Posted by realhiphop:

Dirk is still a subpar defender. The only thing that makes him look better is that Josh Howard's a great defender, and their guards keep their men in front of them. Dallas' Team D certainly helps Dirk from looking bad.

Dirk has improved. Oddly, Dallas uses a zone. As does Miami. The legendary coach brown does not believe in the zone because it was not in use when he and Dean Smith invented the game. nor was the three point shot. it's just not the right way.

All downer, all the time.

Posted by Panos:

Posted by rvhoss:

if curry can get strong and get boards and frye perfects his shot blocking they are a young shaq mourning. key term, YOUNG.

All delusional, all the time...

Posted by rvhoss:

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by realhiphop:

Dirk is still a subpar defender. The only thing that makes him look better is that Josh Howard's a great defender, and their guards keep their men in front of them. Dallas' Team D certainly helps Dirk from looking bad.

Dirk has improved. Oddly, Dallas uses a zone. As does Miami. The legendary coach brown does not believe in the zone because it was not in use when he and Dean Smith invented the game. nor was the three point shot. it's just not the right way.

Funny, because it's true.

LB in Indy relied heavily on the 3 point shot. LB relied heavily on isolation plays and one man scoring in Philly. The Zone defense has been legal for all of like what, 2 years? And one year he was in Detroit, a team that didn't have any need in the world to play Zone, and on this team he did talk about possibly having to play a Zone because they were so horrendous defensively.

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by joec32033:

and on this team he did talk about possibly having to play a Zone because they were so horrendous defensively.

Larry likes to talk about all sorts of things he doesn't do... like setting a lineup, using a zone, shortening the bench, coaching better, etc.

Each of those things can actually be attributed to one point-Not one player established nhimself in any role that they should have...Not one player established himself above any of the players he was competing against. You can't have a rotation when every other practice the backup is outplaying the guy ahead of him.

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by joec32033:

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by joec32033:

and on this team he did talk about possibly having to play a Zone because they were so horrendous defensively.

Larry likes to talk about all sorts of things he doesn't do... like setting a lineup, using a zone, shortening the bench, coaching better, etc.

Each of those things can actually be attributed to one point-Not one player established nhimself in any role that they should have...Not one player established himself above any of the players he was competing against. You can't have a rotation when every other practice the backup is outplaying the guy ahead of him.

...or you could say, you can't expect players to succeed when they don't know what's expected of them. Is it really so hard to set a rotation and tell guys what they are supposed to do in the minutes they are alloted? Sure, it's hard to bench a couple of guys, but hey, we pay this guy $50 million to make those hard decisions. From where I was sitting, Larry didn't make too many decisions all season, but he sure liked to whine about how hard it was to the press. He's the highest paid coach in the league - shut up and work with what you have, Larry.

It's one thing to tell guys this but you can't make them do it, which happens to be the whole point. The overused saying I like to use "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink". Is it the jockey's fault if a horse just won't run a race? Yea, Larry got $50 mil over 5 to coach, but Steph gets $20 mil to listen to the coach. Francis gets $18 mil to do the same thing. Jalen gets $16 mil to do the same thing, and down the line. There is no way to set a rotation when the players are flip flopping outplaying each other. That is the whole point of a rotation-best players play first and most. When your opinon of best players is changing daily at practice there is no way to se a rotation.

Posted by Bippity10:

It is definitely hard for players to succeed when they don't know what is expected of them. 100% something that needs to be fixed this year. I aagree with this 100% but........It should not be hard to come into camp in shape and play hard throughout the season. Our players find this hard and yet we defend them. Not kknowing what is expected is not an excuse to quit on your teammates and not play hard from day one.

I agree but I also have to say, LB told them what he expected from the begining. Defend, pass, don't take bad shots. When it comes to idividual player expectations, I have a hard time believing it was that hard. Frye seemed to know what the coach wanted. So did Q. Craw figured it out at the end. So did Nate. And Malik. Taylor did it at the begining then started crying. Going down the list the ONLY players that had a really hard time with LB's expectations were the "star" vets.

Bip I agree 100%. Where we differ is only about what Larry expected of his players and if they were smart enough to know it. It seems that if you do the 3 things Larry wants, you can do anything you want on offense.

From where I stan, Larry expects 3 things. You do those 3 things, he'll give you alot of leeway (ask Chauncy and AI).

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by joec32033:

Posted by Bippity10:

It is definitely hard for players to succeed when they don't know what is expected of them. 100% something that needs to be fixed this year. I aagree with this 100% but........It should not be hard to come into camp in shape and play hard throughout the season. Our players find this hard and yet we defend them. Not kknowing what is expected is not an excuse to quit on your teammates and not play hard from day one.

I agree but I also have to say, LB told them what he expected from the begining. Defend, pass, don't take bad shots. When it comes to idividual player expectations, I have a hard time believing it was that hard. Frye seemed to know what the coach wanted. So did Q. Craw figured it out at the end. So did Nate. And Malik. Taylor did it at the begining then started crying. Going down the list the ONLY players that had a really hard time with LB's expectations were the "star" vets.

That's what Larry wanted from the team. Larry is all about his own ego, but oblivious to his players. Players have egos, this is not a bad thing. They have to be treated like men and told what's expected of them individually. It's called defining a role. Can you imagine if Larry Brown worked at a real company? Always speaking in vague generalities then freaking out when people didn't do what he wanted? "Play the right way! What are you doing, I said the RIGHT WAY!"

You make it sound like all Larry walked around practice, mumbling to himself "Get them to play the right way, play the right way, gotta play the right way". I've seen LB coach, I've watched his teams and I can see how he likes to play, so I am sure that players know how he likes to have his team play. Defend, Play hard, pass are hardly vague generalities.

Posted by joec32033:


You make it sound like all Larry walked around practice, mumbling to himself "Get them to play the right way, play the right way, gotta play the right way". I've seen LB coach, I've watched his teams and I can see how he likes to play, so I am sure that players know how he likes to have his team play. Defend, Play hard, pass are hardly vague generalities.

they aren't, but the problems he had with almost every player on the team, with the exception of maybe QRich and Jamal and Malik seem to imply a lack of communication.

and the real vagueness came in terms of where players stood. we set an all-time record for starting lineups, we had 12 or 13 guys who started 10 games or more. there was no consistency, no one knew what their role was on a given night. that's why I say when you do that and tell guys to go out and play hard and compete after yanking them around like that, it's going to seem vague. a guy starts one night and doesn't the next and then starts again the next week, he's going to be confused after a while and it happened to every single guy on the team.

larry seemed to think he could communicate what he wanted from guys through the media - there were reports on this, he didn't realize the way the NY media would twist these things as barbs and try to instigate a war of words. but he kept doing it. how many times did we read a brown quote and the media goes to Steph or Ariza or Nate or Curry about it and they say - "I never heard that from coach." The media had to tell Curry that Brown thought of him as the franchise player - wouldn't it help if that came directly from Brown? there was a big article about this in the indiana papers pointing out that he used to communicate to players through the media there but it wasn't working in NY because of the huge media that reports it somewhat differently and creates a more adversarial environment. Brown had to learn that he had to speak directly with players, and it really seems like he lost most of the team before he learned this.