Short-term pain, long-term gain? Sydney's grand plan

Thursday, November 23, 2023

"For Sydney, they’re going to be a top four team, so I think playing the long game works."

Melbourne United went on an absolute tear in the fourth quarter of their Round 7 clash with Sydney and dropped 40 points in the final term, to surge home to a comeback win against the reigning champions.

The Kings, curiously, didn’t call a timeout in an attempt to halt the momentum of Melbourne and Chris Goulding, and they paid the price as the veteran sharpshooter put the opposition to the sword.

Liam Santamaria believes Mahmoud Abdelfattah’s decisiveness to not call a timeout down the stretch against Melbourne indicates a long-term strategy by the first-year Kings coach.

“That game slipped through their fingers. They had it and they let it go,” Santamaria said on NBL Overtime.

“The momentum built, and built, and built and he tried to let his guys play through that and it’s not the first time he’s done that this season, and he’s not the first coach to do this either.

“Phil Jackson is the most famous example of this, of ‘we give our guys reps and playing through tough times’, then later in they year that comes home to roost.

“If that helps in Game 5 of a Championship Series to not call a timeout half way through the fourth because the guys can play through some stuff, and you can keep it for three seconds to go and advance the ball and win the championship off a play like that – that’s the type of long-term play he’s making.

“If you’re a Brisbane or Cairns and it’s going to be touch and go, every win counts. For Sydney, they’re going to be a top four team, so I think playing the long game works.”

Abdelfattah’s apparent strategy of putting the onus on his players to play their way out of tough times has legs in the NBL, as well as Jackson’s famous Chicago and Los Angeles sides in the NBA – and it was a tactic that was implemented by one of Australia’s greatest ever coaches.

Lanard Copeland won two NBL titles under Lindsay Gaze at the Melbourne Tigers in the 1990s, and remembers his approach fondly.

“I’ve got another coach who did it – Lindsay Gaze,” Copeland said.

“[I] remember Lindsay sitting with his hands behind his head just letting us play through it.

“When you’ve got guys on the floor with experience who know what they’re doing, they’ll huddle up and get the job done.

“You get all the work done in practice and during the game it’s your time. That’s what Lindsay did.”