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

[Kouki]

I think people just need to take a second and realize that it's LeBron James and the fucking Miami Heat. Did anyone here watch the LeBron-era Cavs and realize that LeBron (and by extension his teams) has an on/off switch when it comes to caring about winning? It's the same thing. We had guys come out of the gate really hard while Miami didn't really have a big reason to go all out in the first half. We were playing a very short rotation and missing our two best ball handlers against the team with the best ball pressure and scrambling defense in the league. We were only up by 27 in the first half because we really really cared and Miami didn't. It was really just a farce we were ahead so much in the first place, they were playing with their food.

Could Byron have handled it better, yes. But Miami was going to make a run no matter what and Byron was simply trying to preserve his "big guns" (relatively speaking) until later in the game. Still don't disagree with Zeller not seeing much action though. But Walton? I can't blame Byron for using him when we needed someone to take care of the ball and create ball movement. In case no one has been watching, he's been playing phenomenal lately and is one of the key reasons why our bench has been so good.

And a TON of the blame for the loss goes to our lack of ballhandlers and our players not being able to handle pressure defense. Two things made us lose, a lack of ballhandling/passing ability that led to turnovers (completely a talent and Miami defense issue) and poor defensive rotation to three pointers (that one you can blame on coach, but that didn't just start happening tonight). Miami flipped their switch in the second half defensively and we couldn't even make clean perimeter passes. That's more on our talent level, not on the coach.

 

[Tornicade]

ellington played 41 minutes. Livingston 36. 36-38 minutes is about the most Scott will play thompson. Zellers minutes are being watched.

3 guys off the bench played a total of 13 minutes together. typically with at least 2 of the games starters on the court for most of the time.

the Cavs built a big lead against a team that wasnt focused nor interested in the game. the heat just as they dallas last week shut down the pssing lanes and the players started making mistakes.

 

[chrisrich91]

We can bitch and complain all we want. The fact is, Scott isn't going anywhere for at least the next 2 seasons unless he chooses to leave.

First, he's very close with the front office.

Second, his job was always to ride out some tanks before making the playoffs. His only expectations as a coach until next season have only been individual development of the young players...I don't think he's had a big impact on them as much as Mosley and Z have, but whatever.

His bad rotations and poor use of timeouts isn't going to get him fired until it costs us a playoff series. It's the sad truth. Then there's the Scott-Kyrie relationship. Chris Paul's relationship with New Orleans hit rock bottom after Scott's firing. That will be ugly too.

Just a shitty situation. He's not a good coach, and that's been obvious any time we play a non-tank game that we actually are trying to win.

 

[Green Lantern]

"His bad rotations and poor use of timeouts isn't going to get him fired until it costs us a playoff series. It's the sad truth. Then there's the Scott-Kyrie relationship. Chris Paul's relationship with New Orleans hit rock bottom after Scott's firing. That will be ugly too."

It was exactly that which contributed to that disgusting loss that we're going to hear about for a long time..AGAIN.
The Heat do have that on/off switch but the Cavs have a turnover on/off switch also and it was on late thrid quarter to the rest of the game.

 

[shoes22]

. Then there's the Scott-Kyrie relationship. Chris Paul's relationship with New Orleans hit rock bottom after Scott's firing. That will be ugly too.

Why does everyone act like Coach Scott is the only guy Kyrie can be close to? Kyrie's been close to every coach he's ever played for. As long as we hire the right guy, it won't be a problem.

 

[PIP]

Once up by 27 the Cavs should have took every possession thereafter and held the ball for 24 second violations....

24 second violations plus stout defense wins the cookie

 

[The Oi]

Sidenote: bet they find enlarged blood vessels in Rick Adelman's wife's brain. If that's the case, there's no excuse for missing it...but it happens.

 

[MattyFos.]

We lost a game we should have won. Classic over reaction in here. Understood though. But going by the game logs, our starters played heavily. The game was lost by Walton (surprisingly. He's been great lately) and Boobie (unsurprisingly)

 

[Kouki]

The Heat do have that on/off switch but the Cavs have a turnover on/off switch also and it was on late thrid quarter to the rest of the game.

Yeah it didn't have anything to do with the Heat having the best ball pressure, lane-denying, scrambling defense in the league, and all of a sudden started playing like it, and we don't have two of our primary ball handlers...

 

[Nathan S]

His rotations are bad, but my bigger problem with Byron Scott is that for long stretches, the offense just stagnates, as if there's no real plan or anything, and he doesn't do anything to change it.

We have the 3rd worst assist ratio (assists per 100 possessions) in the league, are 2nd worst at shooting the corner 3, and are also 2nd worst shooting in the restricted area. Whatever offense we're running, it's not generating high percentage looks like open layups and open corner 3's. Guys like CJ Miles are putting up so few assists it's almost like Scott is telling them not to move the ball. Even more disturbing is that the young guys, Dion and Kyrie, who are supposed to be able to initiate offense and move the ball, have also seen their assist numbers stagnate or even decline over the course of their young careers.

