Posted by holfresh:

Your theory about a buzz I think is completely wrong...No one hires a coach for 50 mil to "create a buzz"...LB was off a Championship and was touted as the best mind in the game...Thats what Isiah wanted for the team..Thats what I wanted for the team...LB could have worked out if he decided he wanted to coach the team but he changed his mind in training camp...

[Edited by - holfresh on 12-28-2006 9:02 PM]

That's a fair opinion and in the end we will never know who's right. But I will say this, if Isiah honestly thought that he could mix LB with this bunch, he was mistaken. I said it from the beginning. It wasn't going to work.

I remember spending half the offseason discussing who this meant we were getting rid of. It didn't appear to be rocket science to me. After the Olympics with LB and Marbs who in the world could have thought anything else???????????? Every reporter and 90% of the fans talked about the inevitable daily. But somehow we were caught off guard when it occured. That's just odd to me. Did Isiah not have a plan for LB and marbs just in case it didn't work out??? To me it just didn't appear to be a plan if we were surprised by what occured. I'm nto goign to argue the point. We all have our opinions. We will never know who's right and who's wrong. but we do know that it didn't work and it's time to move on.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 12-28-2006 9:12 PM]

I equate not knowing that LB and Marbs would clash to not knowing that JJ will come to camp fat each year. How could you not know.

Posted by nixluva:

The thing that is stark about how bad a job LB did, is that he made almost no attempt to adjust his gameplan to his players. You see how Isiah has made adjustments to his original scheme to fit what this team has shown is their strength. Now we're going inside more and we're using Steph's naturall skills more. You can see he's adjusted to using big lineups after he saw that it was working. He used the Zone when it was working. All these adjustments are things we NEVER saw LB do. In fact he seemed to almost stop using his head after a while. Isiah at least came in with a confident mood in camp and has continued to remain positive and supportive of the players. Even tho the record isn't that great yet, the team is showing real improvement.

Now all of this LB bashing isn't to absolve the players from what they didn't do, but as far as creating an environment for these players to succeed, LB didn't do that. He assumed that this team sucked when it didn't and Isiah is proving that you can improve these players and get them to play better. He's been FAR more successful in reaching these guys. I just want to see this team continue to grow together and improve.

I still think when the midget gets back we will see a four guard line up with d lee as center.

But- that said- I am wondering if Isiah say Utah go zone and put AK out top and the problems it caused us and started to use it himself- I believe we had a zone with Frye or JJ2 up top.

Posted by oohah:

what's the plan?

Develop a youthful core of players who are athletic and have a wide range of abilities. Attack on offense. Adjust coaching strategy to fit players abilities and development as needed.

(And when the right opportunity comes along, attempt to land superstar.)

oohah

So Isiah's plan is to basically do what every other bad team in the history of the NBA tries to do. And it only took him how many years to figure it out?

Pure freaking genius.

Now instead of spewing that generalized crap, how about you tell us his real plan? The one that accounts for spending half a billion dollars and trading away 4 potential lottery picks.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by holfresh:

Your theory about a buzz I think is completely wrong...No one hires a coach for 50 mil to "create a buzz"...LB was off a Championship and was touted as the best mind in the game...Thats what Isiah wanted for the team..Thats what I wanted for the team...LB could have worked out if he decided he wanted to coach the team but he changed his mind in training camp...

[Edited by - holfresh on 12-28-2006 9:02 PM]

That's a fair opinion and in the end we will never know who's right. But I will say this, if Isiah honestly thought that he could mix LB with this bunch, he was mistaken. I said it from the beginning. It wasn't going to work.

I remember spending half the offseason discussing who this meant we were getting rid of. It didn't appear to be rocket science to me. After the Olympics with LB and Marbs who in the world could have thought anything else???????????? Every reporter and 90% of the fans talked about the inevitable daily. But somehow we were caught off guard when it occured. That's just odd to me. Did Isiah not have a plan for LB and marbs just in case it didn't work out??? To me it just didn't appear to be a plan if we were surprised by what occured. I'm nto goign to argue the point. We all have our opinions. We will never know who's right and who's wrong. but we do know that it didn't work and it's time to move on.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 12-28-2006 9:12 PM]

Nobody was caught off guard, brown was suppose to work through it. YOu get paid more for a job because it's hard, you think the ten million was because he had a great personality???? NO. IT's like those Crab Fishermen or people who clean up Nuclear waste, you make 70 dollars an hour for a reason!!!!!!!! Don't complain when your hanging off the side of the boat or have a hand growing out your chest..... it's too late then.

