Brett Brown sounded like Doug Pederson on Monday.

That’s not a bad thing, right?

We’re talking about different sports though, and while basketball situations certainly are not perfectly congruent to football situations, the macro-level ideas are typically the same. In channeling Pederson, Brett Brown said he wanted to be aggressive Saturday night when asking Ben Simmons to intentionally miss his second free-throw attempt while down by two points with 10 seconds remaining on the clock.

It seemed like a head-scratcher at the time, since the most common practice in that situation would be to attempt to make the second free throw, cut the lead to one, and then foul Golden State as soon as possible. You would then have 6-8 seconds to come down the court and get off a shot, being unable to advance the ball without a timeout.

What’s the higher percentage play?

Is it missing the free throw and going for the rebound and put back? Or is it traveling the length of the floor to try to spring a decent look?

I asked Brett on Monday about the data supporting his decision, and whether the analytics steered him in any specific direction the other night:

“I’m glad you brought that up and I thought you would. This is what you should all hear – I will coach aggressively. I will coach aggressively. Is it reckless or is it just a calculated risk at times? It’s gonna be a calculated risk. When I look on the floor and I have a 57% free throw shooter, with no timeouts, we don’t have Joel Embiid, it’s a stage of the game that I think we can steal something. They didn’t have DeMarcus (Cousins) on the floor. We subbed and brought Jonah Bolden on the floor. So at that point, it’s like an onside kick, you start the second half with an onside kick and maybe that works or maybe that doesn’t and you’re either a hero or a goat.

My point is, when we study it, and I have a gut feel on something, you judge the situation and you’re playing the NBA champs at home – with all those types of things, and they wouldn’t have expected it – then I’m gonna do it. We’ll live with the consequences. Normally if you’ve got a timeout, or JJ Redick at the line, you know, you’re not going to do it. So under those circumstances I did it. I’ll do it again. In relation to what the numbers say, it’s too vague, it’s mist to the question you’re asking because there’s too many events surrounding what I just said. Without getting into all those iterations again, that’s why I did it.”

There’s your explanation, which is fair to me. I think the consideration of Ben Simmons as a below-average foul shooter certainly plays into the decision to miss intentionally instead of relying on him to make two in a row.

Similarly, if Cody Parkey just doubled-doinked three straight field goals, are you kicking another? Or should you just put Mitch Trubisky in the shotgun and try to throw on 4th and 8 from the opponent’s 30 yard line instead?

I asked Brett a follow-up regarding that. Is Ben just going to have to learn his way through those situations, despite being a late-game liability with his career foul-shooting numbers?

“He sure is. Ben Simmons, for the most part, there are some situations that you can avoid. Some of them you’re just going to have to make free throws and go through the pain of the experience and bad luck. We’ll try to figure this out when it’s wise, but as the game unfolds, sometimes he’s in the game. Sometimes he’s in the game. We subbed offense/defense down in New Orleans and had Jonathon Simmons in there. They scored and we got the (ball) in quick, and I have a timeout, and I have two new guys in Tobias (Harris) and Jonathon, and in a perfect world we wouldn’t have thrown it to Jonathon. And JJ was on the sideline because we went offense/defense. I’d do that again. So you burn a timeout, and whether it’s Jonathon as an example, or Ben to your point, some of it you just can’t hide from, you can’t avoid.

No, you can’t avoid those situations, and the alternative to having a sophomore player in Ben Simmons learning these scenarios via growing pains is sitting him on the bench, which doesn’t help him improve his 4th quarter foul shooting or situational awareness.

So you tell me what you prefer – aggressive Brett Brown and the “onside kick,” or making the free-throw, fouling, and then trying your luck in the open court.

There are different philosophical approaches for different people.

Here’s the missed free throw via Philly guy Dan McQuade, who ripped the video for a story over at Deadspin:

(FYI, the Warriors got Cousins in the game as soon as they saw the Bolden sub. He was not in the game during first attempt) 

To miss, or not to miss?

That is the question, as Hamlet once said.