Ham has been up and down this year as I would expect with a rookie coach. While there are moves I wish he would’ve made this series, with even average play from DLO we would’ve won at least a game so far in this series. Also havent gotten a next level game from LeBron. So yeah, I think he has made some mistakes but at a certain point players have to produce. Feels like 3 or 4 on 5 way too often watching this team. Part of that is fatigue and injuries but still. I feel like several guys just haven’t done enough and they certainly haven’t rewarded Hams faith in them. We will see what happens tonight but I just don’t feel like some of our guys have risen to the occasion for a variety of reasons.
Wonder what Tristan Thompson would have looked like in games 1-3. Gave us a nice boost and defended Jokic well.
All things considered, excellent performance from a head coach in his first year. The idea that he was our problem, and that there was some magical rotation or scheme that a better coach would implement to have this roster beat the clearly superior Nuggets in a 7 game series, is honestly laughable
cant agree with this. he just didnt get the role guys in general to play well enough apart from AR and Rui. take a look at this Miami team, they have a bunch of undrafted guys performing way, way better than our role players.
I would argue that’s what we had through the first two series: we had a Rui game, a Reaves game, a DLo game, a Vando game, a Lonnie game and Schroeder performing. We just couldn’t out execute the best team in the west and lost 4 close games.
You can't compare him to a team that has a built in culture and system under the same HC for the past 15 years. If he matched that, he's the runaway selection for COY for the next 5 years. I don't think Ham did great. Timeouts, certain rotations, leash length, not maximizing the full roster, love for small ball. But he's a rookie coach who got buy in all year from the top down. Turned a pumpkin into a WCF team, something no one saw coming. He made good adjustments throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs and outcoached two very good coaches in Jenkins and Kerr. I think he's solid and am excited to see what he can do with a real roster entering training camp. If the issues aren't learned from or improved upon in year 2, then is the time for such a conversation.
On paper our roster is better than Miami, imagine what Spolstra can do with our roster? But Ham can't do no wrong. He "overachieved" or "clearly superior Nuggets". Every game came down to a few points. Yes, a few adjustments here or there we could have won game 1, that might have given us the confidence to go on to win the series.
Memphis was a mess. Warriors sucks the whole year. Nuggets was his first true test and he didn't pass. Yikes giving Ham another year, we are all getting older, I can't wait.
#2 seed Defending champs #1 seed and best team in the West with the best player in the NBA. You make it sound like we got ran out by a lowly 7th seed. You pass that test, you win the 'ship. You don't fire a coach who got you to the conference finals in their rookie year ESPECIALLY when they were anchored to the bottom of the ocean floor for half the season with Bev and Russ.
#2 seed means nothing. They went into the playoff with Ja going having many legal issues. We all know what happened to him. They have two other starters injured. Defending champ that can't win on the road. Look at the Rams, they dropped off drastically after they won. There have been more accomplished coaches getting fired this off-season.
Credit to him for putting in our best lineup and play them all for 40 minutes. It was too late but at least he owned it and was willing to do what he had to do. I like what Ham brought to the table. This team is pesky, was barely blown out the whole year, defense first mentality and a lot of grit, all things you want to see in a contending team. A lot of growth needed next year though. We only play for chips, so we have to be better and learn from mistakes. AD needs more strong bodies around him to avoid the rim fights against strong centers, too much wear on him. We need more movement on half-court sets and to maximize AD's offense. I trust Ham to continue to develop and I'm sure this sweep will make us stronger
with the exception of inexplicably going small to start game 1, i thought ham actually got the better of malone in this series. throughout the series, we got better shots in the halfcourt than they did. they just made tough ones, and we missed easy ones, as i said in the other thread. getting beat in transition is on the players, not the coach--ham wasn't telling them not to get back. i don't think he could have benched russell any earlier, given the full situation. once we took beverley away from him and excised russ, i mostly liked what i saw.