Eh, for a first time head coach I think he’s been pretty damn good. You can’t make miracles happen with a mediocre roster, he’s trying to make do with what we have, which isn’t much. I’m not sure even Phil Jackson could have this roster doing much better.
He's actually coaching without bench players. Don't know if there's a coach who could achieve great results with a 6 men rotation. It's very strange to see a problem in JJ.
Yeah. As a vocal critic of our hiring process, I think he’s been fine especially for a first time coach. The roster just isn’t good enough. We have no depth right now and it shows. Margin for error is zero with this group.
again, i'm pretty pleased with jj, but at some point, the bench production is at least partly a coach problem. not trying to spam threads (i should have put this here instead of the gabe thread), but gabe played 18 minutes and didn't shoot the ball. that's sort of hard to do, particularly on a lebron/AD team. many teams have similarly thin benches and squeeze production out of them. i'd also like to hear from jj why after he stressed getting the 3pfg rate up, we're still near the bottom of the league there. btw, i'm not sold on that as a strategy with our roster, but it was one of his primary goals, and we're not close. what's happening there?
I think we have upgraded coaching but also took a step back on an already flawed roster. We will always be limited to our ceiling while Pelinka is here throwing out every excuse possible not to make moves.
Agree with both points. It's his job to figure out how to balance out the rotations. I think he's trying though. I've mentioned the Gabe/Dlo switch after the Raptors game that it's gaining track now, would be nice to see him materialize it. He recently switched the DLo pairing, before was with Bron and now is with AD. Yesterday it "worked", both had -1 in +/-. Whereas Bron had -16 and Reaves -14. It was that bench lineup with both that killed us the most. If we look at the lineup data, our worst units with meaningful minutes have Christie in it. He's been awful. Has a lot of work to do and I liked that he took care of that yesterday. Cam should now play the Max minutes for the time being. He gives us size too. Then, the worst non-Max unit is the Bron and Reaves one, used in the last 2 games. Followed by the AD and Reaves one. Conclusion is that DLo is actually been fine from a collective perspective, it has been the Reaves bench unit that has sucked. https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/advanced?TeamID=1610612747&dir=A&slug=advanced&sort=NET_RATING
2nd worst points allowed per game in the West. Defense is definitely an issue. Luckily JJ is known for his defense.
our last two coaches and the FO have all prioritized offense in their choices and defense just with their voices. and our offense is improved, but it doesn't matter when you can't stop the likes of the detroit pistons.
Been a while since I last posted, so my 2 cents on Reddick: For one, I want to think I'm not alone in the fact that I was not happy with the decision of choosing Reddick. 0 trust in him and his lack of experience really. He does know some ball obviously and being in good terms with LeBron is a plus, but at the same time, I thought he could end up being a puppet for LeBron, which is not ideal. After 8 games, I admit some of my fears were misplaced. He does feel like an improvement from Ham so far I think, although it does seem the first few games were a bit of a honeymoon. I do like that he really is making the game move around AD. We most definitely need to do that. If our game is played through LeBron, it just won't last and nowadays AD is our better player. LeBron is a legend and obviously a star of this team, but his role should be secondary, with now and then having him take over in difficult situations (pretty much what happened against the Kings). He is still adapting, so he definitely has room for improvement. I still don't think he is the ideal pick, but I kinda feel more open to giving him a chance after seeing him coaching a bit... still not completely convinced, and I'm sure there were better options available, but it's worth seeing how he develops at this point I guess. And at least we don't have Doc Rivers as coach with Ham as the leading assistant coach.
Lol..I wonder how long JJ keeps " taking responsibility " before he starts pushing back with "Damn..look at what they gave me to work with!"
Will players have too thin skin to deal with his constructive criticism? Should be fun to see, but makes a difference if your stars have your back.
Love that he'll call guys out. It's not like it can make DLO play any worse. We haven't had a coach who is well versed enough in using the media (or well spoken enough to, or comfortable enough in front of a mic) to his advantage since the Phil the GOAT
Yeah, I can't dismiss the thought of bringing back guys like Dennis and Lonnie. They have flaws but at least we could get some kind of contributions from them. Talent doesn't mean much if you get tight as soon as you hit the floor. I'm not in a rush to get rid of Max, but would definitely be willing to trade him. Gabe is a complete disappointment and hopefully the last time we get taken by a Miami Heat player.
