- Kenny Rogers, "The Gambler"
Ideas, like currency, differ in value and utility. Nobody would accept "Beanie Babies" as an alternative currency but bitcoin feels about as durable yet flourishes.
All ideas are not created equal. Watching basketball, we see a rise (analytics, three-point shots) and fall (stall ball, post play) of certain ideas. "And "knowin' what to throw away and knowin' what to keep" are two of our prime commandments.
To get better results than the basketball masses, we need better ideas, more effective personnel (!), or better execution, which likely combines the first two.
For example, consider packline defense. Taking away direct drives with gap help and contesting perimeter shots without fouling aren't novel. Virginia did it better than most, and enjoyed the spoils (national championship) and suffering (one seed first round NCAA defeat).
I started Dubner and Litner's When to Rob a Bank, a springboard to fresher thinking. Freshness attracts us, but doesn't guarantee quality. Drinking fresh hemlock tea can kill you. My college organic chemistry professor quipped, "if you're going to take cyanide after this test, take it with orange juice to improve its absorption." I doubt he'd use the same language today.
What ideas might become fresh or (referencing Tan France) style that comes back around again?
- Post play. The "next great post player" will come around again. The question becomes whether officials will call fouls when she inevitably gets hacked.
- Offenses designed to counteract sellout defense against the three via pass and cut will find higher points per possession.
- 4-1 Zone defense. There is room for well-executed innovation.
Stay mentally open to innovation, but never be the first to add nor the last to delete potentially helpful concepts.
Lagniappe: Draymond Green sniffs out Toronto's SLOB, the Warriors handle it and basketball IQ wins again.
