---

來源:https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35518383/walking-dog-nba-ja-morant

WHAT IS JA MORANT DOING?

It's late October, and the Grizzlies lead the Nets by six with four minutes
left when Memphis forward Santi Aldama softly rolls the inbound pass toward
Morant's feet. As the Grizzlies' star guard makes his way up the court, he
lets the basketball roll alongside him, slowly, slowly, slowly, an inch at a
time, untouched. Morant only needs to maintain a slow walk to keep up as he
scans the court, uncontested by any Nets defender.

The ball rolls another inch, another inch, another inch. Morant is almost at
half court. He keeps letting the ball roll alongside him, knowing the
24-second shot clock won't start until he touches it -- burning precious game
clock at the same time, almost 21 seconds now.

As he crosses half court, Morant finally picks up the ball and glances over
to his bench. His defender, Ben Simmons, suddenly closes on him and lunges at
the ball, looking for a steal -- but he's too late. Morant sees it coming and
protects the ball. Simmons hits him in the arm. Whistle. Foul. That's
Simmons' sixth; he's out of the game.

Ja Morant在幹嘛?


球又滾了一寸、一寸又一寸。Morant已經快到了中場。他持續讓球在他身邊滾並知道24秒
的錶在他碰球之前都不會動--同時他已經讓珍貴的球賽時間浪費了21秒。



Thanks in part to that play, Memphis wins by 10. Afterward, Morant explains
that he was baiting Simmons, knowing he'd bite based on past experience.
Clips of the play soon go viral.

So what was Ja Morant doing? Here's what: He was "walking the dog," the fun,
obnoxious, sometimes disrespectful, and -- according to analytics --
game-changing play that is taking over the NBA. The art of rolling the ball
up the court on an inbound has quietly been a part of the game for seven
decades. Now, stars across the league, including Chris Paul, LeBron James,
Marcus Smart and Nikola Jokic, are increasingly using the technique -- to
show up their opponents, to create viral moments and, most importantly, to
win games. The league is on pace to more than double its usage of the move
this year compared to the 2019-20 season.

No one does it as well, or as often, as Morant; he uses the move nearly twice
as much as any of his peers, about once per game. But why? Why is it becoming
so common, and why is Morant so obsessed with it?

This is the secret history -- and the secret value -- of walking the dog in
the NBA.

多虧了這個Play，灰熊以10分之差取勝。賽後，Morant解釋了他正在引誘Simmons，根據過
往的經驗他一定會吃餌。這個片段也在網路上火熱流傳。



沒人遛狗遛得比Morant更多、更好;他使用這個招式的次數是他所有同事的兩倍，大約每場
一次。但為甚麼?為甚麼遛狗變得如此常見?為甚麼Morant如此沉迷他?

這是NBA遛狗的秘密歷史--以及他的神祕價值。

https://streamable.com/ycupam

Ja Morant遛狗造成Simmons犯滿的影片

BILL RUSSELL HAD A problem. One of the most dominant centers in NBA history
wanted as much time as possible to operate in the post, where he worked as
the primary conduit for Boston's offense. So on inbound plays, Celtics
backcourt mates K.C. Jones and Sam Jones would let the basketball roll past
half court, especially when the Celtics played from behind -- saving time on
the shot clock, which in turn freed up time to feed the ball to Russell.

"They were way ahead of the times," says Jim Barnett, a forward who played on
the Celtics in 1966-67 and went on to become a TV analyst. "They got maybe an
extra four, five seconds in the backcourt before they touched the ball, and
then they had a little extra time to operate."

In the same era, Warriors guard Guy Rodgers used the same approach for
another legend: Wilt Chamberlain. Through the late 60s and into the early
70s, Hall of Famers Lenny Wilkens and Mo Cheeks carried the dog-walking
torch. The logic was simple: In the NBA, the 24-second shot clock begins when
a player touches the basketball after the previous possession. That's true
even when the game clock continues to run, such as following a made basket.
(The exceptions: the final minute of the first three quarters and the final
two minutes of the fourth and OT.) A few extra seconds can make a huge
difference in scraping value out of a possession or preserving a chance at a
late comeback.



1966-67年賽爾提克前鋒、現任TV分析師Jim Barnett說:「他們領先了時代。他們在後場碰
到球以前賺到了4、5秒，所以他們有更多時間去執行戰術。」


與延長賽的最後2分鐘)。額外的數秒鐘可以對球權價值最大化以及保留逆轉機會造成巨大
的影響。

"Three seconds might not seem like a lot," says Mike Breen, the legendary NBA
broadcaster. "But at the end of a game on a final possession, if a team has
four seconds as opposed to one second to get off a shot to win or tie a game?
That's enormous."

