Kind of boggles the mind. In baseball every team is moving the same educated, analytical front office approach and fewer and fewer "wtf" front offices exist. That definitely didn't translate to basketball.
In My company, the person makes more money fires low salary staff. Gm salary is 2 mm. Coach salary is 5 mm. Gm fires coach.
Sometimes I think it's really hard for us to understand how much credit a coach gets when a team is out performing expectations. Is the coach accomplishing that or is it because players are exceeding expectations? I really don't know. But it's hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact they out performed their projected win total by 13.5 games in the brutal West and the coach got fired. What if a new coach comes in and they regress 13.5 games? That'd be funny.
I prefer metrics. But I have no problem if the Lakers and Kings want to try it a different way and rely entirely on visual talent. As of right now, both are watching the playoffs. But I do like seeing the experiment. The origin of analytics was to give the guy with no talent a chance to compete with those that have the talent.
definitely. also the circumstances of the team absolutely has to come into play. this team is filled with just young players trying to find their way in this league. they finally take steps forward and all of a sudden that comes to a halt. now, instead of an offseason focusing on building what they accomplished this season, they start from scratch not knowing how they will play next year based on whoever is going to be the next coach. So once again a reset button is being hit and for really young players, that's not necessarily a good thing. the adjustment period isn't often working in their favor if there's 0 continuity. if you're just constantly flipping back and forth, the results won't reflect much positivity
Bzdelik retired last year because of family issues. Years before he retired, he was already playing his post NBA life and said it was impossible to prepare like he does and give his family the attention it deserves. I am not saying that Bzdelik is a big fan of Carmelo Anthony, but that is not why he retired.
Appreciate the info. Yeah, the timing was beyond horrible. To add...if I remember correctly Marc Stein said the Rockets were seriously considering Frank Vogel as defensive assistant. Do you think they would consider him again if Bzdelik retired? And do you think he is a good fit?
Yes, if Vogel is interested, I think the Rockets would have interest. If I remember correctly, the Rockets have interviewed him before. Vogel is big on positional defense which would raise some questions. However what he stresses philosophically is similar to what Morey values.... force turnovers, limit free throw attempts by the opposition and limit second chance points. One area where Vogel is better than Bzdelik is that Vogel’s defense is big about crashing the board. Vogel is a really passionate guy and tends to bond well with his players. This helps him to get them to play hard.
I think Vogel was a video assistant just like Joerger. And yes the Rocket did interview Vogel before. So it is something to keep an eye on I think.
Joerger had a lot to do with Hield, Fox and company playing great he may be confrontational but he got the job done. You realize Sacramento was so bad they got no 2 pick right? You expect them to go from 2nd worst team in the league to playoffs in the West in 1 year? Maybe if Divac didnt f up and got Doncic instead of Bagley that would be possible. Walton is a good coach too but Joerger shouldnt be fired the year he exceeded expectations.
Joerger asked to be fired when he yelled at Buddy for taking and making an insanely clutch 3 vs the greatest team ever assembled, scaring Buddy into passing up the final shot. That was when his time was up.
Stephen Silas was who Morey wanted to hire after Les said JVG wasn’t happening. Morey went as far as to try and get Hollins to run the defense and be associate head coach. D’Antoni won the day and it has been a good thing for the Rockets. A lot of the concerns about MDA and his personality seem to have gone away with age. Les wasn’t perfect, but he would put his coot down at the right times and he was very good at identifying management talent and coaching talent. Morey has wanted some good coaching candidates (Brad S for example) but he also wanted McHale. I hope he has learned that coaching DOES matter.
Pretty sure it was vogel. Of course 0i agree Les made the right call, Les always makes the right call lile when he hired Morey and also sold the team for max $$$. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.in...umors-houston-rockets-hiring-frank-vogel/amp/ Also the reason for Mchale hiring is because Morey wanted a system like a football coaching system, you had a head coach who was like a glorified assistant coach, then an offensive and defensive coach who were the actual coaches. It sounded good in theory, unfortunately HC in the NBA controlled so much stuff that having a coach dumb dumb as HC wouldnt work.
This trip down memory lane was a good one. Looking back the MDA hire was spot on. The coach profile of Silas clearly was to get a Brad Stevens type coach. But looking back it is clear that MDA's *mind* was a good fit with Harden. It helped elevate Harden's game. Not so sure Silas would have had the same impact in that capacity. Perhaps a Silas coach profile would be better down the road when the team is retooling.
