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Playing Small Ball in Philly

Don Nelson has come up with the concept of small ball, which is basically putting a smaller lineup out there filled with offensive juggernauts. Nelson implemented this system successfully in Golden State and in Dallas. However, the common consensus regarding this offensive scheme is that it?s only effective in some starches of the game. However, Nelly didn?t hesitate to use a small lineup throughout most of the game since it created match up problems for other teams.

To cover the fact that his Dallas teams never had a dominant center, Nelly would often put Dirk Nowitzki at the five and force the other team to go small also. It appears that Morris Cheeks has taken a page out of Nelly?s playbook by adopting the concept of small ball. Both against the Clippers and against the Lakers last week, Cheeks went with a smaller lineup with Webber at the five and Korver at the four.

This lineup can?t play for an entire game together, but it is effective for more than just spot minutes because Kyle Korver actually can play the power forward position. Offensively the combination of players causes match up nightmares. For instance if you want to take Korver?s three point shooting away, you now have to waste one of your wing defenders on him, which means you?re forced to put a big guy on either Salmons or Iguodala.