I think Russ should be used to run the second unit. He just doesn’t work with AD and LeBron. It won’t happen, but it should.
We need a new HC or top assistant, that understands the pick and roll. How to run it, and how to defend it effectively.
I know no one better is available currently, and I know he’s not awful, and I’ve defended him plenty, but man… Continuing to start and play Bradley as much as he does against bigger players alone is a fireable offense. Add to that the inability to make adjustments on the fly to stop the bleeding when we start losing leads, it’s just bad. I wouldn’t be mad at all if he were fired now and Handy took over, it couldn’t be worse than it is now.
mike malone's an underrated coach. but in fairness, the nuggets' support players aren't all vet mins, and their likely back to back league mvp hasn't missed a game. i'd say that's a big part of the difference, too. on paper, dallas has no business being like 8 games better than us, either, but i wouldn't chalk it up to jason kidd the tactician. he's had his star for most of the season, and he's got a bunch of guys that have already played together for a few years and aren't vet min mercenaries. i've been disappointed that the smallball lineups with AD at center haven't been able to defend more effectively, but i think that's as much on the FO as the coaching staff. who was frank supposed to put out there with stan and AD? i guess maybe reaves over bradley, but in the other spot do you want ariza over monk? if you're going smaller at c, you can't be small at sf, too, but we basically have no options. our last best chance is AD/lebron/stan/reaves/russ, which we have basically never seen, but that's like, one good option for a smallball lineup. which we were supposedly committing to over the summer! it includes two guys nobody expected to be playing!
Vogel’s keeping that one in the pocket until the playoffs to ride us all the way to the championship!
lol. serious question: have all of those guys ever been healthy and on the active roster at the same time? nobody's ever beaten that lineup. /doc rivers
It's getting harder to defend Frank. It's also getting harder to defend Rob, though. Unfortunately, Frank will be the scape goat this summer. However, Rob deserves the bulk of the blame on this one.
what was frank supposed to do last game? i missed it. i saw people complaining about the pick and roll, but what was the counter with our personnel to what is probably the league's best pick and roll options?
Per Ramona, Handy is close with LBJ. He's one the best player development coaches in the business. Loved by stars. Has a relationship with a lot of star players. He's likely going to get the gig this summer.
i'm fine with it; it's their money, but i don't think handy is the answer, and fizdale certainly isn't. wonder if handy could bring in terry stotts or someone like that who's had a lot of success as both an assistant and a head coach.
oh anyone can. the question is whether they let him finish the season or not. maybe they give handy an audition of sorts? hard to believe they'd go fizdale here, and hard to believe they'd hire outside to finish this mess. seems wiser to just let vogel finish it out and then try to blame it on him. some fans will probably buy it!
Oh, check this out: We could have had Brooks, but apparently he got offer more money with Portland and went there instead. So, not to say Brooks would have made a difference, but Russ would have had an ally here in a guy who has coached Russ and knows how to utilize him. But we got cheap. No excuses there. There's no salary cap for assistant coaches.
the penny pinching around the margins has certainly bitten us. i was almost surprised that we signed johnson, tbh.
Just let Vogel finish out the season. The Boston media has been defending Frank ever since the media started reporting his job was in jeopardy. Don't be surprised if Frank lands in Boston in some capacity when we let him go. Stevens and Frank have worked with each other in the past.
I'm not sure if the vet mins angle, is the big deal it gets made out to be. Monk is better than a minimum contract guy, so is Melo and Nunn. Of course Nunn not playing all season is a big blow. Tucker isn't a minimum player either. We didn't have that problem last season and still finished in the play in game. Lebron and AD missing all this time is the real issue, and to make it worse, they haven't played much together at all this season. On another note, maybe rushing back and trying to play all those games last season, is exacting a heavy toll League wide on the injury front. It looks like survival of the fittest will be the meme for this year's playoffs too. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if some more high end players go down before the season is over.
