EARLIER SUCCESSFUL NELLIE BALL/UP-TEMPO BALL

[Libertad]

For all basketball fans of AH.com, especially NBA fans, I just read of articles concerning Nellie Ball and many basketball commentators are talking of Miami Heat's recent success in using their up tempo, position less ball reminiscent of Nellie Ball .... but with more defense. Of course, this also included Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs' own up tempo styles though through players with more traditional roles and positions and also with more defensive consciousness among players. Both teams just reached the NBA Finals in the recent times. It seems that teams now in many levels, even in my country's professional league, are also already finding balance between playing run and gun offense and hard nose defense, leaning more on the former than on the latter. Small ball even worked for the Philippine basketball program, from the seniors' team to the under-16 national team and since this is the only way we can have some measure of success due to our lack of size.

Now in the case of the NBA, Can an alternate NBA timeline show an earlier successful Nellie Ballish team? I'm thinking of the strong possibility of Nash lead Phoenix Suns getting close to winning a title, if only Joe Johnson or Amare Stoudemire not getting injured in the play offs or if D'Antoni inculcated a slower 7 seconds or less offense just like with 2009 Suns (14 seconds or less), though with D'Antoni no longer around.

Let me hear your thoughts everybody.

BTW, am I in the wrong place for posting this? Sorry mods if I made a mistake...