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

Clueless

 

Well … being that Ham most definitely has NOT walked all the BS talk he spouted over and over when hired …. defense, accountability, best players get the positions no politics … etc, it would be fair play to let Kurt have at him with his and the FO’s frustrations as they promised wouldn’t happen like Darvin saw done to Frank. And get those POINTS across crystal clear.

Am half serious ….

 

Is Ham a cyclist?

 

one could argue we already have. those two tend to miss 20 games per year these days, so it's possible one or both is going to miss approximately half of our remaining games. we pissed away a 35-game stretch of availability from them.

 

Unless perhaps a terrible or nonexistent offense theme exists that prevents players from getting open or rhythm shots. It for sure plays a role. Especially when players don't know when they will be playing in the rotation or with whom. It's a mess, but coaching is most definitely a factor.

 

i was thinking about this point in particular, and what rob must be thinking.

imo, we have salaries appropriately calibrated to expected usage.

AD and lebron--use the most, paid the most

rui/dlo--use a lot, paid next most
reaves/vando/gabe--use a lot, paid next most

prince-use some, paid next most

reddish/wood/hayes/max--use situationally, paid the least

but that's not how it's played out. yes, part of that is gabe's and vando's injuries, but even before that it looked like gabe was going to join prince in playing way more minutes than guys getting paid more.

and sure, salary is often out of step with best usage--we employed westbrook, so i understand! but i felt before the season that we had a clear pecking order. i think the players thought that, too, and i think ham got cute and used injuries as a way to preserve it.

 

There's no way that doesn't result in a conversation. Rob kept these guys based on what we saw from the unit in the playoffs and pitched Jeaniea continuity plan. Jeanie agreed to write the checks for the same reason. You have DLO as the 8th man. Rui and Vando getting minutes in the teens while Prince gets a bazillion minutes a game and minimum Cam starts. Rob and Jeanie have to be shifting in their seats.

 

We'll go 3-7 in the next ten games, what will Rob and Jeanie do then?

 

Kurt will come sit behind Ham on the bench and move Ham like a puppet.


I think Ham at least finishes out the month. Still think he makes it till the summer.

Most of the reports do think he has to at least split the two games this weekend or he's in some real trouble.

 

Or maybe Ham just decided, that the playoffs starting lineup, wasn't good enough to get it done.

I mean..we played Memphis without two of their important bigs. Throw Clarke and Adams in there, and that series could have easily went 7 games, and who knows what happens in game 7 in Memphis.

I might be in the minority, but I never considered Golden State, to be a serious threat at all. Unless they make a big trade, I believe their run as a contender is over.

We went on and got swept by Denver in the next round. On the flipside, it could be said that if D'Angelo shows up, we beat Denver. Maybe.

So..it's not like that 5 was perfect, it was a feel good story when the trades went down. At the end of the day, Bamba never played, Beasley fell out of the rotation, Vanderbilt's minutes got cut, and D'Angelo got benched. Then we let Dennis, Beasley and Bamba walk for nothing.

The West has changed too, Denver is still a title favorite, Minn and OKC have emerged, and Phoenix and the Flippers both made a big trade. It's a very strong possibility, that we won't see the same teams we faced in the playoffs last season anyway.

On paper, we looked pretty good going into the season. We looked pretty good up until we left Vegas too. Some health issues, rotation issues, Lebron having his usual, pre trade deadline mood issues, D'Angelo with his, don't talk about my defense, when LeBron ain't guarding nobody issues...lol..Ham has a lot on his plate.

Overall...whatever the f*** happened after the Indiana game needs to be corrected ASAP. I like Darvin Ham, but I don't think any coach, could survive here, with extended losing with a healthy Lebron and AD period.

Vogel got fired 2 seasons after winning a chip, without having Lebron and AD available for most of those 2 seasons. Darvin will not get a pass IMO.

 

Ehhh, idk about Memphis. Our 4 wins were by 16 points in Game 1, 10 points in Game 3 (but we were up 35-9 after the first quarter and up 20 going into the 4th), 6 points in Game 4 and 40 points in Game 6. It really wasn't a close series. The Grizzlies' biggest problem is the halfcourt offense, which was even worse than ours with a gimpy LeBron. I don't think Adams and Clarke would have done much to help that, their formula just relies on getting an absurd number of offensive rebounds. With our size across the frontcourt I think we were a bad matchup for them regardless of the Adams/Clarke injuries. Also, the difference between LeBron on that ankle and the LeBron we've seen this season is night and day for an athleticism perspective. If he doesn't have a bum ankle that might be a 5 game series even if they have all their guys.

Agreed on the Warriors, I think the 2022 title was their last gasp. The West is absolutely tougher this year than last playoffs, but I still believe this team as currently constructed can be a second tier contender.

I actually somewhat agree on that Russell/Reaves/LeBron/Vando/AD lineup, it was something like +20 net rating in fairly limited regular season minutes last season but only +0.4 net rating in the playoffs. I think its a lineup we should still use in the regular season because teams don't gameplan around Vando as much, but I'm fine with it not being a core lineup like last year. It's also evident that Vando isn't 100% physically right now.

Ultimately, I don't think the rotation issues are all that difficult to figure out. I'd keep the Reaves/Reddish/Prince/LeBron/AD starting lineup, I think the Miami game was more about the team being in a funk rather than that lineup not working. I'd try to pair Reaves/LeBron/Wood together in the minutes when AD is off, and I'd try to pair DLo/Rui/AD together in the minutes when LeBron is off. I'd try to pair Vando and Wood together in the frontcourt. I was supportive of at least trying out more switching in case we needed to resort to that in a playoff series, but we need to make up ground in the standings so they should revert back to the aggressive blitzing and drop coverage stuff we saw in the IST.

 

i agree that vando doesn't quite look right, but i'd still go with:

dlo/reaves/vando or cam/lebron/AD as my starters (whichever of vando or cam is healthy).

with the bench units, always have either lebron or dlo on the floor for offensive purposes. rui is my designated bench scorer, and i'd run plays for him to do that.

 

He needs to change the defense.
The drop.coverage is getting destroyed even by bad teams like the Grizzlies with wide open 3s

Needs to move to a switching scheme and stop going under ever screen

 

Hit the road Jack, don't you come back no more no more no more...