In the late 70s and 80s, the dog-walking thread mostly dies. Teams like Magic
Johnson's "Showtime" Lakers loved to race the ball up the floor after made
shots, and walking the dog went against their DNA. Even those teams that
played a slower style didn't utilize the tactic much; some footage appears to
show Charles Barkley walking the dog before bullying his way inside for a
bucket, but other examples are hard to come by.

In the 1990s, the tactic became more prevalent again. A few of the league's
savvier guards used it from time to time, including Muggsy Bogues, Tim
Hardaway and Mark Jackson, for the same reason their predecessors did.
"[There] could be all sorts of scenarios where you'd want to do it, but the
main objective of it is taking advantage of the shot clock," Bogues says.

NBA傳奇轉播員Mike Breen說:「3秒鐘可能看起來不多，但在比賽結束前的最後一個球權，
一隊擁有1秒鐘還是4秒鐘來贏得或是追平比賽?那就非常巨大了。"



90年代時，這個戰術又開始流行。數名聯盟中較為聰明的後衛一直使用，其中包含了
Muggsy Bogues、Tim Hardaway與Mark Jackson，原因也與他們的前輩相同。Bogues說:「
有些情況下你就只是想做，但大部分的主要目標都是要在進攻時間上佔便宜。」

In the new millennium, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo have defined walking the
dog in the minds of many fans. Paul is among the league leaders in total dog
walks for every season in which tracking data is available (the 2016-17
season to present). Paul says he never used the move in high school or
college, but in the NBA, he's adopted it to secure 2-for-1 opportunities.
"It's a game that we play, right?" he says. "A game, like any card game you
would play, or checkers."

There's no definitive account of who coined the term, but "walking the dog"
joined the NBA's lexicon around the time Paul and Rondo became known for
using the move.

When Paul became a Rocket in 2017, in the Daryl Morey and Mike D'Antoni era,
the guard's attention to detail dovetailed with the league's most
analytics-friendly organization. The Rockets had flashcards showing the math
behind 2-for-1s: If they took a shot with 30 seconds left in a quarter, they
would get two of the three final shots. As a simple example, two 35% shots
create a far higher expected point value than one 50% shot. Walking the dog
is a simple way to facilitate this.

Now, Paul stays alert to make sure his opponents don't use this against him.
"If we score with 36-37 seconds left, I always yell to my teammates, 'Pick
up! Don't let somebody try to do that,'" he says. "If we make them use at
least 12 seconds of the clock, we get the last shot of the quarter."



沒有人知道是誰發明的這個名詞，但"遛狗"這個詞在Paul與Rondo因為這個動作有名之後便
加入了NBA的辭典。





But walking the dog isn't used in today's NBA just to maximize the shot
clock. It's also now used to burn time on the game clock when protecting a
lead. The first known example of this strategy came in the 2016-17 season:
Sacramento Kings guard Ty Lawson burned over 20 seconds with under three
minutes remaining while nursing a lead over the Nuggets. The tactic has
recently exploded, and Paul, for one, appreciates his younger peers who walk
the dog to waste the game clock -- and he gets a kick out of those who don't
understand them.

"It's funny, Trae [Young] was doing it against the Knicks in the playoffs a
couple of years ago," Paul says. "I'll never forget watching the game, and
one of the commentators was talking so bad about it. It was like, 'Why is
Trae letting the ball roll? This is so dumb. They're winning, why's he doing
this?' And I was thinking to myself, Trae's not the one at fault. It's the
other team not coming up to guard him."

The tactic came to an extreme head in a late October game between the Nuggets
and Celtics. With about five minutes left, Denver forward Aaron Gordon
slammed a two-handed dunk to pull the Nuggets within 13. As Gordon jogged
back on defense, Al Horford rolled the ball to Jayson Tatum so slowly that it
completely stopped before his own free throw line. As Tatum stood alongside
the ball, Horford and Grant Williams guarded him like linemen blocking for a
running back. Nuggets coaches called for Gordon to force Tatum to pick the
ball up. Gordon barreled through Williams so hard that he was called for a
flagrant. Williams missed his two free throws, but the foul call crushed the
Nuggets' momentum, and the Celtics won easily.





