David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[kookoo]

How much respect did Kidd get last year from a team full of vets? How good of a coach did he look like then?

That is not to critique him at all. He's been amazing so far with Milwaukee and they have been far more competitive than I imagined they could this year.

It's difficult to have an entirely new team and new coach in the same year. Add in injuries and midseason trades and its a big handicap, though one which we have no choice but to overcome.

Look at the Warriors. Kerr is a first year coach but Curry, Klay,Lee, Green, Bogut, and Barnes have all been together 3+ years now. Speights and Iguadola went through their growing pain with them last year. But we're not fans of that team. We don't watch them every night and therefore we don't see their growing pains.

This is not how I saw the first 37 games going but I just think that time together will solve a lot of things that are jumping out to us as huge issues. If the players believe and understand that too, then we can be as tough as any team in the NBA by March.

That's kind of my point. A rookie head coach will never get the respect the demand from a team with superstars. But even With Garnett, Pierce, Williams and Johnson, he still got more respect and a better performance out of that team of old farts than Blatt has so far. And they had played as few games together as we have so chemistry can't be to blame. The only difference between the Nets last season and this season are Pierce, Kidd and one season. And they're in much worse shape right now. A coach the entire team respected, injuries or not, would have had this team at a better record. And again, I'm not insulting Blatt because he's definitely head coach material, but I can see the media's commentary of the team not buying in (for whatever [or whoever] reason). And his rotations have been shit.

I will say I'm glad Mozgov kind of proved himself. He didn't have a great game but he showed that he's worth the picks because he's a legit center.

 

[Taiter]

The thing that frustrates me most about this team (other than the lack of defensive effort) is how they so often settle for chucking and forced shots -- low percentage stuff -- instead of moving the ball. Love's defense has been atrocious, but man, he could be a lot more effective on offense if they'd move the ball around.

 

[wuck]

When healthy, we will have a pretty great and versatile 9 man rotation:

LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Mozgov, Shumpert, JR, Tristan, Marion, Miller.

I would like to see Blatt manage things better in terms of avoiding heavy minutes for the top players. That's something he hasn't done that well this year, even before the injuries.

 

[MirORich]

That's kind of my point. A rookie head coach will never get the respect the demand from a team with superstars. But even With Garnett, Pierce, Williams and Johnson, he still got more respect and a better performance out of that team of old farts than Blatt has so far. And they had played as few games together as we have so chemistry can't be to blame. The only difference between the Nets last season and this season are Pierce, Kidd and one season. And they're in much worse shape right now. A coach the entire team respected, injuries or not, would have had this team at a better record. And again, I'm not insulting Blatt because he's definitely head coach material, but I can see the media's commentary of the team not buying in (for whatever [or whoever] reason). And his rotations have been shit.

I will say I'm glad Mozgov kind of proved himself. He didn't have a great game but he showed that he's worth the picks because he's a legit center.

At Jan 9th of last year the Nets were 14-21 and Kidd was talked about as being a disaster. To his credit and the teams, they definitely turned it around. Pretty sure we're going to see that here and to a larger degree.

On the season as a whole, I understand the concern about the minutes being logged early on by the big 3 and about the whispers of "buying in". I'm not sure how valid the complaints about rotation have been since Andy and LeBron went down.

Even with the Andy injury, our depth has greatly improved in the last week as we traded just one player(Dion) for three(Mozgov, Shump, JR). Once LeBron and Shumpert return, I really doubt we're going to hear much complaining about rotations incl. Delly, James Jones, Harris or Haywood.

 

[czvo]

How much respect did Kidd get last year from a team full of vets? How good of a coach did he look like then?

That is not to critique him at all. He's been amazing so far with Milwaukee and they have been far more competitive than I imagined they could this year.

It's difficult to have an entirely new team and new coach in the same year. Add in injuries and midseason trades and its a big handicap, though one which we have no choice but to overcome.

Look at the Warriors. Kerr is a first year coach but Curry, Klay,Lee, Green, Bogut, and Barnes have all been together 3+ years now. Speights and Iguadola went through their growing pain with them last year. But we're not fans of that team. We don't watch them every night and therefore we don't see their growing pains.

