-court. They either work the ball around and around until they get a good shot or let one of the many talented players on the floor break down the defense to find the best look. That takes a good deal of time.
Miami Heat
Let's swing down south to LeBron's former team now, where things look surprisingly similar to the last few years both in terms of the way the Heat are playing and the pace at which they're doing it.
Miami's team pace is basically right in line with where it was during the LeBron years, and the SportVU data says they're actually throwing about 30 more passes per game this season than they did last year.
LeBron's Cavs are showing just how hard it is to build and maintain the crisp ball and player movement that came to define the LeBron-era Heat teams. While Cleveland has yet to put all the pieces together, Miami has kept right on humming even while replacing many integral parts.
Chicago Bulls
Sticking with the theme of Eastern Conference contenders, let's move on to the Chicago Bulls. Unlike the Cavs and Heat, though, there's something different about the way Chicago is playing this year.
The chart below shows Chicago's team pace in the year Derrick Rose won MVP (red), followed by a season in which he was often playing injured (black), the two seasons he missed (gray) and this season (black again):
This season's Bulls are playing about three possessions per game faster than they have the last few years. They've hovered between 91.5 and 93.0 possessions per game since 2010 but this year are up over 95.
Part of that may be the return of Rose, but don't discount the presence of Pau Gasol as well as rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic. Pau is an expert passer, McDermott has not been reluctant at all to shoot (5.3 three-point attempts per 36 minutes) and Mirotic has moved the ball well for the most part.
Add that trio plus Rose to the returning Joakim Noah, Mike Dunleavy, Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson, and you've got the recipe for a team that plays faster than it looks.
New York Knicks
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Knicks. They've been slowing down for years—as switching Mikes from D'Antoni to Woodson was bound to do—but this year they've hit a whole new low.
They've dropped from second to fifth to 26th to 29th to 30th in pace over the last few seasons. The initial descent was, again, due to Mike D'Antoni giving way to Mike Woodson, but it's somewhat surprising to see the Knicks play even slower under Derek Fisher.
One factor here is New York's slow assimilation to the triangle offense, which has seen the team take a great deal of its shots in the last third of the shot clock. The triangle is a system that takes awhile to learn, and we're seeing the effects of that on the court.
One benefit to playing slower, though New York hasn't exactly benefited much from it just yet, is that it helps a less talented team increase variance. Fewer possessions means fewer opportunities for the more talented team to assert that talent disparity, which could mean more results like the Knicks' win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland—if they can start executing correctly.
Golden State Warriors
Finally, let's move to a title contender out west. The Dubs are playing at the NBA's fastest pace, even faster than the go-go Nuggets and tank-tastic 76ers. This is the continuation of a years-long trend.
Just as the Knicks are wise to slow the pace down to increase variance, the Warriors are wise to speed things up to assert their talent advantage.
The increase in pace also fits the skill set of various perimeter players like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green. All that running opens up tons of shooting and driving lanes, and though they're not exactly taking advantage just yet (they're a middle-of-the-pack team offensively thus far), the more free-flowing nature of this year's offense is much more pleasing to the eye.
