Head Coach Discussion: Canned Ham, Who Is Our New Coach?

i'm not asking for ham to be fired, nor do i think we could have kept vogel. i'm on team "you can't blame the coach for severe roster deficiencies".

i didn't see the game, but apparently, minny (wisely) attacked our lack of competent ballhandling with russell and lebron out. makes sense. were there probably other counters? maybe. i don't know. but it's a gimmick strategy you don't plan on because most teams aren't constructed such that said gimmick could work, ever. this is why i was surprised that SA wasn't terrible early--they basically employ one pg and very few competent ballhandlers. teams started just killing that as time went on.

we've had s*** luck once again. ham deserves a year without the russ anchor, imo. the limited time since he's shed it has been marred by injuries.

 

i think he's been too attached to the 4-out offense from the beginning--especially when we had russ. phil jackson's the only coach i've seen who's been completely adherent to only one philosophy and had tremendous success (and the triangle is more flexible from a personnel standpoint than the 4-out, imo). i think that leads to him wanting to play more smalls.

as for accountability...again i want to see some time without russ. russ just can't be held accountable. he won't allow it. aside from him, is there someone who's getting burn that shouldn't be? the only thing i can think of is that christie's had a particularly short leash, but i'm willing to believe it's possible that that's due to things i don't know.

for example, in the okc game, there were two plays where it looked like wenyen got way out of position and gave up easy buckets, but it's possible that he was actually doing what ham wanted. no way for me to know that as a spectator (you can guess, based on previous coverages, i suppose, but you're guessing), as wenyen was pointing to the other guy/spot on both occasions, iirc.

anyway, yeah, i need to see a year with a better roster, and we should get that next year.

 

I think that we tend to overrate some of the players that we have honestly. You just can't win consistently in this league, without your best players playing period. This doesn't mean that Darvin is making all the right calls all the time. Yet some of these complaints, are akin to asking the dude, to consistently turn water into wine.

 

So far, Ham has been completely disappointing in the areas he blew a lot of hot air about: Accountability and Defense.
Also, he has yet to impress me with getting any offensive chemistry working between combinations of players.
He does deserve a full season with a real roster, but I think he needs to show a lot improvement, in many areas, so that he can keep his job after next season finishes.

 

This is where I am at. I was excited about the accountability and improved defense talk but it was just hot air. Also I would like to see fiery ghost pepper guy instead of cool cucumber dude. Call some time outs and lay into these guys that are sleepwalking. As big a game as that was and we can't get fired up for it? Something is wrong. He should have been ripping these guys a new one. Stop playing pocket pool and coach. I agree he should get a full season to work this out and no coach has been able to hold Lebron accountable which makes it hard to be a tough guy with the others but I was really hoping for better and this is disappointing.

 

Ham will ultimately be judged by wins and losse, like every other coach. If Lebron and AD continue to play less than 30 games together every year, he won't last long. His replacement won't either.

 

Are you having the LeBron/AD thing designated to be put on your grave stone?

 

If they keep playing less than 30 games together every season, I just might. They might put it on my death certificate...Massive stroke due to Lebron and AD continuing to play less than 30 games together every season!

 

i said it about russ, but this is true, too. lebron has clearly pulled his defensive effort way back over time. it becomes really hard to get on guys for not playing d when the team leader doesn't.

and before the apologists get here, i am indeed aware he's old.

 

you mean like calling this a top 3 team in the west?

 

Yeah..without the caveat of being healthy. Absolutely

 

you dont say, if anyone is overrating the players, you definitely in front of that line

 

Yeah well I did say healthy, because we are a lottery team without a healthy Lebron and AD. Which I've stated AD nauseam around here, unless you missed that part. It ain't the uniforms, it's that dude wearing it.

 

lol, i didn't have a specific person in mind, but yes, this is exactly what i was talking about. AD does lead by example defensively. but if not everyone does it, it becomes moot. you may be right that teammates feel like lebron is giving full effort there, but i guarantee no one thought that about russ. thus, ham didn't hold people accountable on defense, thus we've been a bad defensive team. sorry, man, some of the stuff lebron was doing defensively early in this year was shameful, imo. so much pointing to guys that were supposed to be his responsibility, etc. i'd rather him box that guy out and score fewer points. i don't know if he was hurt then, too (funny how being hurt is ok in some cases, but russell and AD are soft, but i digress), but if you're healthy enough to take 30 shots, you're healthy enough to rotate to a wide open shooter.