This is not how I saw the first 37 games going but I just think that time together will solve a lot of things that are jumping out to us as huge issues. If the players believe and understand that too, then we can be as tough as any team in the NBA by March.

I don't think respect was ever an issue with Kidd in BRK, it was just figuring out how to best use the team. When Lopez went down, and he inserted Pierce at the 4, that team took off. It took 31 games to figure it out, but he did.

I may be in the minority at this point with Blatt. I think he's been fine, all things considered. The problems that exist are problems that have existed with these guys for years, on different teams, and under different coaches. At a certain point, you just can't blame the coach any more.

 

[MirORich]

I would like to see Blatt manage things better in terms of avoiding heavy minutes for the top players. That's something he hasn't done that well this year, even before the injuries.

Agreed. Now that Shumpert and Smith are here, LeBrons minutes could/should go down a bit. Now that Marion no longer has to play as many SG/SF minutes, Loves minutes should go down.

I just think there is a lot more to work with now for Blatt than there was early in the season, even before the Andy injury.

But I'm in complete agreement. Once LeBron and Shumpert are back, LeBron, Love and Kyrie should not be averaging 36-38+ minutes per game.

 

[Visitor]

I would like to see Blatt manage things better in terms of avoiding heavy minutes for the top players. That's something he hasn't done that well this year, even before the injuries.

I think not having a reliable second playmaker (outside of Lebron) causes a lot of this pain. He ends up riding Love/Kyrie for their scoring ability just to stay in games.

I appreciate Delly's effort but he's just not a 2nd point guard.

 

[MirORich]

I guess I'm just optimistic after the trades and tonights game because I feel like every thing is in place now. I know that LeBron can absolutely maximize what Mozgov brings to the table. I know that JR can score(not like tonight necessarily), but always score for the second unit, and I'm confident that Shump can give consistent effort on defense whether he feels included in the offense or not.

So once all these places are in place, I just don't see it taking that long for things to look so much better.

We've been forced to play way way to many minutes to guys like Delly, Jones, Harris, and Haywood, and have had to ask more of Marion and Miller minute wise and productionwise than we should be(though it would be nice to see Miller hit a third of his threes at least)

 

[wuck]

Once LeBron and Shumpert return, I really doubt we're going to here much complaining about rotations

If you say so.

 

[Taiter]

From Fedor's column:
"Here's the number of passes on each half court possession in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter based on my count after watching again:
0, 2, 0, 4, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 3, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0."

16 passes.

 

[wuck]

From Fedor's column:
"Here's the number of passes on each half court possession in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter based on my count after watching again:
0, 2, 0, 4, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 3, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0."

16 passes.

It has felt all year like we have a system coach and a roster full of too many players that either don't want to play in a system, aren't suited for this system, or have been better freelancing forever. When the game is on the line, they revert to freelancing and ISO, because that's what they know best and think will work best. I blame the players some for that, and I blame Blatt some for that. He's not the disciplinarian I hoped for, but maybe that is too much to ask on a team built around superstars. Ultimately, even if the players are going ISO or are dribbling the hell out of the ball, he's responsible for why the team isn't passing the ball down the stretch, just like he's responsible for why plays aren't being run that get the right players involved.

On the bright side, the current roster looks pretty intriguing and they have plugged some holes. Whether Blatt can get them to be greater than (or even equal to) the sum of their parts remains a question.

On the down side, the transition defense tonight was just horrific. The Warriors are a great team, but you can't just hand it to them like that. Perhaps having a better roster when healthy will enable more players to play harder during their time in the game.

 

[amil99]

I guess I'm just optimistic after the trades and tonights game because I feel like every thing is in place now. I know that LeBron can absolutely maximize what Mozgov brings to the table. I know that JR can score(not like tonight necessarily), but always score for the second unit, and I'm confident that Shump can give consistent effort on defense whether he feels included in the offense or not.

So once all these places are in place, I just don't see it taking that long for things to look so much better.

We've been forced to play way way to many minutes to guys like Delly, Jones, Harris, and Haywood, and have had to ask more of Marion and Miller minute wise and productionwise than we should be(though it would be nice to see Miller hit a third of his threes at least)

So basically Lebron is gonna bail another shitty coach out ala Brown, Spo.....

