This. Ime is the next Popovich. Also Popovich IS in touch. He knows what he is doing, he signed a 5 yr deal before he made Sochan the pg. They are tanking Rockets style, and next year might have Sarr and Wemby front court. Most people just can't get he is playing 3D chess while everyone is stuck on checkers. Tbh Ime has turned me off from "player coaches" completely. You look at the best performing teams right now they are all traditional kick your ass coaches. Ime, Joe Mazulla, Spoelstra, Rick Carlisle, Nick nurse etc these guys get you to play hard or you are done. OTH which teams have suck ass teams? Monty Williams, Tyron Lue, JB Bickerstaff etc these guys are player coaches and give their players all the leeway.
Players coaches make sense I guess if you have established superstar vets like Lebron/AD or Jokic/Murray.
4 of the guys you listed are above average defenders. Holiday is an amazing defender. Tari and Tate super nice also. He’s just getting them to buy in and execute. He has the defensive talent on the team for this.
It's a mix of both. Having good defensive talent on a couple of players mean nothing if the rest can get away with bad defense. You can have 4 good defenders but if there is 1 bad defender it doesn't matter cuz opponents will just attack that bad defender again and again. If the coach's philosophy is to kick ass on defense first and ask questions later, then everyone buys into that. According to Jabari Unc Green was so into it he was calling plays from the bench on defense. That's a skill.
I agree with everything you said. I was responding to a guy specifically listing names of players and saying he can’t understand how they’re a good defense. As if we don’t have the personnel for it. We do. And now we have the coaching that prioritizes it. Winning formula.
Well IMO LeBron is the only one who deserves a player coach, and even then his coach now is Darvin Ham who is Def a traditional my way or the high way coach. Dude told WB he was gonna get benched after 3 games lol. Denver coach Malone is also a trad coach, dude had no respect for Bron and Lakers esp when they swept them so pretty sure he takes no crap from players. My opinion now is if you want a players coach you are just not a winning player. I think we've gone past divas cuz all these players who have demanded trades haven't won ****.
Imagine this team when Sengun, Green and Jabari are 24/25 and have 3 years of experience and training under Ime. This is just an infancy of a long as era. Pray to the gods that none of these people listed here break out with some scandal in the next following years.
True, all but Tari undersized against a team with size + the C MVP playing 42 minutes + Nuggets 36 points in paint. Rockets outscoring the paint +8 Roster is a factor of course and 100% responsible of the execution. But those kind of numbers are worthy of recognition for the staff
I agree, there had been a ton of Phil Jacksons and Mike Browns that had success with stacked rosters and were bad without multiple all stars. Ime is having an outsized impact for a coach.
I think Udoka said in earlier Interviews that he expects the players to figure it out one day without him coaching them up most of the possessions.... give him the chance to just stand there and observe.....maybe that would never materialize the way he sees it.
Basketball is a society of its own but it is not society....you are coaching or working with millionaires. Do you think Udoka can have the biggest secks scandal of the last years and then work half a year later in any other fields? Dream again.
Coaching matters….ask Miami does coaching matters….because we have Coach Ime we can be the new Miami…we just need Jalen, Alphren and Jabari to continue to grow
I’m just glad we have an adult in the room to call the guys out on their bs. Silas was a new level of tender for his entire tenure. Never enough testosterone to demand respect.
