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Rating Coach Scott (WE WANT WITTMAN BACK !!!)

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How do you rate the job Coach Scott has done so far?

  • Better then expected

    Votes: 58 19.7%
  • About as good as could be expected

    Votes: 176 59.7%
  • Below my expectations

    Votes: 61 20.7%

  • Total voters
    295
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How do you feel about the job coach Scott has done so far?
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

I'm looking for development and improvement by the young players. If he is in any way responsible for the astronomical development of Kyrie and the impressive start of Waiters, then he gets an A++. If those guys are succeeding mostly due to natural talent, then Byron gets a C until we see more out of Tristan and Zeller. Notably, Varejao has played his best basketball ever under Scott, both last year when he was healthy and this year.

Casspi has regressed and Samardo has continued to suck. Could Scott be getting more out of either of them?

I don't even really look at the team's record at this point. I want to see improvement of individuals and guys playing roles within a team concept. I want to see them hanging in there every night and losing only because of a lack of experience rather than coaching mistakes and poor execution.

Again...if he is responsible in any large way for Irving and Waiters, I'm happy. First thing on the agenda though is to convince Kyrie that it is not ok to ignore the defensive end. That needs to start improving fast.
 
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Re: Rating Coach Scott

In all fairness, I've disagreed about some things he's done, but it's hard to argue with how he has brought along(so far, at least) our young Guards. I like his core values, how he pushes players, his stern but honest approach in development, and his rep that players can admire and respect.

So far, so good. We just need more talent. Once that happens, there will be a whole new set of standards to evaluate Scott by.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

In my opinion, Scott's a quality coach in terms of being a motivator and challenging his players to be better (some could call this player development, but let's be real, a guy like Irving is going to be great regardless of the coach), but he's really terrible with in game strategy and X's and O's.

He's fine right now because the team isn't expected to win anything, but I don't think he's the kind of guy you can win the championship with when its all said and done.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

In my opinion... he's really terrible with in game strategy and X's and O's.

That's always going to be tough to evaluate when there are two 20 year olds and a 21 year old playing the roles of those X's and O's.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

As mentioned above, I think as far as motivation goes and pushing his players in a hard knock "no excuses" matter, he is above par. The players seem to respect and trust him and that bides well for their development - nothing worse than rookies or young guys tuning out instructions like you'll see in Washington, Sacramento, etc... He has the perfect PG resume for Kyrie, and despite little time with Dion, it seems he played and influential role in picking him at #4 to pair with Kyrie. I am 100% confident he will get the most out of our backcourt combo. The selling point for me will be how TT and Zeller develop and improve. Obviously some of that is out of his control, if someone doesn't have it they don't have it, but if he can make something out of them or use a system that maximizes their ability, then you have to be thrilled with him at coach unless he gives us reasons to doubt him like Mike Brown did.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

I'm really not convinced that he's installed an effective offense or defense. A lot of times it seems like opponents don't have to work very hard for easy shots whereas we spend half our offense setting useless screens and making half-assed cuts and then go for a bail-out shot at the end of the shot clock.

Also I think his doghouse can be inconsistent.

But he seems to have developed our younger talent nicely.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

If they get a big that can score on his own in this next draft, the clock starts ticking much faster on his x's and o's and in game strategy. At that point he'll have the weapons needed to succeed and a couple guards that know where to be on the floor.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

Scott's always struck me as an old school, Doc Rivers, "get the kids to play hard", kind of coach. That's probably good for the young guys as long as he doesn't beat them up too much. It seems pretty clear to me that he is better able to relate to what it's like to be on the floor than Mike Brown. He's also been a master tank driver in a lot of ways. He don't force the team to lose but does stuff to make it more challenging for them to win like throwing long, punitive practices at the team at key times so they start winnable games with dead legs. At least I hope he's doing that to tank.

Defensively Scott is good with the match-ups and momentum when he's trying to win a game, but if he's a great X's and O's defensive coach, I have not seen it with the Cavs. Seems like he thinks playing tough is the ultimate answer and puts in some physically demanding defensive schemes. Maybe that's just how he likes to build the kids who are not ready for PhD defense stuff, so maybe he does the defense the way he does because the team's got young legs and young brains. Not convinced though. I think he'll need a "Tom Thibodeau" or "Lawrence Frank" to come up with some really sharp defensive X's & O's before he can build a legit contender. Seems like a long shot for Joe Prunty or Nate Tibbits to be that guy.