>>The one that accounts for spending half a billion dollars and trading away 4 potential lottery picks.

People don't play to see potential lottery picks.

Enjoy The Ride

Nah, on second thought Islesfan ... please resume your regulary scheduled, monotonous bitching and moaning


or go read Harvey Araton in NYTimes

Posted by Bippity10:

Nobody was caught off guard? Man you are delusional. You must not have gone to a good school

WHo was caught off guard by Marbury and Brown not getting along?????? Who didn't know about what happened at the World games??? What reporter didn't ask brown about Marbury and him getting along when he was hired???? People hoped they could make threw a season with Brown being the bigger man.

Only thing nobody knew was Brown would drag the entire team threw the mudd before the allstar break and tank a season because of Marbury.... is that what you were talking about??? We were caught off guard by how petty and how much of snake Brown would be. YOu would be right about that part.

Posted by Anji:

Posted by Bippity10:

Nobody was caught off guard? Man you are delusional. You must not have gone to a good school

WHo was caught off guard by Marbury and Brown not getting along?????? Who didn't know about what happened at the World games??? What reporter didn't ask brown about Marbury and him getting along when he was hired???? People hoped they could make threw a season with Brown being the bigger man.

Only thing nobody knew was Brown would drag the entire team threw the mudd before the allstar break and tank a season because of Marbury.... is that what you were talking about??? We were caught off guard by how petty and how much of snake Brown would be. YOu would be right about that part.

And Lb dragged the team through the mud becasue he didn't like it. He wanted to get rid of the roster. Which is somehting a lot of people could have told you was going to happen. But a few people here and our organization were definitely surprised.

Bottom line is you don't hire a disciplinarian coach unless you want to follow their system. That's why they are disciplinarains. It's their way or the high way. IF you don't like it don't hire them.

"It's huge, huge, huge that the coach has confidence in us," Frye said. "He puts us in situations, and he's never negative."

"It's just guys stepping up," said David Lee, "Everybody's taking turns, stepping up and making big plays, and that's what good teams do."

"I think in the last two weeks, since the Utah game, we've really grown up and we're playing together," said Jamal Crawford, who fed Frye for his game-tying shot in the second OT. "And not just because of the brawl. It was just a matter of time."

"This is what it's like to coach a really young team," Thomas said, "a young team that's trying to work its way through the NBA."

Misterearl: Those assessments are all true. And once again goes to prove my point of the oil and water mix we had last year. IF you want someone who is patient and will teach the young guys and build their confidence you don't go out and hire a guy that is known for breaking guys down. That was our mistake last year. Why does it seem so obvious to me and not to others. LB was not part of any plan. He was available, sounded good, so we hired him without any thought for our long-term future. Same thing we did with Jalen, Stevie, Mo Taylor, JJ, Mark Strickland, Mark Jackson(teh second time) etc.

If you are going young and want them to grow you don't go and hire a coach becasue he is available. You hire the best fit. If you have a young team that needs to be built. You find a guy that is good at working with young guys and will build confidence. You don't hire LB because he's not going to do that. If you hire LB be prepared to watch your rookies sit and to bring in a group of vets who already know how to play the game. He has a 30 year history of that, so where is the confusion.

Anyone notice that when Bill Parcells goes somewhere half the team is immediately jettisoned and replaced with players that played with him on other teams. These are the actions of a disciplinarian. Everything you guys say is true. I am not arguing with you one bit. LB did not want to coach this squad as constructed. He wanted Marbs gone as well. He did not coach the team the way it was supposed to be coached. That is his fault. He quit on our roster. Our roster quit on us. And our GM messed up by hiring a guy that didn't fit.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 12-29-2006 12:57 PM]