這個戰術在10月底金塊賽爾提克的比賽達到了極端。在剩下5分鐘時，金塊前鋒Aaron

Tatum站在那個球旁邊時，Horford與Grant Williams如同攻防線球員保護跑鋒一般保護著

Tatum。Gordon為了搶球衝撞了Williams而得到了一個惡意犯規。Williams雖然兩罰盡墨，
但這個犯規完全破壞了金塊的氣勢且讓賽爾提克輕鬆贏下這場比賽。

https://streamable.com/29q1p4

In the past three seasons, per data provided to ESPN by NBA Advanced Stats,
players are walking the dog more than ever in these types of crunch-time
situations -- when leading by 3-15 points in the fourth quarter. We tracked
these by looking at dog walks lasting over five seconds after made baskets.
In 2020-21, teams walked the dog 54 times, wasting more than 7 minutes of
game time. Last season, that jumped to 91 plays, wasting over 12 minutes. In
just over half of a season, this year's figures already blow those out of the
water. Teams have walked the dog 164 times, wasting over 23 minutes. The
numbers are just as staggering when you account for all four quarters, with a
total of 668 dog walks this year alone.

"It's just a smart play to waste time," says Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks.
"Guys don't really understand it."


第四節，今年就已經有高達668次的遛狗。

灰熊隊前鋒Dillon Brooks說:「浪費時間是聰明的行為，他們只是不理解。」
==============================================================================
INSIDE THE GRIZZLIES' ARENA, players are prepping for the first leg of a
back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs in November. Morant, the team's
dog-walker-in-chief, is sitting out due to thigh soreness, so Tyus Jones is
getting the start at point guard.

Jones, and most of his teammates, say Morant put his team on to walking the
dog regularly. The Grizzlies have walked the dog 34 times this season in
crunch-time scenarios, wasting 5 minutes and 10 seconds of game clock. Trae
Young's Hawks held the previous record, with 18 late-game walks over a full
season, wasting 2 minutes and 21 seconds of game clock in 2021-22.



Jones與他大部分的隊友說Morant讓他的隊伍經常一起遛狗。灰熊這季已經在第四節領先3
-15分的的情況下已經遛狗高達34次，浪費了5分鐘又10秒的比賽時間。Trae Young的老鷹
是原本的紀錄，他們在21-22賽季也不過在這個情況下"只"遛了18次並浪費了2分21秒。

Two years ago, Morant became a regular dog walker in his sophomore season and
quickly got his team to buy in. He's utilized the move 41 times across all
quarters and has been the ball handler on 23 of those 34 plays in crunch
time, wasting over three minutes of game clock. In just over half this
season, Morant has wasted more time walking the dog than any team had in an
entire year and holds three of the longest dog walks recorded in the NBA this
season (his teammate Desmond Bane has one of the others).

"If you're winning, it's kind of a loophole in the rules," Jones says.

The Grizzlies don't discuss this in practice or plan these plays in advance.
Morant often motions to his inbounder to roll the ball in slowly in these
situations right as they materialize, especially when leading late in a game.
The guy will do anything to shave a few seconds off. He'll leap out of the
way instead of catching the ball if the inbounder throws it too hard in his
direction. If Morant finds himself inbounding, he'll play dumb and misplace
the ball as the game clock keeps running.



Jones說:「如果你在領先，這是一個規則漏洞。」



How has Morant become so good at walking the dog? He declined to speak with
ESPN for this story, but his teammates think it boils down to his speed and
athleticism. Opponents are hesitant to really press him 75-plus feet from
their own hoop. If they make a mistake, he could have a huge runway with a
numbers advantage. Others think it's more a combination of fatigue and a
never-ending game of chicken.

"I think [opponents] are probably a little tired," Jones says. "They're like,
'Damn, I don't really want to run back up the court to make them pick the
ball up,' or they don't know that [Ja will] really let the clock keep going.
They think, eventually, he's going to pick the ball up, and let's play ball.
But Ja will really let the clock go until you make him pick the ball up."





https://streamable.com/dhlfoy

Ja Morant遛狗但對手都不敢動

The Celtics, often spurred by Marcus Smart, are on pace to smash prior
records for time wasted via walking the dog (though they'll finish well
behind the Grizzlies). Then come the Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokic, who often
directs things as the inbounder rather than the ball handler. Meanwhile,
Young, who set the previous player record for the most dog walks in a single
season (59), will likely be on the top-five leaderboard again this season.

