A surface look at our coaches record is 121 and 166. That alone, merits removal from his job. Coaches in other organizations have been fired with much better records than that. But lets look beneath the surface.
We've been so bad for so long, that we look at very miniscule portions of a season (I.E. a 7-1 streak) to say, "Look, see it does work!" Or even in a game we'll point out a 4-5 min stretch when a certain combination plays well, and we'll say, "See, I told you we play better when Melo or Stat are sitting!" I can find 6-7 min stretches of games when the Bobcats look like they are on the verge of contending. Hell, we can find a game when the BoBcats look like world-beaters, just flashback to when they faced off against our defense.
What I'm saying is, you can't magnify these minute scenarios to justify certain player combinations or to evaluate the coach. You need to look at the big picture. All good to avareage teams go on small winning streaks during a season. But its the really good teams that avoid the long losing streaks. Under MDA's tenure, we've had horrific losing streaks:
2008-09:
lost 6 straight twice , lost 8 of 9, lost 10 of 12, lost 9 of 10, lost 6 of 8, and lost 8 of 10.
2009-10
Lost 8 of 9 to the start the season, lost 6 straight, lost 5 straight, lost 8 straight, lost 4 straight, and lost 9 of 10.
2010-11
Lost 5 straight, lost 6 straight, lost 7 of 8, went on a 13 and 1 win streak which was great, then followed that up by losing 5 of 7.
BTW, for all of those are still clinging to the 7-1 or 8-1 record we had with Melo out, you do know that last years team (Melo and Stat) finished the season 7-1.
Offense:
The bread and butter to our offense is PNR and Read and React. In my opinion, there is way too much freedon in MDA's offense and it doesn't fit the personel. I've been accused of being a Melo guy so to speak, but even I'm not blind to the fact that Melo is a scoring/volume shooter. So is Shump, JR and too an extent Baron Davis. Why would you give a constant green light to volume shooters and not make them run specifc sets and plays that will make them move the ball to player who the play was called for? Kobe is a volume shooter/scorer but he always had to get his within the constaints of the triangle offense. When the defense takes away our PNR, we have nothing to fall back on. Drive and kick is the other option we have, but other Novak, we dont have a consistant shooter. So now what? That leaves the read and react part. Read the defense and react. How many times do we see JR and Shump go one-on-one? Or Baron play with the ball after the PNR has failed and he goes into his showtime act. what is our counter play when the PNR doesn't work?
I'll give MDA credit for having terrific out of bounds plays. But on the court, it looks unorganized. Why not a baseline flex cut for Amare? How about a pin-down, curl play for Melo who would pop up to the elbow for a jumper. Calling actual set-plays forces ball movement becuase your moving the ball 2-3 times to the player who the play for called for as he rubs off back screens, etc.
OR How about taking a look at the personel, scrapping the old playbook all together and designing sets that will work for this team. Pat Riley left his showtime playbook in LA when he arrived here. Stan Van Gundy's 3 point shooting Magic team look a little different that that half-court defensive team he had in Miami before Riles removed him. MDA is being paid 6 million per to figure this out, enough with the excuse that he doesn't have his players.
Defense:
The Dallas Mavs were once known as the Allas Mavs because there was no D in Dallas. Dirk was the poster-child for the defenseless Mavs. Last year and this, Dirk is a major part of one of the best defensive teams in the league. How does this happen? You get a coach in there who stressed defense. Carlise, not only demanded that the players play D, but he put in a defensive system; Match-up zone. Now Dallas has an identity on the defensive end and they match-up zoned there way to a ring. BTW, our current senter, Chandler was the anchor for that great defensive team. Why can't this coach put in a Match-up Zone to cover our deficientcies? How about a consistant defensive system. Are supposed to switch everything or not? If the players are doing it on their own, they you discpline them and hold them accountable.
Lets be real, offense has and always will be at the top of MDA's priority list. Yes, he knows we must play defense, but its not stressed to the point where he's holding guys accountable. It's like a teacher who on the first day of school is super-laid back, is very lax on disclipline, and doesn't pay much attention to the details of his students writing assginments. Then, the classes behaviors get a bit out of control by the winter, writing scores from the state writing assessments are low. The scores ar low because MDA or the teacher was more concerend with the style points but never really rolled up his sleeves and paid attention to the conventions (grammatical details). Never had the defensive details as the top priority of his lesson plans.
In a nut-shell; If its not the coaches for fault that our offense looks stagnant, its not the coaches fault that our defense is very inconsistant and looks pathetic most nights, its not the coaches fault that we begin most games lethargic and fall behind early, its not the coaches fault that we seemingly get outplayed almost every 3rd quarter coming out of halftime, and its not the coaches fault that we hardly ever make any adjustments to successful plays the other teams run against us again and again. If this is the case, I have 2 questions: WTF is he getting paid 6 mil per to do and where do I turn in my resume???
3/12/2012 6:00 PM
