He had 3 years left on his deal, an extension is completely unnecessary. Maybe they figure if he flames out this year or next and has to be payed extra years to not coach here that Walters will pay the bill anyway. Makes no sense to me, but whatever, I’m kinda fine with trying to build some actual culture and long term stability for a change.
Wow additional guaranteed years of the “I’ll use only 5 players” in the playoffs match up be damned strategy
Yeah I don't get it either and can't think of another example of this. Even if they thought he was awesome and the best coach in the league, there's no reason to do this now. The last regime had a somewhat bad reputation for how they treated past coaches (some of it earned, some not), so maybe this is Walter trying to signal things are going to be different going forward.
I don't get it (the extension). I wish someone had asked him about playing guys a whole half in the playoffs during the press conference.
So we’ve invested in Five Guys for the long haul. I lost all confidence in him after he crapped the bed in the playoffs. Taking a wait and see approach.
Evidently the new dude has deep pockets, so while a bit odd, I guess the extension doesn't matter. I want to see creativity and discipline on defense. Ball pressure, communication, double teams from unexpected places, many levels of help rotations and a little cheating on the passing lanes. We have a solid enough roster to be a good defensive team and enough quality players to not have to over play anyone. Show us what you got JJ.
occam's razor implies simplicity, but you're leaving out that this is basically an unprecedented coaching contract choice and thus maybe can't be explained in the same way as regular coaching contract choices. i could buy this. it's an attempt to rebrand us with coaches. i've said in the last few searches that if i were a coach, i wouldn't want to come here. that said, you undo it if you end up firing him because we have a down year this year or next, right? so the idea that it's for others or for the future is iffy for me. there is also this. coach salaries aren't part of the tax or cap, so if you're loaded, you can just throw the money around with no consequences here. anyway, i'm still thinking this was a move to give him power in a situation where coaches haven't had it in the past. a clear message to players and agents that this guy is going to be here longer than you are.
I think he’s going to be a whole lot better in the next playoffs with a real center and a whole lot deeper roster, health willing. Doesn’t answer your question but losing his center and POA and all that defense in AD and Max and all the continuity he had mid season with no time really for the practices required to gel all over again and Luka not at the level he’s going to be this year IMO will give the playoff improvements plus what he learned from the other mistakes. “Maybe” Luka has let them know he loves JJ as his coach along with AR as a future key running mate? It’s all about Luka now I keep reading …. and rightly so.
luka may have just said he likes stability? my question with jj is whether that period where we really hit our stride prior to the trade (and some of the success thereafter) was precisely because we had a flawed/deficient roster. what i mean is: i've had a persistent concern that jj wants to play rui and DFS at center for large chunks of games. i know he said he wanted a center early last year, but his choices didn't always suggest that. now that we have ayton, is he going to commit to making that work on both ends, or any time things get tight is rui going to be at the 5? we'll find out.
Isn’t Luka a lot about wanting great P&R vertical options in the game as much as possible? Rui and DFS aren’t that.
I was thinking about this too after I had posted. Luka is a loyal guy that seems to like continuity. I think you are on to something.
Weren't those two at least able to give more on the defensive end more consistently, and none of them being good rim protectors? Ayton is much more of a 2-way big though not in AD's class on D but still a big improvement. Plus we have a much deeper roster as we're trying to find scarce minutes here hypothetically for guys we think should play even with a regular season 10 man roster. One of the things JJ did say yesterday, paraphrasing, was (it was going to be on HIM to work with the roster/players he has to optimize the team rather than the other way around). Part of the 1st year learning process too?
hopefully. i got some dantoni vibes with a few of his choices, and i'm hoping we'll move past that. i'm generally positive on jj; i just found the extension oddly timed.
If he chokes in the playoffs this season, he's still gonna get fired. Rob too. It's chip or bust IMO. It's a lot on the line for everybody. Failure will be punished.