The slowness of Brandon Roy

Someone get this man a job. That’ll teach people to call our players slow!

But this is basketball running, not track-meet running. Brandon runs the way he does because it offers him supreme balance and body control. This enables him to stop and turn on a dime. I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, but I don’t want to see anyone mess with Roy’s head when it comes to his game.

He plays Brandonball.

Is that it is Brandon’s speed. Brandon is one of a very select group of Basketballers who plays at his own speed and makes opponents play at his speed rather than at their own. This gives him the upper hand even though he appears slow.

I don’t want him to change a thing.

But I concur with the others who have commented. Roy has supreme balance, quickness, strength, and agility. He does seem to me (admittedly with a less-expert eye regarding sprinting) capable of bursts of speed. Roy himself has said he doesn’t like to play at a pace at which he can’t “see” the play developing (or something like that—sorry, no link).

So while I may be wrong, I don’t think that any inperfections in Roy’s running mechanics are slowing him, or the team, down. It appears to be more a matter of Roy’s temperment. And clearly it works. When the team needs to push the pace, I see Roy participating in that—if more often as a passer than a finisher.

everyone says he runs the court well, is this true from your perspective?

I am a little surprised by the comments I’m seeing. People seem to think that improving Brandon’s running form would cause him to have to change his game. I’m not going to teach him Basketball, thats Nate’s job. This is like improving strength or explosiveness. If a player spends time in the weight room getting stronger does that turn them into a banger? No, it just means they are stronger. If a guy works on his jumping ability does that make him a high flyer? no it just means he can jump higher. Neither of those are bad . Improving those things can and most likely will make you a better player, but they don’t change who you are as a baskeball player. To say that helping Brandon run better would make him play a different style of game is a bit of a stretch. Would we want Brandon to continue improving his 3 point shooting? Of course! But why would you want Brandon to improve his 3 point shooting, wouldn’t that make him a 3 point shooter and aren’t you happy with him just as he is? Multiple people have commented that they don’t want to change his game? But we do, we want to improve the tools at Brandon’s disposal so that he can be all that much better of a player. Making a power pitcher in baseball be able to throw a curve doesn’t mean he isn’t a power pitcher, Just means he can burn you more than one way.

      As a former college player and coach, I will disagree with
you on principle and practical. There are very few correlations between
running on a track and running on a baseball field or basketball
court.
1. Baseball has many other elements than just acceleration. I studied
    human anatomy in college and as a long time strength trainer/coach
    and martial artist, I understand that uneven surfaces or spring floors
    are a completely different surface from running tracks or even chipped
    paths. My particular area of expertise is balance, as pitchers/hitters have
    to combine very violent upper body rotations with lower body balance/stride.
2. Basketball couldn’t be more different than track. I’ve played in thousands of
    games, and both indoor and outdoor have body contact as well as peripheral
    vision acuity and awareness that takes away full speed running in many
    cases. Track sprinting is held to individual lanes with straight forward focus.
    It also does not incorporate any awareness to catch a ball or recieve a pass,
    or even focus on a opposing player defending or approaching. It’s would be like a
    soccer player trying to instuct BRoy how to catch a ball.
3. In relationship to running out of the box after hitting or running the bases, you
    might have some valuable training tips and biomechanical aspects that could be
    gleaned, but the two actions as well as running the fast break in basketball don’t
    have full correlation to sprinting. I’ve watched sprinters/track guys try for years to
    go into football as recievers and usually wash out. Sprinting is an individual sport
    with no secondary activity (catching a ball, weaving to avoid opponents or reading
    lanes and teammates lanes, etc.), where the spinter starts in a set position with
    squared shoulders and a solid gripping surface.

     I would post more examples in relation to my long balance training in the
Martial Arts, but I have to take my dog for a bike ride. Perhaps later.

Interval training, wind sprints with a parachute, running on different surfaces, etc. When healthy he might be quicker than Brandon at a straight speed and accelerate faster, but I’m not sure he is when he has to change direction to come around people. Roy had good 3/4 court sprint and lane agility measurements in his 2006 pre-draft camp at 3.27 and 11.13, but e.g. Rudy was significantly faster in the agility by over half a second at 10.48 while being slightly slower at 3.33 in the straight sprint and Bayless was faster straight in 3.07 and slightly slower in the agility at 11.26. Of course we don’t know how hard each one really tried and where they stand today. Likely all can still improve.

What Brandon truly excels at is changing pace and moving in 4 directions on a crowded floor, for which his ball handling is more important than pure speed. I know when he started out he had to play against his brother who was older, taller and stronger, so the only way he could get around him was by getting him off-balance. That’s what he still masters today. While certainly quick and athletic compared to usual people he is not exceptional compared to many other guards. But he really can get his opponents “on the wrong foot” to blow past them. I like to compare him to Paul Pierce in that regard. He is also strong at blowing through double teams with the ball in both hands like a running back (Wade is the master here). Control and change of direction is what makes his overall game. Combined with his smooth jump shot and his ability to finish with either hand of course.

A specialized sprint coach like you might be still able to help him to elevate his game, I can’t judge that.

P.S.: On a personal note, I’m also a former track and field athlete (top 5 in a country of millions and millions as a teenager), but after of course going through general training specialized in 800 and 1500M with occasional longer distances. I ended my career after facing much better Africans and doped Eastern European athletes. Maybe I should have tried cross country skiing. I couldn’t put in more than training 7 to 10 times per week and even with the best training and coaches still wouldn’t have been able to live from it against that competition, unlike in many other (team) sports where the peak to make decent money is broader. The difference between my best times and a world champion/world record was around ten seconds, which is little yet at the same time gigantic. And unlike in basketball, the guy with the better athletic ability almost always wins. And today I’m lame and fat compared to ten years ago :)

I completely agree that Brandon (as well as most NBA players) could greatly benefit from work with a real running coach. I’ve had training from running coaches, and saw immense benefits, and that was in the sports of soccer and ultimate frisbee. The same criticisms were initially expressed as have been here, namely that we weren’t often sprinting in one direction without cutting or tangling with opponents.

