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

The first time he did that it certainly caught your eye. The 2nd time ( don’t recall if more) it was like what are you doing stopping so short and jumping there??!!

 

hmmm...looked to me like we gave up a couple open threes to their bad shooters (largely because we were trying to keep lillard out of the paint?) and then simons and lillard each hit some crazy off the dribble threes/threes from 30ft. nothing you can do.

this is why you don't sleepwalk through the pels and okc game. because you could have played fine and lost this game. dame was on a mission and was hitting everything in portland. game over.

some of those shots he's taking--what do you suggest? double him 40ft from the basket. that's the only way to prevent at least three of those!

i didn't see the full game, but i read that we didn't go hard enough after him on the other end, though, and i'd believe that. there's a reason that lillard's teams are always pretty meh despite his offensive brilliance. they play two small guards (because he's not really a pg), and neither of them are defenders. we know from painful seasons of experience that that's not a recipe for good defense. that's where lebron sitting hurts, as does the lack of familiarity. the only way to beat portland last night was to score 130-140 points.

 

When I saw how they were shooting in the first I knew it was going to be a long night. The Blazers have their own playoff aspirations and needed that game last night as well.

Ham is disappointing me, but I agree that there's not much you can do on some of those threes.

 

oh i can get on board with this. i just happen to agree with the assessment that those threes were largely, as paul george would say, "bad shots". meaning--you don't expect them to go in at a 50% rate for a full game.

this doesn't mean ham hasn't generally put a s***ty defensive product on the floor (he has). it just means that a good defensive team still gives up those shots last night. again, people made fun of paul george for saying that lillard made a bad shot, but it was true. lillard takes (and makes) a lot of bad shots. i think laker fans have gotten used to seeing this and so they think the reason he does it to us is because other teams have an answer. it's not true. he just doesn't hit those pull up 35 footers with a hand in his face 3/4 times. last night was one of the 1/4 that he does.

 

Undermanned or even bad teams can be well coached. Not the case with us at the moment.

 

Just like with Russ, it seems we are going to have to win despite Ham.

 

I miss vogs

 

SMH .They don't win much either, " Well coached" or not. This isn't the local rec league.

 

Sure. We know already. Your answer for everything. As if no one else gets that too. And AS IF there are not other factors of bad performance to be considered (player or coach wise) (aside from you blaming Vogel for everything bad about Russ's play last year) (along of course with the ad nauseam LeBron and AD not together enough pearl of wisdom) always excusing his bad play.

 

The truth is the truth...whether it's inconvenient to your preferred narrative or not. IE.. Do you think Steve Kerr forgot how to coach this season?Again?

You just don't win much in this league, without your best players period. This doesn't mean that Darvin is perfect.

Meh..Westbrook isn't here anymore, and nether is Vogel, but Frank had guys on the bench, using their cell phones during the games dude. That had absolutely nothing to do with Russell Westbrook. He got himself fired, I'm not shedding any crocodile tears for Frank Vogel, or Russ.

They will both get another gig eventually...or they won't. Fwiw Lebron/AD/Russ played 44 games together in total..22-22 was the record.

 

Not when Vogel and LeBron/AD (not showering after games enough together) was your truth all last year for why Russ sucked. That's an alternate universe. But yes he is gone.

 

Lol..And YOU are the one still talking about Russell Westbrook. The team sucked last year. If Lebron and AD had played half a season in the bubble year, that team would have sucked then too. It is what it is.

 

The team needed a scapegoat for the pathetic season last season and Vogel was the easiest answer. But we should have just kept him, Ham isn't it.

 

just cause Ham sucks doesnt mean Vogel didnt deserve to get fired, the FO is terrible at picking coaches

 

Ham has already passed his expiration date.
He just isn’t it- not even close.

 

vogel didn't deserve to be fired because the underperformance clearly wasn't his fault. many of us said it at the time, and we've been proven right by what happened afterwards. nobody could win with that roster construction--mostly, russ. now ham's going to get a shot, post-russ, which is what vogel deserved, imo.

firing him because russ torpedoed us was weak sauce. i get why they felt forced into it, but vogel wasn't a bad coach.

i don't know if ham's a bad coach yet. i just know our defense is atrocious, and coaching DEFINITELY factors into that, as teams with so/so defensive personnel can be good defensive teams (see: vogel's teams) more easily than teams with so/so offensive personnel can be good offensive teams.

anyway, as i said elsewhere, give ham this new team plus a training camp. if we're not in the top 4-5 in the west, send him packing.

 

Agreed. The other thing that unfortunately doomed Vogel is that he was never really the front office's guy and the team knew it.

Ham was the front office's pick so I expect him to get some time to right the ship. Hopefully he and the staff can focus on the court with a few less egos to deal with in the locker room.

If he can't turn it around then maybe we can get Snyder if he is still available. Might be a tough sell given that Ham and Snyder are close but who knows. Ham should strongly consider adding him to the staff if he hasn't already offered.

 

Ehhhh, I generally liked Vogel but he didn't do himself any favors last year. Vogel is still the guy that committed coaching malpractice by starting Russell Westbrook with two non-shooters in Avery Bradley and DeAndre Jordan. Vogel is still the guy that tried to use THT as a wing stopper next to Russ instead of as a second-unit ballhandler. Vogel is still the guy who insisted on playing traditional drop coverage with AD &DJ despite the roster clearly needing a more versatile scheme. Vogel is still the guy who banished Kent Bazemore, who'd historically been good in switching schemes and much worse in drop schemes, to the bench for not fitting in Vogel's scheme despite him being one of the only wings on the team. Vogel is still the guy who let Russ walk all over him, tbh.

Vogel was given a s*** roster and treated poorly by the FO, no doubt. But he didn't do anything to help the situation last season either.