As I was watching Arsenal FC's Tuesday afternoon showdown with Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup, there was only one thought crossing my mind. No, it wasn't about the four goals they had scored or about the two they had conceded, nor was it about how the team looked at all.
Instead, all I could think was: I wonder if Pascal Siakam – a proud fan of Arsenal – is watching this, because there was so much teach tape within even just one game against a lesser opponent on how to move around in space.
It's one of the things Siakam does so well, something that most stars and superstars have ceased to care about, that he does at a near-perfect rate. While so many other players are stuck ball-watching, Pascal is finding space and attacking the opponent's defense without the ball in his possession.
If the Indiana Pacers could transfer that to the rest of the team, combining it with their already up-tempo, ball-movement-focused system, it would be an incredible showing.
However, that implies that this hasn't already been happening when this cultural interchange has been happening for multiple decades. LeBron James has consulted with Jürgen Klopp, the former coach of Liverpool, the team James has a stake in. Pep Guardiola has spent time discussing the intricacies of the fast break.
Even popular culture has already made this connection. The entire third season of the hit Apple TV show Ted Lasso (spoilers) fixates on taking the triangle offense the Chicago Bulls ran with Michael Jordan and translating it to soccer's Total Football, a strategy used by the Dutch as early as the 1960s!
Moving in space, moving without the ball, and moving to cover your team's weak points are as applicable to football as they are to basketball. There's so much to be learned by following that connection. Maybe Pascal can inspire the rest of the team to do the same.
Arsenal and the Pacers: playing with speed
Both Arsenal and Indiana are teams driven and obsessed with the transformative power of pace. Small cracks become massive gashes to pursue when a team plays fast enough. Microscopic spaces that require technique and precision to attack suddenly are large when the defense is not given the chance to react.
This is the prevailing reason as to why Arsenal plays so quickly to overcome their shortage of excellent goal scorers and why the Pacers' best player chooses not to be a 20-point-per-game scorer in pursuit of keeping his teammates excited and ready.
Ironically, it is actively safer and easier to play fast despite the miles it leaves on the body because of just how easy it is on the body to simply run.
The Pacers saw their roster immediately go from contender with one glaring piece missing to fully injured as soon as they stopped being able to run as much. While that is certainly not the only reason (injuries are truly a question of luck), the second the shots Indiana was attempting became harder and more physical, their players started to come apart.
Indiana already plays like a soccer team. Maybe they can take that comparison a little further.
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