David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[Douglar]

Blatt has proven he can find and adjust, both at the season level, and at the in-game level. LeBron going out during the 1st only to start the 2nd is an in-season adjustment. There are many others. In-game, you can see during games what he's trying out as he "builds" his 4th quarter lineup. That is his ultimate goal - to find the best lineup to finish the game, and find the best moment to put them in.

If that's what you see, great, but I lack your vision. He's had some good games, but at the same I've seen him send in some really weak lineups for no clear reason and I've seen him get repetitive in his 4th quarter approach. Sometimes the talent level on the team bails him out. Didn't happen on Friday.

 

[tocov]

Once again, there is no reason for him to "adjust" something that has brought us 28-7 record in the past 3 months.
Why should he adjust such a highly successfull system?

 

[Gurz]

Well, I think changing leads to perfection, BUT one should note that 80% of the "complaints" here regard changes (on different scales) that Blatt is doing.

Unlike the media and the fans who emotionally strive for something good for the eye, a good coach is monitoring the wanted processes he's trying to make, for instance - getting perk into the business, because even if he contributes little at the moment, Blatt knows he would need him on some playoff games.

And that's the kind of stuff you see off Blatt every season. That's also why his teams tend not to spark at all until January, but you could always be sure that the team would have the potential to succeed in the defining moments (as he sees them).

Another point that might be interesting about Blatt's approach to the media - Blatt usually tends to enter his team into an underdog mentality each game and each part of the season, no matter standings/fixtures.
One of his tools to accomplish that is usually the media - Blatt would always talk about progress, challenges and only the "next step". Sadly, but not surprisingly, the media do not always accept that, as this method generates less buzz. The messages you hear from him now are those you have heard 4 months ago.
Particularly in our situation, I think the media has a hard time accepting that while Blatt coaches a prime candidate to the cup, and a lot of negative stuff being said from journalists about Blatt personally might have something to do with that.

 

[Taiter]

From what I saw during Blatt's Maccabi years, Blatt uses minutes as an educational aid. That is, he punishes players who don't play hard enough even if they are very good, by decreasing their minutes, and gives plenty of minutes to players who may not be as good, but who play hard.

I can't say whether it's a good technique or not, but it is possible that this is why Blatt often restricts Moz or Love in the last quarter.

Moz, from what I can tell, always plays hard. He fumbles the ball too much (especially if it's not thrown high to him) but he always plays with effort.

 

[6kiss]

Once again, there is no reason for him to "adjust" something that has brought us 28-7 record in the past 3 months.
Why should he adjust such a highly successfull system?

If you are going by our record, Mike Brown was obviously a HOF coach.

 

[Thelorn]

Why did he not sit the starters against the 76ers or at least Love and Lebron? Instead he played all 5 starters over 30 minutes.

He needs to put a stop to this coasting iso habbit that is still continuing, keep letting the habbit go unchecked and it's slowly going to become who we are.

 

[LeShaq]

This game was ridiculous.

We can't play Oklahoma City isolation ball down the stretch of games and expect to win in the playoffs.

 

[*L-Train*]

Why did he not sit the starters against the 76ers or at least Love and Lebron? Instead he played all 5 starters over 30 minutes.

He needs to put a stop to this coasting iso habbit that is still continuing, keep letting the habbit go unchecked and it's slowly going to become who we are.

we're only 2 games in front of Chicago, one behind San Antonio so why would he sit them? we barely won this ugly game with the starters playing...

 

[tocov]

Shit game. Glad we won it at least.

 

[tocov]

If you are going by our record, Mike Brown was obviously a HOF coach.

Well I don't understand the need to make changes if the team is winning. If we stop winning and changes are not made (Mike Brown), then it will be a reasonable case. But we can't tell the future, and we don't know how Blatt will react if and when the time comes.
Complaining right now about possible future scenarios is silly. So far everything works well. When we get to the bridge, we'll cross it.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Glad we got the win, but there wasn't many positives to takeaway after watching the players drift through a lazy Sunday afternoon game.

At least Kendrick Perkins didn't play.

 

[roozy]

Glad we got the win, but there wasn't many positives to takeaway after watching the players drift through a lazy Sunday afternoon game.

At least Kendrick Perkins didn't play.

Adding to this, Thank goodness James Jones did not play in the 2nd half his defensive effort was atrocious.

 

[Sean King 87]

Our last two 4'th quarters was with less than 20 points made. Not something which happen to us consecutively. We need to learn how to run our offensive sets much faster. Right now it seems that if we haven't the right energy, our slow offensive sets are too easy to predict. I guess it's a matter of less chemistry that we have and lack of practice time, but we'll need to find the way to work on the speed of the way we running it.

Also, it is not a secret that if things not going in our way, and shots fails to get inside, we are leaning on the isolation too much and if the iso not going in well it makes us too nervous. This is why we have not seen too much times when we have been blowing away opponents in the last few minutes when shots aren't fall in in most part of the game. It is a bad habit that we making over and over and it's doesn't makes our life easier in tied situations.

 

[godfather]

Why did he not sit the starters against the 76ers or at least Love and Lebron? Instead he played all 5 starters over 30 minutes.

He needs to put a stop to this coasting iso habbit that is still continuing, keep letting the habbit go unchecked and it's slowly going to become who we are.

I've been as hard on him as anyone when it comes to resting, but I am glad he rode them out. They all played really shitty tonight, and that shouldn't be tolerated, regardless of how meaningless the game was.

If Blatt wanted to send any message he wanted in this game, I have no problem.

Look on the bright side, we play just 1 game this coming week. They'll have plenty of time to rest. Kevin Love might not play for a full week (I'd sit him out against the Heat).

I think that fact he kept them in was punishment enough, for guys that clearly looked like they didn't want to play at all tonight. And he was sending a message that it's not tolerable, and you guys are going to finish this game.

 

[mhi]

Really laid it on thick in the post game presser with the fatigue excuse.

Lebron, otoh, refused to use the excuse on multiple chances.