Lucy Nicholson / Reuters file

Steve Nash and the Suns have shown in recent years that transition, fast-break basketball is a great formula for success.

One way to open up the game is to move big men away from the basket, thus allowing more room for drives and penetration. The international game incorporates heavy use of centers who can step away from the basket and shoot jump shots (e.g., Dirk Nowitzki, Mehmet Okur, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas).

“The influence of Europe is definitely here,” Daly said. “It’s part of the league now. We’re going more and more toward that style of play, the drive-and-kick game, very little mid-range or post-up game.”

Additionally, fewer young power forwards and centers in the United States develop back-to-the-basket post-up skills. They also drift to the perimeter to develop other ways to score.

“Young guys don’t like it in the low-post, because the get doubled and they can’t score,” Daly said. “Defenses have gotten so good, and everybody knows it.”

Plus, more than 12 years ago, Kevin Garnett entered the league and redefined the skill-set for an interior player. At 6-foot-11, Garnett could play with his back to the basket like post men of yesteryear, post up farther from the basket, and also shoot jump shots, handle the ball, run the floor and break down defenders.

The “highlight” generation has had an impact as well. Quite simply, dunks, cross-over dribbles, replays of no-look passes and long 3-pointers are shown relentlessly on TV. Backing opponents into the post, powering jump shots off the glass from four feet, are not. Playgrounds, AAU games and open gyms are filled with guys working on tricky dribbling and launching shots from five feet beyond the 3-point line.

“I think playing more wide-open takes advantage of the skills that they players have today,” Issel said. “They can run. And the physical skills that the players have today is just unbelievable. But I think one of the things that today’s players don’t do as well is shoot the basketball, and if you play a half-court game, you have to have shooters.”

Of course, even the most efficient fast style of play won’t be successful without incorporating more than a requisite amount of defense. After all, Paul Westhead brought a high-octane offense that had enjoyed huge collegiate success at Loyola Marymount to the NBA for the 1991 season. The Nuggets averaged close to 120 points per game, but they allowed nearly 131. Their final record? 20-62.

“No doubt, to win a championship, you still have to be able to play defense,” Issel said. “But I don’t think running and playing an open style offensively necessarily precludes you from being a good defensive team.”

The Suns proved that this year. Although they were unable to beat the Spurs, the Suns were tough enough and had enough defense. What they weren’t able to do, however, was impose their style. Each game in the series, which San Antonio won in six games, was played to the Spurs’ liking. And that extra comfort just might have been enough to tip the series in San Antonio’s favor as the key games came down to a handful of crucial possessions.

Owners, GMs and coaches around the league who are contemplating a switch to the faster style are clearly watching the Suns. Among teams committed to the running game, they have enjoyed the most success. Can they achieve ultimate success — a championship?

“I don’t know. Until it happens, I guess not,” said Daly, who noted that seven of the last eight champions have had either Tim Duncan or Shaquille O’Neal, the league’s premier big men, on their rosters. “I thought this was a good opportunity for Phoenix, particularly when Dallas got beat. I think that teams that are very solid all the way around, play good defense, execute their offense, can run the break and are very good rebounding teams will always have the edge.”

The Spurs fit that description. While they prefer a half-court game, they have the ability to run, even surprising opponents when they do it as well as they do. Even though the majority of San Antonio’s offense is run through Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are two of the league’s more gifted open-floor, one-on-one players. And the Spurs are on the brink of a fourth championship, and third in five years, if they can get past LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

With James about to participate in his first NBA Finals, the league got an unexpected break as the “King” is closer to must-see TV than the pedestrian Pistons. The next break will come later this month with one of the richer drafts in recent years.

Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, the projected first and second selections, will enter the NBA affixed with can’t-miss labels that only James (2003) and Duncan (1997) have worn in the past decade. And Oden and Durant bring plenty of charisma and intrigue as well. The league would certainly benefit if those superstars-to-be had maximum freedom to show their skills, as opposed to being stifled by a grab-a-thon style.

It will continue in 2008 with the consensus No. 1 pick, Derrick Rose, a dazzling point guard who would fit perfectly into any team’s plans for making the running game a priority. Rose will play his obligatory collegiate season at Memphis.

Put it all together and clearly the opportunity exists over the next few seasons for the NBA to showcase an invigorated product, one that will attract new fans while quite possibly also pulling back many of those it lost through years of coach-controlled predictable play.

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Nathan Denette / AP

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