Tellingly, Cousy — who arrived in Boston prior to the 1951 season after the team that drafted him abruptly folded and its best players were literally drawn out of a hat by the league’s remaining teams — was greeted less than enthusiastically by his new coach, Auerbach. But Red, who initially dismissed Cousy as a showboat, quickly recognized his young guard’s brilliance and gave him free reign to run and dish. Auerbach laid down one rule: Cousy could make all the fancy passes he wanted — as long as his teammates were able to catch the passes and turn them into baskets. It’s a lesson lost on many of today’s less visionary coaches.

Instead, as Cousy noted, these coaches’ insistence on control led to a slower game. The following three factors were at the heart of this trend:

• Emphasis on defense — A combination of a demand for effort, rotations, team defense, along with increased scouting and access to video, and increased game preparation made teams more aware of opponents’ tendencies. Taking away an opposing team’s preferred initial options forced ball reversal and second and third options. Hence, more elapsed time during possessions.
• Increased second-guessing — “With all of the talk shows and all the scrutiny that head coaches are under today, most of them feel that they’ve got to have some control over what’s happening,” said Dan Issel, a Hall-of-Famer as a player who also had two coaching stints with the Nuggets.

Every move a coach makes today is analyzed on every talk-radio station, blog, fan Web site, you name it. And coaches spend more time defending those moves in press conferences than ever before.

“Coaches today want to have their input since they ultimately will be held responsible for the success of the team,” Issel said.

• Copycat coaches — As some of the slowest-paced teams in the league continued to win titles — only two of the past 19 champions (1995 Rockets and 2002 Lakers) ranked in the top-10 in pace factor — methodical, powerful play continued to be reinforced as the way to win. Plus, assistant coaches in the greatest demand each year are those from the best teams. And when those assistants became head coaches, they brought with them familiar methods that had been proven to work.

Chuck Daly is one coach who succeeded with a slower game that emphasized defense, leading the Detroit Pistons to championships in 1989 and 1990. While the game’s pace had already begun its decline nearly two decades earlier, often Daly is credited wrongly as single-handedly starting the trend.

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When Daly took over the Pistons prior to the 1983-84 season, he inherited one of the leagues faster-paced offenses. Five years later, Detroit was last in the league in pace factor, but also league champion.

“We knew after two or three years of getting to the first round and getting eliminated. that was not the way to go,” Daly said. “We got lucky in one draft when we got (John) Salley and (Dennis) Rodman. It changed our world in one draft. We got guys who could rebound, block shots, defend and didn’t need the ball.”

In the case of the Pistons, they still took advantage of run-out opportunities and had plenty of offense, but they were one of the first teams to be noticed for their defense. They suffocated opponents, locking-down on the perimeter as well as contesting every shot near the basket.

In the 1990s, Pat Riley’s New York Knicks and Miami Heat teams took their emphasis on defense to an extreme, although those clubs were far more limited offensively than Daly’s Pistons. After several painfully plodding years, however, a handful of teams began to realize that beating the beasts at their own game wasn’t the answer, that scoring before defenses could organize might be far more effective.

Recent coaching moves provide more evidence that change is here, that fast is in.

“First of all, everybody wants to play that way, that’s why we had seven to eight jobs open because all the GMs say, ‘We want to play like Phoenix,’” Daly said. “There is such an overriding influence from owners and general managers to play that open style that it’s costing a lot of coaches their jobs. You see it time and time again.”

Among coaches let go this year, most of them — most notably Rick Carlisle, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Fratello — favored a more deliberate, defense-first approach. New coaches for 2008, meanwhile, openly embrace the faster game. It is worth noting that during each of their introductory press conferences, these coaches answered questions about style of play. Here’s a look at some members of the new regime:

Jim O’Brien, Pacers — No-nonsense veteran coach who favors discipline, organization and preparation, but also stresses versatility on offense. O’Brien said he wants his team to get the ball past halfcourt within three seconds. His teams in Boston and Philadelphia pushed the tempo more often than not and also hoisted more than their share of 3-point shots.

Marc Iavaroni, Grizzlies — Having assisted both Riley and D’Antoni, Iavaroni has seen both ends of the pace spectrum. The roster in Memphis is better suited to a speed game. “We want to make sure that the opponent is feeling uncomfortable. We want (our players) to play instinctively. We are going to try to attack on offense in the first part of the shot clock.”

Rick Adelman, Rockets — One of league’s best architects of offense — in 16 seasons, his teams have finished in the top-five in pace eight times, including No. 1 on four occasions — faces a challenge of jump-starting the Rockets, however, as roster lacks speed. “Watching Yao, it’s not how fast you are, it’s their intent to get up and down the court. There’s no reason that you can’t. We’re just trying to get into something quicker. We don’t want to walk it down and call a play.”

There are several other factors that contribute to why the league is poised to shift gears.