All Aboard the Luke Walton Bandwagon: check in here if you agree

Great post. What I also observed with the GSW defense is it reminds me of John Bach's "Doberman defense" with the Jordan Bulls. The way they defend Harden seems eerily similar to the Bulls defense where they pick the opponents that they want to stop and then focus on stopping them with two or three players hounding the target as soon as they cross the half court line and sticking to them while relentlessly switching. It is a beauty to watch them try to stop Harden. This is purely Kerr.

 

Didn't see this and have a better idea on Kerr now. Thanks.

 

I rather pick up the coach that created the system: Mark Jackson

 

Is this actually your thought logic? Is this reasoning? I'm not sure what this is... other than a bunch of nondescript words to try and convince yourself that Walton is a viable candidate. "There is a lot of potential that he won't".... huh? what are you basing this on??

TBH, it sounds more like you're bull****ting... you have no idea why Walton would succeed when Gentry has yet to succeed.

As far as thinking "younger" and being flexible... there isn't anybody more younger/flexible or willing to try "new" things than JBB. Sometimes, that means squat... just like Walton trying to emulate GS's system here, with completely different players.

 

How did that go with Marc Jackson who basically had the same group of players?

Just like Phil Jackson before got underestimated, of course they need great players, but it is not easy getting those players to reach their full potential on the court.

 

Kerr certainly deserves major credit. He trained under two of the greatest personality-managers in Poppovich and Jackson. ITs not a grand coincidence that the team became more focused/cohesive/harder working/dedicated once Mark Jackson was fired and Kerr came in.

You need the perfect blend of ultimate motivator... smarts... and a coach that still demands respect (by way of either previously playing the game... or previously coaching at a high level).

 

Checking in

 

If you want to compare Bickerstaff to Walton I think there is no question who did a better job as a coach? He came is as an interim coach and did equally as great of a job as Kerr in getting his team to consistently play great on the court.

Despite McHale shortcomings, Bickerstaff still managed to digress from the McHale coached Rockets.

I thought he would be a good coach before Golden State hired him as a possible assistant coach. He might be young, but I think he has potential to succeed and at least deserves a serious look at becoming the coach.

 

No...no and NO...

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Well, I'm sure he knows how to do scrimmages with this group of players.

 

Holy crap people are ignorant...

 

Both would be nice one as HC the other in charge of either Defense or Offense.

 

Lol Harden would make Walton his little B

 

Living up to that Rookie status with this post.

 

Luke is awful. You guys are just overestimating his coach ability because he's on the Warriors staff. JBB vol 2

 

That's complete trash to say Jackson had the same players. He had David Lee starting (and Kerr wasn't smart enough to bench him for Green either, he got lucky Lee was hurt). The gap on defense from Lee to Green alone more than explains the better defense.

 

So now, your only point to support him is... he hasn't failed before? And I'm being moronic?

That's really reaching at this point.... meanwhile, you cannot utterly prove one iota that him or Gentry have had much of anything to do with Golden State's success. And even if he was the grandmaster architect/wizard behind the scenes... there is absolutely no guarantees he will ever have the personnel or *special* players to pull that off here.

So yeah, I would rather go with the established veteran coaches that have done it before... and in JVG's case, taken a team to the finals.

You're acting as if flavor-of-the-month assistant coaches have never had a shot in this league before. There are countless examples of coaching tree offsprings that have had their shot... hell, some of them were even perceived to be successful (Mike Brown?). Even JVG's coaching tree/descendents is looking as strong as ever (Clifford and Thibs).

In the end, Walton is anything but a slam dunk... and right now, this team cannot afford to choose a coach that either doesn't command full respect of the star player (and why would he?), nor can they select a guy who's never faced adversity at all.

 

Thanks for posting the link - fair enough.

From reading the article, though, (and even before I read it) there's always been a not insignificant amount of "mighty whitey" syndrome regarding the Jackson-Kerr transition.

Basically the Warriors were lost in the Wilderness until Steve Kerr came in, showed them how to make bounce passes, and unlocked THE WAY to win and allowed his (mostly negro) charges to unlock the secret of fundamental/team/"white" ball in a way that a talented non-white person (e.g., Michael Jordan, his most famous teammate) could not have done.

Most of this theorizing is done by writers like Amick et al who grew up watching "Hoosiers" and "White Shadow" and "Glory Road" and hundreds of other similar cultural objects.

It's definitely possible that Kerr's fundamentals or drills or whatever caused the Warriors to get better.

It's definitely also possible (and even, I would venture, probable) that Kerr was the beneficiary of organic improvement from the Warriors' players.

Did teaching bounce passes enable Curry to take the leap from very good player to all-time great/best shooter ever?

Maybe, but sounds not logical to me. Same for many of the "Great coaches".

Also - it's impossible not to mention this, but why are all great coaches in basketball white? The only guys who are even considred good who aren't white are considered such because they are great "motivators" who can get through to the colored folk - think Doc Rivers, ubuntu, etc.

Does anybody consider KC Jones a great coach? Nope. Red Auerbach? Different story. Guess who has a better winning % though?

Mike Brown? LOL. Better winning % than Jerry Sloan, Chuck Daly, both Van Gundies, etc.

It's kind of crazy but the bias window into NBA coaches is kind of amazing.