In my opinion, this is why the offense looks so disappointingly poor with Kyrie/Dion leading, and then looks amazing with Livingston at the helm. No offense, but it's not because of Shaun's transcendent passing ability, it's because unless you're dealing with a veteran, pass-first point guard, you can't just send 'em out there and let them make it up as they go. Do we even run plays in practice? or is practice just more "You guys play basketball, I'll walk over here and stare expressionlessly at you"? Next year is he going to say "Ok, time to start winning, here's the real offense I've been keeping secret this whole time in order to tank as hard as possible"?

If next season the Cavs offense is still not generating high percentage looks, and Kyrie is still averaging under 6 assists per game, I will be seriously worried about the future of this team. No matter how lucky we get with the draft, we will never have a championship contender if we have Coach Scott running his "go do something, I could care less" offense. I mean, with the game on the line against the Miami Heat, the best he can come up with is "Alright, Ellington has the most points, so he's gonna go iso and take a long fadeaway 2." Really? That's, like, what my ten year old cousin would say. Couldn't we have at least *tried* drawing up a play to get someone open?

Oh, and don't get me started on his defensive schemes, which involve classic strategies like "let's take our best wing defender and put him on point guards so he gets tired and then we have no good defenders at all" and "let's have Luke Walton defend power forwards now because that's totally something he's capable of."

I like to think all this shit is going to end when we're actually trying to win games, but damn...right now, you could make a strong case that we have the worst coach in the league.

 

[Rich]

His rotations are bad, but my bigger problem with Byron Scott is that for long stretches, the offense just stagnates, as if there's no real plan or anything, and he doesn't do anything to change it.

We have the 3rd worst assist ratio (assists per 100 possessions) in the league, are 2nd worst at shooting the corner 3, and are also 2nd worst shooting in the restricted area. Whatever offense we're running, it's not generating high percentage looks like open layups and open corner 3's. Guys like CJ Miles are putting up so few assists it's almost like Scott is telling them not to move the ball. Even more disturbing is that the young guys, Dion and Kyrie, who are supposed to be able to initiate offense and move the ball, have also seen their assist numbers stagnate or even decline over the course of their young careers.

In my opinion, this is why the offense looks so disappointingly poor with Kyrie/Dion leading, and then looks amazing with Livingston at the helm. No offense, but it's not because of Shaun's transcendent passing ability, it's because unless you're dealing with a veteran, pass-first point guard, you can't just send 'em out there and let them make it up as they go. Do we even run plays in practice? or is practice just more "You guys play basketball, I'll walk over here and stare expressionlessly at you"? Next year is he going to say "Ok, time to start winning, here's the real offense I've been keeping secret this whole time in order to tank as hard as possible"?

If next season the Cavs offense is still not generating high percentage looks, and Kyrie is still averaging under 6 assists per game, I will be seriously worried about the future of this team. No matter how lucky we get with the draft, we will never have a championship contender if we have Coach Scott running his "go do something, I could care less" offense. I mean, with the game on the line against the Miami Heat, the best he can come up with is "Alright, Ellington has the most points, so he's gonna go iso and take a long fadeaway 2." Really? That's, like, what my ten year old cousin would say. Couldn't we have at least *tried* drawing up a play to get someone open?

Oh, and don't get me started on his defensive schemes, which involve classic strategies like "let's take our best wing defender and put him on point guards so he gets tired and then we have no good defenders at all" and "let's have Luke Walton defend power forwards now because that's totally something he's capable of."

I like to think all this shit is going to end when we're actually trying to win games, but damn...right now, you could make a strong case that we have the worst coach in the league.

I can give you the reason for this and his name is Alonzo Gee. Gets about 2-3 open corner 3s a game, and is lucky to make 1 a week.

 

[Nathan S]

I can give you the reason for this and his name is Alonzo Gee. Gets about 2-3 open corner 3s a game, and is lucky to make 1 a week.

So, if you were a not-terrible coach, wouldn't you have Ellington or Miles or Booby in the corner instead?

 

[Rich]

So, if you were a not-terrible coach, wouldn't you have Ellington or Miles or Booby in the corner instead?

I wouldn't have Boobie anywhere near a basketball court if I were king.

But if the only thing that factored in to guys getting PT was shooting corner 3s, then yea. But it isn't. Gee has true SF size and is a decent defender. He's going to play.

 

[Nathan S]

I wouldn't have Boobie anywhere near a basketball court if I were king.

But if the only thing that factored in to guys getting PT was shooting corner 3s, then yea. But it isn't. Gee has true SF size and is a decent defender. He's going to play.

I don't mind that he's playing, but we have at least two other rotation guys in Miles and Ellington who are much, much better shooters than he is. Why in the world is Gee the one shooting corner 3's?

 

[Hydroponic3385]

I don't mind that he's playing, but we have at least two other rotation guys in Miles and Ellington who are much, much better shooters than he is. Why in the world is Gee the one shooting corner 3's?

In terms of overall minutes...Because Gee is a much, much better defender than Miles. Gee is also bigger than Ellington, which is important for a starting SF. I prefer Ellington over the other 2, but I understand why it's important to have Gee on the floor (best defender of the 3). And I'd say all 3 of them shoot the 3 fairly often when they're in, not just Gee.

Bottom line is I can't wait until we can just refer to all 3 of these guys as part of our amazing bench bunch, rather than forcing one of them to start. Although 1 of them (and/or Livingston) will very possibly be gone.