Basketball but make it soccer

“Flow + Meaning = Performance” — Bill Walton

The All-Star break is a reprieve from the NBA grind. Some coaches go to the mountains to ski. Others head to the golf course. 

In February, Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla used his time off to trek across the Atlantic Ocean. Mazzulla did a trip to Manchester, England. He was there to watch Manchester City train and learn from the club’s legendary manager, Pep Guardiola.

“Soccer and basketball, when I watch it, it’s kind of the same sport from that tactical standpoint of how do you create advantages?” Mazzulla told The Athletic. “How do you create two-on-ones? How do you recognize weaknesses in the defense and how do you take advantage of angles?”

During the Celtics’ championship run, Mazzulla showed his team clips of Manchester City’s build-ups. An emphasis on unselfishness, technical ability, moving without the ball, and using the width of the pitch are some of Guardiola’s guiding principles. His teams dominate the possession battle. This past season, Manchester City held the ball 65.1% of the time, the highest rate in the English Premier League.

“The pass is what unites the group,” Guardiola has said. “The ball is moved around the pitch from one player to another. Everyone participates in the game plan by making that pass.”

Mazzulla believed these lessons were applicable to basketball. He’s not the only championship-caliber NBA coach to think so either. Here is what Steve Kerr, who has won four rings as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, said about the subject in 2019. 

Does Kerr have a point? Anthony Edwards is the best American-born player younger than 25 years old. Edwards attacks the rim like a heat-seeking missile, he shoots the ball well, and he’s a dogged defender. The only knock on his game is his decision-making. The 22-year-old is adequate but not yet exceptional at making plays that lead to great shots for his team. 

The two best players in the NBA are Eastern Europeans who were exposed to soccer at a young age. If there is one quality that sets Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic apart from their peers, it is their ability to read the floor. Both are experts at consistently creating high-quality shots for themselves and their teammates in half-court settings. Their sense of how to manipulate defenses off the dribble — or without even needing to put the ball on the floor at all — is extraordinary. 

LeBron James is another player with this gift. James’ two-plus decades of dominance are as much about his mind for the game as his physical gifts. James is part of the Fenway Sport Group that owns Liverpool, but he primarily played basketball and football growing up. 

The Celtics’ two best players, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, don’t intuitively read the floor as well as Jokic, Doncic or James, but “The Jays” deserve a mountain of credit for becoming players who make the right play more often than not. They also benefit from the system in place around them. All five players the Celtics started this past season could pass, dribble and shoot. The Kristaps Porzingis trade meant Boston always had a “5-out” center on the floor between the Latvian and his backup, the high-IQ veteran Al Horford. 

This 5-out structure allowed the Celtics to stretch defenses out the entire width of the floor. In the playoffs, the Celtics shot a healthy 52.4% on drives while attempting 40.2 3-pointers per game, nearly five more than the next-closest team. 

When the Celtics ripped through the Eastern Conference and made the Finals, it was Guardiola who this time made the trip across the Atlantic. He was in Boston to offer Mazzulla support. The 35-year-old Mazzulla won the first of what could be multiple titles in Boston by thinking about basketball as if it was a different game entirely. 

“It’s about the connectivity required, how all the pieces are doing their role,” Celtics backup center Luke Kornet told The Wall Street Journal. “How it can just look beautiful and flow.”