Question for Coaches: What is the next big thing in the game?

RATED - H for Hoopers. This one is about basketball.

Here is another one of my pet peeves in basketball right now... everybody wants to run the pick and roll, but everybody doesn't have Steph Curry or Chris Paul. Why run a lot of pick and roll if you don't have a really good point guard and/or a big guy who can actually make plays out of the pick and roll? It doesn't make sense.

Basketball has always been a copycat sport. When Syracuse won the national championship years ago, all of a sudden everybody wanted to play 2-3 zone. When Calipari got Derrick Rose and created the "dribble drive" craze on offense, all of a sudden everybody wanted to run that offense.

Side note: Notice how they don't run that anymore, since he doesn't have Derrick Rose or John Wall? One, he's a good coach for changing with his personnel, and two, maybe that offense was only as good as the super-duper talented point guards running it.

My point, why run screen and roll, and why bring big guys who aren't that good out 25 feet from the basket? It drives me crazy. I listen to different guys talk about basketball, guys like Colin Cowherd, who I think is smart, and I hear these guys say things like "you can't win in today's NBA without hitting threes" and "the game is better than it's ever been."

It's like everybody is saying "the game has changed, wow it's better" but in the same breath they're also saying "you better play like this or you're never gonna win again." Well if the game has changed (it has), won't it change again? Just like the dribble drive led to more pack line defense to stop it, won't teams have to change and adapt to how the game is changing now?

So what is next? That is what I always ask myself. What's the next move? Who is the smart coach that is going to figure it out? Who is playing chess instead of checkers?

As everybody goes small, and everybody tries to run so so so so much pick and roll and isolation ball, I think (and this is just my opinion) the next thing coming is big guys who can pass. If you can't find a point guard to run pick and roll with (like starting QB's in football, there are only so many out there), I think teams are going to try to find big guys who can pass. Let me explain.

Basketball is played best when the ball pierces the defense. The ball needs to get "downhill" or "in the tube" or any other way you want to say it. But when that ball attacks the lane and pierces the defense, now the defense has to help, it has to rotate, and this is a hard thing to do for a defender. It creates closeouts, which create a chance for a shot/drive, which creates another chance to pierce the defense.

The pick and roll is a way to pierce the defense. The point guard turns downhill, and he's in the lane. He has pierced the defense. Or he hits the roll man, who is now rolling into the lane with the ball, so he has therefore pierced the defense.

I think the next evolution, as teams go smaller and smaller to shoot more threes, is to find a big guy with vision who can really pass. This big guy could score on smaller players, but more important, he could catch the ball at 5-10 feet and run the offense from there. Because when he catches, the ball has already pierced the defense.

I think the next evolution is "Spurs type" offense, lots of player movement, where the ball end up hitting a post player piercing the defense. Golden State is kind of already doing this with a guy like Draymond Green, who is a great passer, and Kevin Durant, who they play in the post a lot.

I don't know why other teams don't do more of this, especially a team like New Orleans, who has Anthony Davis. He could be a mismatch on every single night.

So I would challenge any coaches reading this: STOP RUNNING PICK AND ROLL IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE GUARDS FOR IT! One guy I used to give a lot of advice to tried to run pick and roll with his high school team. His point guard was very, very average. He was putting the ball and all the decisions in his worst offensive player's hands.

If you've got a great point guard, run your offense through him. If you don't, stop being a copycat. It's chess, not checkers. The next thing coming is playing inside out through forwards who can pass and have great vision.

I hope you enjoyed it. If you agree or disagree, I would love to hear some feedback in the comments. Have an awesome day. #JWT

This is one video of the Spurs, with another video below.

And then if you have time, just watch the first minute or two of this. Look at how the big guys can pass, and that is really the basis of what the Spurs are doing. All five guys have vision and can make decisions.