Peachtree Hoops: Will NBA teams start going without timeouts in end-of-game situations?

[Hawksquawk]

(Editors Note: Promoting this because I think it is an interesting conversation. Mario West was in to end the game so a timeout would have been nice to get an actual offensive player out there, but I agree with Fred Pen that chaos often gets more comfortable shots than planned sets. Does coaching matter on those last second plays? It must. But can it hurt? I know it does on occasion.)

In the aftermath of last night's game, I started thinking about how awesome it was to see the Hawks come down after Vince's 3 without calling a timeout. You could see the Orlando players sort of walking back down the court, because it is so ingrained into everyone that a timeout will be called there. Orlando was only able to set up their defense because Marvin shrugged his shoulders and half-assed getting the ball inbounds.

Throughout March Madness, most of the great buzzer-beaters occur when a team does not call timeout, and NBA players are infinitely more skilled offensively than college kids, so it makes sense that in a scramble situation, an NBA player should be able to get a pretty good shot off 9 of 10 times, and, as we saw last night, the defense may not be in position to get rebounds off the scramble.

In end-of-game situations going forward, I think the Hawks would be wise to make sure Crawford and Joe are on the court and just scramble. The odds are much better than Woody calling a timeout to set  up Joe isolation from a half-court throw in.

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