 

[Triumph36]

I would like to see Blatt manage things better in terms of avoiding heavy minutes for the top players. That's something he hasn't done that well this year, even before the injuries.

ah, the most underrated & undervalued aspect of an nba coach.

So basically Lebron is gonna bail another shitty coach out ala Brown, Spo.....

wait what? spo is absolutely not a "shitty coach" and does not deserve to be lumped in with mike brown.

 

[Kbiz]

When healthy, we will have a pretty great and versatile 9 man rotation:

LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Mozgov, Shumpert, JR, Tristan, Marion, Miller.

I think Blatt will have a much easier time balancing the minutes and rotation at that point. Guys like Delly, Jones, Harris, and Haywood can get minutes in blowouts or every once in a while just to keep them sharp.

On paper, that is a pretty solid rotation. My issue is that I have little faith in Blast to manage the minutes effectively to create cohesion within that unit.

His decision making continues to puzzle me. TT in the whole 4th last night? It was obvious to me that Love looked more comfortable playing alongside Moz. With Moz in, he was rarely double teamed down low and had a nice little run towards the end of the first quarter... but lets just keep TT in when the game is close. Him getting stuffed at the rim and bricking awkward lay-ups really contributed to the team.

I have almost lost all faith in Blatt... almost.

 

[cavsfever]

Here's what I'm seeing from Blatt.

He said when LeBron was ruled out that he would have to "scale back" the offense. Now, the system wasn't all that complex that they were running to begin with. In my opinion, that is as much of an indictment on Kyrie as it is Blatt. The offense Bron was running was not complicated at all, he's just 1000X the playmaker Kyrie is. Kyrie is in score first, pass second mode right now, which is often mistaken for aggression. I always say there is a fine line between being "aggressive" and being "reckless." Just because a player is attacking over and over again doesn't mean they are playing aggressive. Kyrie was reckless tonight. As a result, there was absolutely no movement in the offense. Kyrie wasn't setting up any plays. He would either come down and immediately start a series of 15 dribbles between the legs, behind his back, etc with an obvious decision of his to score on that possession. Too many times he comes down and predetermines what he is going to do, which is score, and because of that there is no offensive system.

Blatt can't have his system run if his point guard is unwilling to follow it. That is problem #1. Problem #2 is Blatt himself. He has absolutely no idea how to best use Kevin Love and my theory why is because he never watched film of him in Minnesota. He never looked at the sets Adelman ran for him to get him open looks. This isn't something LeBron is going to be able to do. This is 100% Blatt's job. He needs to sit down with Kevin and say "Kevin, tell me how to best use you." That's the only way they will get on the same page. Otherwise, it will always be the same problem.

Finally, he just needs LeBron back. Plain and simple. Kyrie cannot run point and have this team be successful. LeBron to his credit recognized this 11 games in and took it over himself. Kyrie is 100X better off the ball, which is why him and LeBron fit so well together. Kyrie is a great shooter and when teams aren't loading up on him, it takes an enormous weight off his shoulders. He's impossible to stop when playing next to LeBron. At this point, nobody can get mad at LeBron for taking over the offense from Blatt and Kyrie. It does not work.

Thank you, thank you for this post. I could barely read this board for a while because of all the ridiculous abuse being heaped on Lebron, when the guy saw the move that clearly needed to be made given Irving's severe limitations as a PG, and did it. It is not to Blatt's credit that Lebron had to do this on his own initiative. All the stuff about Blatt being a genius and Lebron being some kind of idiot who just needed to obey Blatt and run his 'system' was borderline racist actually, especially given that anyone with eyes should understand by now that Lebron James has an extremely high basketball IQ.

The problem as I see it is that given his injuries / new physical limitations it is going to be difficult for Lebron to be a perimeter playmaker and carry the load we need him to carry as the distributor and leader of the team. Really, Lebron 2.0 is best suited to be a point forward and operate from the high post -- it is physically taxing to initiate the offense from the outside all the time. But it is unclear how we integrate that kind of point forward play with Love and Mozgov. The Heat cleared out the paint and had Bosh transform his game to accomodate that, but Bosh is far more athletic (and taller!) than Love and more skilled than Mozgov obviously.