It's all tough to tell right now because the team isn't really trying to win yet. That will come next year. Then we'll see what Scott's future's like.

p.s. the poll is kind of tough to answer. I guess he's at least met my expectations, but I had pretty low expectations.
 
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Re: Rating Coach Scott

Notably, Varejao has played his best basketball ever under Scott, both last year when he was healthy and this year.

That's one way to look at it. Getting the opportunity now that the front court is bare is another way to look at it. A cynical way to look at it would be to say Andy's getting showcased for a trade like Kris Humphries was last year, but that's not quite fair because Varejao's actually good.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

My main concern with Scott is that I see a lot of Mike Brown in him with his unwillingness to make changes in-game, and also his general necessity to try everything out for three games or so before he makes adjustments. That's not really a big deal in the regular season, especially a tanking season like this one, but if it carries over into the playoffs, we're going to lose games because of it.

Really, that's a big reason why a lot of good teams lose playoff games. Just look at OKC last year. Scott Brooks refused to see the writing on the wall and bench Kendrick Perkins. They may still have lost, but playing a guy who wasn't giving the team anything on either end of the floor obviously had an impact on the games and the series as a whole, and if I were the GM I would have strongly considered firing Brooks after that performance. Then again, this is Sam Presti, a guy who has steadfastly refused to acknowledge he made a mistake with the Perkins trade, and even let James Harden go at the expense of admitting that mistake, so it is what it is.

I think Byron Scott, provided he lasts that long, will truly be judged by his first big playoff series with the Cavs. I'm not talking one where we're an 8-seed, as no one really expects a coach to win those, but rather one where we're either favored or in a position to realistically win. If all of Scott's regular season rotation problems crop up there, he needs to go. If he makes good adjustments and puts in a smart performance (even if we lose), he can stay.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

Unfortunately, he's still got to score an incomplete due to the lack of experience and depth on the team (talent, tbd).

I'd like to see players improve and develop, but I'm not expecting miracles. I've been concerned with his defensive approach since he got here. I'm also concerned that his focus on out-working/running/hustling our opponents hasn't been working. We don't run all the time, and it seems by the end of the game that our guys are the ones wearing down.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

The writing will be in the papers when we awaken to his firing after the season is over. That's all that needs to be said about this joke of a coach.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

My main concern with Scott is that I see a lot of Mike Brown in him with his unwillingness to make changes in-game, and also his general necessity to try everything out for three games or so before he makes adjustments. That's not really a big deal in the regular season, especially a tanking season like this one, but if it carries over into the playoffs, we're going to lose games because of it.

3 games is pretty short for making rotation changes, he'd be pissing off his veterans if he had any and only gave them 3 games to prove themselves before moving them to the bench.

As for in game adjustments, it's tough to call at this point due to a lack of reasonable options. He can't play play our starting-5 for 48 minutes per game.

So, perhaps he should give up on Miles and park him permanently on the bench, but it's part of his job to put up with struggles from his players and to try to help them work through them.
 
Re: Rating Coach Scott

The only negatives I can see with Byron is his lack "knowing" things. What I mean is, he always seems to answer "I don't know" and "maybe you should ask" so and so. At first, I thought it was a coaches tactic but now I am thinking he doesn't know about why we were terrible in the 3rd quarters the first two years, why we are terrible free throw shooting team, why we can't play for 48 minutes, etc...
The main one though is his identity for the team. He wants to be a "defensive team" (Last in league and terrible in last 3 years) and he wants to run on offense and run the Princeton (which we have not seen yet). Sure, we have our breaks and our runs but as a whole, we don't run any more than any other team. We have a team built to run now and we play such a half court offense and lack ball and player movement most of the time (Princeton? - No.) So what is he trying to do? Does he even know. I hope he does.

With that said, I think he is doing a good job despite our talent and I hope he continues to be our coach.
 
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