TMS wrote:nixluva wrote:TMS wrote:MDA has been insanely loyal but only to his guys... Duhon, Fishlips, Bender & D Lee could do no wrong in his eyes this year... never heard him utter a single critical word about any of them all year until Duhon & Bender's struggles became so blatantly obvious even MDA had to address the issue w/the benchings way beyond the point of effectiveness when the season had already been lost.Nate, Hughes & Darko were given the shaft at the first sign of not playing up to his "system" standards this season... MDA has also put the onus of blame on his players for not fouling in late game situations that cost us the game on more than 1 occasion this season... he has no problem whatsoever in laying blame at the door of players who are outside his inner circle of trust... i find his comments about not throwing anyone under the bus just more of his usual bullsheit.
This is normal coach behavior tho. LB, PHil, Riley heck MDA is in good company when it comes to this kind of thing. I understand what you're saying, but is it really that outside of the norm for coaches to talk out of both sides of their mouths on certain issues or to have favorites on their teams, even when they say that they aren't doing that? I just think you're holding MDA up to a standard that MOST coaches don't live up to. Especially the big ego coaches.
i've seen Popovich scream at Tim Duncan & Tony Parker alike when he's not doing what he wants him to do... i've seen Phil Jackson bench Kobe for a stretch during games in his younger days when he was playing too selfish style ball... those guys have learned that their coaches don't play favorites just because they're talented ballplayers... Michael Jordan never gave Phil Jackson a reason to throw him under the bus, the guy was the most driven & demanding perfectionist on that entire team including the coaching staff... i've seen Jax come down on Scottie Pippen & refuse to coddle him too when he was pouting on the bench for not having a play written up for him in crunchtime... & i can't even remember the last time i saw Pat Riley playing favorites, he was very hard on John Starks in particular & deservedly so, but he didn't ignore things that other players were doing wrong just because they were coach's pet the way MDA has w/this team this season.
I think you're overstating this a bit. I've seen MDA yelling at Lee and others for not stepping up on D, but at a certain point the guy is stuck cuz there isn't anyone behind Lee that you can really use to show him up. Also, the guys been playing out of position and against some beastly bigs. What do you want an extended argument between MDA and Lee just to prove that he's mad about poor play? I could spend time pooring thru game tapes to see if MDA ever yells WHILE looking at specific players just to prove a point, but I don't have to. I know that he's done this to just about everyone on the team at some point.
This claim that MDA doesn't like COnfrontation and thus his teams play with a lack of discipline seems a bit odd when you see that his PHX teams went the WCF's 2x. I can't imagine how you win 62 games and make it that far in the playoffs out in the tough Western Conf. if your team isn't well coached and ready to play most nights. That just goes against all logic. His teams operated at a league high 50% and if that was so easy to do a lot of teams would be doing it. People say that offense comes and goes, which is true, but his teams sure had it going more often than not. Imagine if they actually had a PG and guy in the middle that could play D?
I'll be perfectly happy to have him get this team to that level here. I actually think that we could put together a better team than he had in PHX, especially on D. With is defensive scheme of forcing bad shots and denying penetration, playing the passing lanes, if you have the right personnel that can really work well. Gallo fits due to his length, TD and Sergio both have ball hawk ability. If TMac was fully healthy he'd also fit that concept. We just need a C and PF with length, good anticipation and shotblocking. His defense is about playing the ball and forcing bad shots, rebounding, steals so you can run. His teams were statistically low in fouls committed, low 3pt% allowed, high in steals and fast breaks. That's by design. He doesn't want a lot of fouls so the other team can slow the game down and get super high % shots. That can work here if we improve the roster.