The benefits were immediately noticeable in a much more explosive first step, but the long term result was a greatly increased awareness of foot and leg placement and movement, which actually made it easier to cut and change direction quickly. Overall, it resulted in much better body control.

I don’t think this sort of training would change Brandon’s game at all, it would just give him more tools to play the way he wants and be more effective at it.

He plays through a lot of pain (finger, groin, shoulder recently, drain the leg after 52 points). I think that they do do “suicides,” which is pretty much sprints, at least as far as you need to in basketball.

I see the benefit of having good posture because I don’t, but there are some things (cross-training) that an individual must take upon themselves if they feel they really need to do that.

You never know what this whimsical Blazers staff are going to be into turning these youngsters onto next, this year it’s sleep patterns on east coast road trips, maybe next year it’s shot put, the next, hurdles, oujia board.

gets one thinking, which never hurts.

I think that Brandon’s strange gate might have something to do with having flat feet. I have flat feet and still ran cross country in college (d3, but still). I was routinely lectured by my coaches on my inefficient running style. I came from a swimming background so I was used to being very technique focused (hard to swim fast, no matter how talented, with poor technique) … but I just couldn’t do it “right.” I had to pull off my shoe one day to my coach and explain “you can’t make something of this shape work in the same way as something of that [pointing to his foot] shape.” This isn’t meant to sound whiny. There are actually some advantages to having a flexible foot … its very hard to roll your ankle for example. Can’t be that big of a deal because there are about the same percentage of flat-footed athletes as general population (from my doctor, no citation). This, imho, also partially explains why Brandon doesn’t have the kind of quickness of some other players despite apparently being pretty darned fast twitch on muscle (41" vert … hey, that a *lot*). Anyhow, basketball being so mental and encompassing a wide range of skills mean that this apparent deficit will not likely hinder someone with the kind of mental tenacity of broy.

This is not to say that David’s broad point of the possible usefulness of running coaches is moot. These are fantastically expensive organizations to run, and any extra little edge for comparative peanuts is probably worth pursuing ….

so I wouldn’t know how effective B-Roy is at conserving energy and whatnot. I always assumed he was one of the most efficient in the game, simply because he always seems to be moving in slow motion until he NEEDS the energy, THEN he busts out and smokes by you.

Could it be that he is inefficient, as you say? Definitely—it’s something I’ll watch for in the upcoming games. Very interesting thought to consider. Thanks for posting it.

     Discussion and interaction in cross training is a valuable
topic. BE is a mature forum where agreement or disagreement
about Basketball, specifically the Blazers is discussed. My opinions
come from a certain perspective and expertise, but I’m always open
to others opinions & arguements.
     As a gym rat for many years, I have seen many examples of superior
speed and leaping ability that didn’t translate to great basketball. It’s
such a unique sport in that a superior leaper like Outlaw can probably
touch the top of the backboard, but can’t rebound or defend with any
consistancy. As I’ve written several time before, he’s a long stepper,
who has trouble with quick slashers because his lack of lateral quickness.
Speed up the court can have it’s advantages, but quickness (lateral & first step)
are far more important in Basketball. The coupling of fast twitch muscle with
strength (core especially), combined with the mental quickness to execute
mind to first step reaction to an opening shown by a defender is the link to
quickness. Of course, ballhandling skill / control is very important to speed with
the ball, as is ability to handle right or left. Basketball skill is a mixture of
athleticism and great hand eye coordination. Unless you are Mark Bryant.
Bangs, defends well in the low post. – Pat R.

What can you do for Oden?!?

He needs work on his running form, but nothing I could do would be worth it if he can’t stay on the court.

Frankenstein vs. Oden in the 40, who wins?

Anything to save a split-second with your footwork. It can be the difference between making a play or blowing it.

Imagine, B-Roy with an even faster first step. Lull them to death all you want Roy, your first step can get you past them 0.1 seconds faster than before and that gives you more time to do something.

And if 0.3 seconds is enough time to shoot a 35 foot jumper to win a game against Houston, 0.1 seconds on countless plays seems like a no-brainer to me.

-Tyler

In high school, a friend of mine (slowest kid on the soccer field) asked me how i ran so fast. I gave him a brief explanation about running on my toes and pumping my hands at the appropriate time. My friend thought about this, and within a day or two was suddenly one of the faster guys in school.

I had another high school friend who was about 5’9 and 260ish lbs. He was not exactly “fit” by any means. However, he could take 80 percent of my Lacrosse team in an all out sprint halfway down the field (after which he’d get tired and fade.) It was actually pretty amazing to watch considering the guys size. He’d somehow accelerate his considerable bulk up to a very fast speed, and then just sort of glide along with excellent form. Woe to the person who got in his way once he’d achieved such speed.

While i’m sure this isn’t some missing key to Brendan’s game and it wont turn him into LBJ over night, it could never the less be helpful. We are NOT talking about Brendan with the ball (which is most of the time.) We’re talking about the few times when it’s an all out sprint to get to the ball. E.G. running for a loose ball or getting open down court for a fast break. His “normal” running wouldn’t be altered, just his all out sprint.