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

This is amazing never seen a coach just abandon a starting lineup that was as successful as last year's team

He has both Cam and Vando and neither starts. Luckily it's Portland I guess

 

I don’t hate Rui as a starter but what in the world did Vando do to Ham? This has to be personal at this point.

 

??????

 

I hate it because that means ham will likely play Cam and Vando off the bench together which doesn't work. You finally have your two POA defenders healthy keep one in the lineup consistently

 

Good point. I was only thinking that we should beat the Blazers regardless

 

https://x.com/MBrumagin/status/1749185022236512536?s=20

Copy this!

 

Ham’s the problem. This team is good enough to make a run. We can trade at the deadline all we want, but it won’t matter if he’s in charge. Dude would screw up the ‘92 dream team.

 

Every day spent with Ham still on our bench is a day wasted on improving.

 

I don’t think it’s some big mystery why Ham doesn’t want to start Vando, he’s probably seeing the same point per possession numbers showing how much of a drag he is on the offense when LeBron and AD are out there. Vando should be playing a significant role, but his minutes with LeBron and AD together should be minimal. He’s great in those switchier lineups with Wood at the 5.

 

Can you share those numbers?

It's just weird that he blatantly chooses not to play that lineup. We had a great run last year with it and made the playoffs. I know it has flaws and maybe teams have learned how to stop it, but they also know how to stop the others as our record shows lol
It wouldn't hurt to give a run of a handful of games to that lineup, if not for anything else, it's the only combination of players in our roster that was successful

It's really weird. Has he been asked about it in presses?

 

I’ve been wondering the same thing? Anyone heard it asked and him giving an answer? It’s a glaring. …. obvious question at this point.

 

https://x.com/Tim_NBA/status/1747853309849845796?s=20

https://x.com/Tim_NBA/status/1747852342202884499?s=20

https://x.com/Tim_NBA/status/1747848655971737849?s=20

https://x.com/Tim_NBA/status/1747732008166461906?s=20

https://x.com/Tim_NBA/status/1747734683104772479?s=20

It's been like this all season. Vando's minutes started to drop at the end of last regular season, not just in the playoffs. We won those playoff series largely because we went away from that starting group. Starting Vando means he's likely playing a majority of his minutes with both of LeBron and AD, which doesn't optimize his strengths and makes it too hard for LeBron and AD to convert at the rim.

I think Ham and the coaching staff came into this season thinking the halfcourt offense was the #1 area in need of improvement. Doesn't matter if you have the #1 defense in the league of your offense is in the 20s like ours was. That's why they tried to space the floor a little better going to 5-out, that's why he wanted AD shooting more threes, and that's why we're playing our best shooting forward the most minutes next to LeBron and AD. I think this was the right idea and we saw the offense improving over the first 6ish weeks of the regular season and in the IST. But the injuries to rotation and Ham's excessive experimenting threw things out of whack and the team didn't have a consistent identity to fall back on when it got into a rut.

 

16 possessions??? Really? That's 8 minutes man

https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/a...n=2022-23&dir=D&slug=advanced&sort=NET_RATING

Last year, DLo, Reaves, Vando, LeBron and AD together had:
123.5 ORTG
103 DRTG
23.6 net RTG
63% eFG
65% TS
In 77 minutes.

I trust more the 10 times larger sample and believe it's insane not to play it when we are a borderline .500 team.

 

Last season was last season, the landscape is different this season in the West. Memphis and Golden State probably won't even make the playoffs, and we got swept by Denver. I'm not convinced that last season's template, is the magic answer for this season.

 

Jerami Grant would solve the SF issues for a few more years, with or without Lebron.