Mike D'Antoni, Larry Brown Do Their Things

Every year, it seems a couple teams vow to become faster. But the easiest way to affect speed-flavored change is by changing the coach, as you'll see with this chart organizing the teams by pace (slow on the left, faster on the right) and quality (good teams at the top, bad at the bottom) to date.



The two significant changes from last season: New York under Mike D'Antoni is among the quickest-pace teams in the league, while Larry Brown's Bobcats have become slower than even San Antonio. Big surprise, right?

A few other notes to keep in mind going forward:

* Rick Carlisle promised an up-tempo offense, a so-called relaxing of the reins on Jason Kidd, Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki. Of course, Carlisle's teams have always been down-tempo. The Mavericks under Avery Johnson were down-tempo. And ... of course, Carlisle's Mavericks are indeed down-tempo. Lip service to entertainment doesn't mean anything.

* The Sonics played really fast last season, but things have racheted down so far this season in OKC. This could be a sample size issue, or it could be the change of moniker. The franchise went from SuperSonics -- breaking the speed of sound -- to Thunder -- a phenomenon heard seconds after its cause. You are what you represent, teams. (... Yet I'm still waiting for someone to crown my favorite squad.)

* Los Angeles hosts the best team (and it's not really close right now) and the worst team (and it's not really close right now).