The earlier article about age related development made me think of the stages of athletic development.  There are well defined stages of development in sports.  Sometimes authors divide the stages into three stages and sometimes four.  Ken Mannie, strength and conditioning coach at Michigan State University, published an article with three stages of development:

http://bsbhc.goalline.ca/files/skill_development_whole_vs_part.doc

The three stages of development are 1) the cognative stage; 2) the associative stage; and 3) the autonomous stage. 

In the cognative stage, the players need specific direction on tasks.  The players are often still learning basic skills and the fundamentals of the game.

During this stage, the learner needs specific information to assist him in making correct adjustments. You will know that the athlete is still in this stage when he makes a mistake and is aware of "doing something wrong", but has no idea how to correct it.

 A player in the associative stage has mastered most of the basic skills and fundamentals. 

As the athlete enters this stage, many of the basic fundamentals and mechanics of the skill have been learned. The mistakes are fewer, less serious and, more importantly, the athlete is capable of recognizing many of his errors and is aware of how to take the proper steps to correct them. The goal now is to refine the skill.

The autonomous stage is characterized by the skill being automatic, or a habit.  This stage can take years to develop, depending upon the complexity of the skill.

Research has been conducted into how to teach skills depending upon the complexity of the skill.  Skills are on a continuum from closed to open.  Closed skills are simple while open are very complex.  Skills also vary on the amount of organization required to complete. 

How to teach these skills depends upon the complexity and organization require for the skill.  Complexity refers to how many components are involved in the skill.  Organization refers to how many components of the skill are related.  Skills that are simple, but require organization are best practiced as a whole.  Skills that are complex, but require little organization are best learned step by step.  If the skill is both complex and requires organization, then the skill is best learned in the progressive part method, where the first step is taught as a whole.  Once it is mastered, the second step is taught.  When step two is mastered, it is joined up with step one.  Repeat the process as much as necessary.

This can form endless discussions.  Where are the Blazers in this description on offense or defense?  How about individual players?

Professional basketball is concerned with complex and highly organized skills.  I think we should examine the team (or individual) and evaluate where they currently are on the skill, then look for improvement in one area in that skill.  For example, maybe the Blazers are focusing on pick and roll defense.  We should probably ignore the remaining weaknesses and focus on the specific skill they are working on.  Once that skill is up to an acceptable level, they should start working on a new skill.  Focusing on the entire defense will cause us to miss the real improvement taking place.  This also explains why older teams/players are quantifiably better.

We should also recognize where most of the players began, in the cognative stage.  BRoy's willingness and ability to start calling players out for defensive problems is a sign of his growth where he is now able to recognize problems and come up with solutions. 

Unfortunately, I do not know enough about Basketball to have intelligent discussions about what is good and bad and where real improvement is taking place, so I will leave that to all the knowledgeable members of BE.  I would like this to become a new way of talking about the team and identfying improvement.