The trend may seem a bit silly, but it's impacting the outcome of games. When
Morant wasted those 20-plus seconds in that October win over Brooklyn before
drawing Simmons' sixth foul, the time loss alone added 1.4% win probability
for Memphis, per research by Patrick McFarlane that utilized NBA Advanced
Stats data. The Grizzlies' win probability while leading by six with 4:21
remaining (the end of the prior possession) was 86.3%; with 4 minutes
remaining after Morant's time-burn, that percentage rose to 87.7% -- and
that's without even factoring in the subsequent sixth foul on a top opposing
defender.

By comparison, a player who grabs a rebound (either offensive or defensive)
during a non-clutch period of a given game is adding about 1.7% win
probability by doing so. A player who makes a single free-throw is typically
adding around 0.5% win probability; this season alone, there have already
been 40 fourth-quarter dog walks that earned the utilizing team at least 0.5%
of additional win equity.

Of course, there are downsides to the tactic, too.







當然，這戰術也是有缺點的。

TRAE YOUNG WALKS SLOWLY alongside the ball in late November. His Hawks are up
three against the Rockets with six minutes left in the game. He burns nearly
18 seconds off the game clock -- the longest he's walked the dog this season.

But the next five and a half minutes go poorly for Atlanta. Young goes
0-for-3 from the floor, Houston's Jalen Green explodes late in the fourth and
the Hawks lose the game, 128-122. Atlanta could have used those wasted
seconds in the game's final moments. This is one of the key risks of walking
the dog when the game is on the line.

"I think there's always a trade-off," says Jeff Van Gundy, the broadcaster
and former coach. "You are able to run some time off the clock. The
counterpoint would be: At what expense to your rhythm and your flow? It's not
as simple a decision as just trying to take time off the clock, because it
could actually hurt you."

Trae Young在11月末跟著球慢慢走。他的老鷹隊在最後6分鐘時仍領先火箭3分。他浪費了
比賽時間高達18秒--這是他本季新高。





The most embarrassing risk? Turning the ball over. Kyrie Irving, D'Angelo
Russell and John Wall have all fallen victim to a well-timed lunge from
defenders or an errant bounce off their own foot.

Skeptics, like Van Gundy, question the value of walking the dog. Others just
think it's downright boring to watch. Some have called for a rule change to
eliminate the loophole by stopping the game clock after made baskets in the
fourth quarter -- a rule that FIBA has adopted.

The NBA declined to make an official statement for this story. However,
multiple league sources say there are no plans to alter any clock rules in
the fourth quarter or otherwise. There's a simple explanation, too: This
isn't some black box of a strategy. It's really easy to stop! Savvy teams
like the Spurs, Pelicans and Wizards are already on top of it, and send a
defender to the backcourt to prevent ball handlers from walking the dog.

這其中最令人尷尬的風險呢?失誤。Kyrie Irving，D'Angelo Russell與John Wall都有過
被防守者算準時機抄走或是錯誤地彈到腳上的經驗。





"If you thought it was hurting you as a coach, you'd just put somebody on the
ball," Van Gundy says. "You increase your pickup point and then retreat,
obviously. It's not like it's something that if you thought it was hurting
you, it couldn't be overcome."

In the end, this new use of one of basketball's oldest moves highlights the
intelligence and ingenuity of the game's best players.

"The entire basis is to win," Mike Breen says. "Whether you do it by
physically overwhelming a team with talent [or] you can get a victory by just
outthinking a team and beating them at the mental game. That's what makes the
game so great, it's not just a physical game, it's also a mental game."

Van Gundy說:「如果你認為身為一個教練這個戰術對你造成傷害，你就派個人去盯球就好
了。你增加了你的盯防點然後就撤退，當然。這不是甚麼無法克服的戰術。」

最後，這個古老技倆的全新用法展現了這運動中頂尖球員的智商與創意。



心得:

原本覺得這篇文章很有趣就翻了
結果沒想到那麼長...
這個戰術與比賽細節影響的程度絕對比大家想像中的還要大(雖然也讓比賽有一點點無聊就
是了...)

以後請稱Ja Morant為

「遛狗之王」

(笑)

--
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 71.232.216.168 (美國)
※ 作者: EZ78 2023-01-26 18:17:08
※ 文章代碼(AID): #1ZqbCcTJ (NBA)
※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/NBA/M.1674728230.A.753.html