“Thibs is a guru,” Gibson said. “He understands the game plan.
“He had me guarding Ray Allen. That’s how much confidence he has in everybody’s ability to guard on defense. He really drew up and knew what the team was gonna do.
Every time they ran down and ran offense, it was exactly what Thibs showed us on paper.”
Cheap Talk
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May 8, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Scott
Sandeep, the simple answer is that the two coaches are playing a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, no?
If that is not the suggestion, then trying to model a real-life Thibodeau (ie somebody who could always correctly guess the other coach’s action) would seem to fall outside the realm of game theory, but I am not sure.
May 9, 2013 at 8:06 am
Sandeep Baliga
I had a trivial point: “Gibson keep you mouth shut!”
May 9, 2013 at 3:19 am
mkovach
To quote a sportswriter I follow, “players, not plays.” A team establishes n identity all season long, and in the playoffs every one knows the others’ strategies. It’s up to the players to execute. Everyone knows LeBron is getting the ball. Try to stop him. All in all, they’re playing a pure strategy NE, and the outcome is determined by some unknown state of the world.
May 9, 2013 at 3:21 am
mkovach
It’s a weakly dominant strategy to “play to your teams identity.”