What do you expect from a coach at the sideline?

I haven't started any thread for years, but the question popped up in my mind again and again - what should we expect from a coach at the sideline?

We all know that coaches can't grab rebounds, make shots, defend, or make free throws for our team.

I don't think anyone would expect coaches to teach players how to play basketball or lecture them to work on their shortcomings, during a game, because those are for practice sessions.

Should coaches be responsible for cheering up players during games? I think that's the job of cheerleaders and fans.

To me, there are 3 jobs for coaches at the sideline:

1. Monitor how the opposing team and own team play, enforce/adjust game plan, substitute players due to circumstances change
2. Call timeouts when it's needed, provide instructions for specific plays during the game, and even design plays on the fly at appropriate moments
3. Work the officials to squeeze out even just a single call in our favor.

Rick is a very good coach, his long-year resume speaks for himself. But how does he fare in above 3 tasks at the sideline? Honestly, I don't think he does a good job last night, not even a remotely satisfying one.

Last night, in game thread, I said I never want to hear Rick talking about fronting or getting the ball to Yao any more. It's not something to talk about in the press conference after every game, but rather put in conscious effort in the game.

Yao Ming is slow, that can't be changed. Flopping is the new theme in NBA, that's reality as well. Officials won't give the same respect or benefit of doubt to centers and guards, that's strict order from Stern. Yao Ming is treated differently by referees than most other big guys, for whatever reason it may be, this is a consistent theme as well. Ron is not a great shooter and AB is not a great floor general, although they all have special strength in many other aspects in the game.

I don't think anyone can change those facts at the sideline during a game. However, when Wafer was hot in a stretch of a few minutes, coach from the sideline can keep him in for a few more minutes. 4 minutes left, we are down 1, Oden fouled out, both Przybilla and Aldridge had 5 fouls, as the coach from the sideline, COULD TRY to get that 7'6 Chinese dude a few touches. He can call a timeout, ask/request/BEG/ORDER his players, tell them, FORCE FEED YAO for once in 48 minutes, DESIGN or CALL a play for Yao to get a higher percentage shot to give us AN OPPORTUNITY for offensive rebound and avoid long rebound and fastbreaks.

Is it that hard for such a reputed great coach, to CALL one or two plays to take advantage of the situation to get better percentage shots? For some reason, I had the feeling that our players are pretty happy that Blazers finally started to front, so they don't need to try to do that stupid-JVGish-boring-inside-out. Yao Ming didn't have any turnovers last night, does that mean all of the sudden Yao's ball handling skills improved dramatically? NO, it means he didn't even see the ball. Why? Because Blazers don't want him to? Yeah right, Blazer also want to advance, Rockets should just roll over and die and pray that Blazers players don't sweat.

Yao took 2 outside shots during the game and made one. From Ron's 20 shots, we can't get Yao 2 or 3 more pick and pop mid-range jumpers? Basketball is a simple game, and it's just like almost everything in life, it's never about maybe or whatifs, it should be about probability. If your shooting percentage is under 40%, you are NOT ALLOWED to shoot 20 times a game, no matter how "open" you are.

It amazes me how everyone called JVG's offensive game stagnant, while he never failed to get Yao 12-15 shots a game fronting or double, but the super genius motion offense couldn't get your high efficiency 7'6 center more than 6 shots, AFTER he was 9-9 in game one, in PLAYOFF!

Posters here whine about how Yao played soft against Utah. But he averages 25/10. Does any sane mind believe that we would still lose the series on 3 consecutive offensive rebounds, had we got Landry, Wafter and Scola?

I have one question for Rick, "4 mins left, opposing bigs in serious foul trouble, game on the line, if you order your players to go through Yao no matter how, will it Fxxxing kill you? What are you worried about? Hurt AB's feelings? Worried about a POTENTIAL turnover? We turned over TWICE anyways without trying ANYTHING!"

I don't get it. Why do we need a coach at the sideline? Why do we give up on our most effective offensive player, if opposing team TRIES to deny him the ball, FROM MINUTE ONE TO MINUTE 48?