Udoka vs Silas, did Stone make a right replacement?

Haven't really seen anyone say coaching doesn't matter at all but you're never going to find a coach that wins without stars.

But we have seen stars win without a "elite" coach and questionable coaching. and that's being pg about it.

 

The expectations from many on this board concerning the team’s win/loss record were too high.

In the Western Conference alone, the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Mavericks, Pelicans, Kings, Warriors, Suns, Lakers, Clippers and Thunder are more talented or much further along in their development process. A healthy Grizzlies’ team is more talented than the Rockets, too.

25-33 and 17-17 against the Western Conference is a major step forward this season. As is a 20-10 road record. The young Rockets need to figure out how to play closer to .500 on the road (5-23 this season), but this team has shown real progress. Also, while Jalen Green has regressed, Sengun has blossomed playing with VanVleet and both Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore have flashed when given opportunities. Tari Eason has also shown he is one of the best defenders in the NBA, and the team has missed him the last few months. Hopefully, he can be fully healthy to start next season.

 

I've always maintained that there's no such thing as a great coach. Or you can say that there's not much difference between a "good" coach and a "great" coach. But there's a huge difference between a bad coach and a good coach. Coaches don't win games. But they can definitely lose games because of bad coaching decisions.

The thing is not necessarily to find a great coach but to avoid a bad coach. Can stars overcome bad coaching? Yes, but those are rare cases. You have to have an extremely high star power.

Also, few coaches can do well in all situations. Some coaches are good at discipline. Some are good at designing schemes. Some are good at adjustment. Some are good at managing personalities. It's kind of like match making.

 

Yes matching a coach to match his players is important but even the best coach in the world isn't going to win without good players

Players are the tools of a coach. All the discipline, schemes, adjustments and so on are only as good as what the players are capable of. If those tools are useless so goes the by product of it

 

I agree 100%! We can't defend the paint, we can't shoot, we're counting on 2 rookies to provide scoring and fire power off the bench. What can Ime do?? His hands are tied this yr.

Hopefully we can get 2 picks in the top 4 of the lottery this yr, trade one for a scorer and draft Sarr with the other.

The NBA fixed it for San Antonio last yr, hopefully the fix it for us this yr.

 

I don't think anybody is arguing against the need for star players. Some posters seem to believe that as long as you have stars, coach does not matter. I think coach does matter even if you have stars. If you have multiple superstars in their prime on the same team, then yeah, coaching doesn't matter much. But what team has that? The current direction of the league is to prevent the forming of superfriends teams.

 

We have yet to see what team will come out on top under the new CBA

but looking at all the top teams in the standings and odds to win it all now, I wouldn't place them in any of the elite coaching category

 

1 is vastly more important than 2.

Disambiguating 2 from 1 is very hard.

This leads to most people overestimating the impact of 2 relative to 1. And why not? You can't fire the players, as they say.

 

I don't disagree.

Changing coach is a lot easier than getting stars. So in the time when getting stars is a distant goal that the team doesn't have a lot of control, talking about how coaching affect team performance is not something should be sneezed at.