Scott Brooks finally talks

[spearsy23]

http://m.newsok.com/article/5477769

Still as classy as ever. Didn't throw Presti under the bus but definitely provided his view of everything that went on. Honestly, it just brings me back to how s***ty the firing was again.

[bondom34]

Best to Brooks, he'd be awesome for a team like Minnesota. I know he'll land on his feet pretty quickly. From what I read some of the interview was weird, the Roberson and Harden stuff seemed odd.

[getrichordie]

Scott Brooks is class personified.

[spearsy23]

Best to Brooks, he'd be awesome for a team like Minnesota. I know he'll land on his feet pretty quickly. From what I read some of the interview was weird, the Roberson and Harden stuff seemed odd.

The Harden stuff was pretty simple, he thinks Presti messed up something great, and as much as we're tired of hearing about it we know that's true. He was asked and he answered, really it's only noteworthy because this is the first time we've gotten an opportunity to hear from an insider that wasn't forced to give the company line. IMO he deserves a chance to say 'you know, I was fired for not meeting expectations, but I think I did the best I could have with what I was given to work with.'

As far as Roberson, I just read that as saying you have to embrace the guys you're given to work with. Scott never got on Andre for missing shots and always made it clear that he needed to be aggressive. I think that's what he meant by tolerate vs embrace, you can take that guy and try to completely hide him or you can try to fit him in and empower him to be a part of the whole. As much as people say he gets ignored Andre always has had the green light to shoot open shots and has had plays ran for him as a cutter. I think Billy has continued that philosophy in some ways, but we've also seen him try to shoehorn Serge, DJ and Morrow into roles that they don't always seem comfortable with.

[bondom34]

Best to Brooks, he'd be awesome for a team like Minnesota. I know he'll land on his feet pretty quickly. From what I read some of the interview was weird, the Roberson and Harden stuff seemed odd.

The Harden stuff was pretty simple, he thinks Presti messed up something great, and as much as we're tired of hearing about it we know that's true. He was asked and he answered, really it's only noteworthy because this is the first time we've gotten an opportunity to hear from an insider that wasn't forced to give the company line. IMO he deserves a chance to say 'you know, I was fired for not meeting expectations, but I think I did the best I could have with what I was given to work with.'

As far as Roberson, I just read that as saying you have to embrace the guys you're given to work with. Scott never got on Andre for missing shots and always made it clear that he needed to be aggressive. I think that's what he meant by tolerate vs embrace, you can take that guy and try to completely hide him or you can try to fit him in and empower him to be a part of the whole. As much as people say he gets ignored Andre always has had the green light to shoot open shots and has had plays ran for him as a cutter. I think Billy has continued that philosophy in some ways, but we've also seen him try to shoehorn Serge, DJ and Morrow into roles that they don't always seem comfortable with.

Ah, I didn't listen, just read the Roberson stuff, that makes sense.

[bondom34]

Thought this was interesting, and shows a lot about Reggie's BS:

ut Reggie wanted to be a starting point guard. He was never going to start as a point guard. Russell Westbrook is the most complete basketball player in the NBA, hands down. You're not going to be able to take his spot. I told Reggie that many times. But he was going to have an impact with his play. He's a great player, can finish around the rim as good as anyone. Give him a lot of credit, he's really developed into a solid 3-point shooter and his game management has improved from the times he had with our group being developed. Part of being a developing program, it's not just the minutes. A lotta people kinda mess this up, I think. They look at the minutes. Oh, he's playing 25 minutes, 35 minutes, he must really be developing because he's playing 10 more minutes. Developing a player, I looked at it, you developed a player to be a professional basketball player. That includes being on time, that included getting your work done early, before practice, going hard in practice, film room, shootarounds, training rooms, massages, stretching, ice, weights. There's so many components that it takes to develop a team, develop a player. I thought our staff did a great job of doing that.

[Old Man Game]

It was sort of weird that he brought up Andre more or less unsolicited. Like he knew he was getting a lot of crap in the general public among the casual fans for starting him and wanted to get in a rejoinder or something.

[kraytinprime]

I like Brooks as a person and he was a very good coach.

His problem was his lack of making timely adjustments. This was clearly seen in the Finals vs Miami where Brooks stuck with Perkins in the starting line up even though it was beyond obvious that OKC had to go smaller. Brooks did not make a single line up change the entire series even when down 3-1.

I'll be perfectly honest. I would have fired Brooks right after the Finals.

I just think OKC Brooks was not a championship level coach. He did learn his lesson years latter when he changed the starting line up vs the Spurs in WCF.

[spearsy23]

I like Brooks as a person and he was a very good coach.

His problem was his lack of making timely adjustments. This was clearly seen in the Finals vs Miami where Brooks stuck with Perkins in the starting line up even though it was beyond obvious that OKC had to go smaller. Brooks did not make a single line up change the entire series even when down 3-1.

I'll be perfectly honest. I would have fired Brooks right after the Finals.

I just think OKC Brooks was not a championship level coach. He did learn his lesson years latter when he changed the starting line up vs the Spurs in WCF.

He out coached Pop in the western conference finals directly prior to that. And playing Collison more was never going to win that series, especially when Harden no showed.

[kraytinprime]

I like Brooks as a person and he was a very good coach.

His problem was his lack of making timely adjustments. This was clearly seen in the Finals vs Miami where Brooks stuck with Perkins in the starting line up even though it was beyond obvious that OKC had to go smaller. Brooks did not make a single line up change the entire series even when down 3-1.

I'll be perfectly honest. I would have fired Brooks right after the Finals.

I just think OKC Brooks was not a championship level coach. He did learn his lesson years latter when he changed the starting line up vs the Spurs in WCF.

He out coached Pop in the western conference finals directly prior to that. And playing Collison more was never going to win that series, especially when Harden no showed.

Harden did not play great but he still averaged a decent 12.5 points per game. That is good enough for a 3rd wheel.

The problem was our 3 point defense because Perkins was too slow. Miami shot over 40% for the series and Mike Miller and Battier took turns killing us from deep. Perkins has no business being in the starting lineup vs Bosh. Ibaka should have been on Bosh.

Perkins played 23 minutes per game.
Collison only played 16.
Harden played only 33.
Serge only played 26 minutes.

You could easily divided the 23 minutes that Perkins played to Collison/Harden/Serge.

My problem was Brooks didn't even ATTEMPT to change the starting line up. He didn't even attempt to change his rotation.

After losing game3 he should used this line up:

Russ on Chalmers
Harden on Wade
KD on Lebron
Thabo on Battier
Serge on Bosh

Collison would be the first big off the bench
Match Perkins minutes with Haslem
Match Fishers minutes with Cole

I think this quote says it all:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/scott-free-the-thunder-imagine-a-future-without-scott-brooks/

"There are members of the Miami Heat who will whisper to you, in honest moments, that they literally could not believe their good luck that Scott Brooks just kept rolling out Kendrick Perkins during the 2012 Finals. When they realized the Thunder would not change — that Perkins would start in big lineups that couldn’t scamper with Miami’s small-ball groups — the Heat knew they had a ring in the bag."

Would playing Ibaka vs Bosh mean OKC wins? No guarantee but Brooks should have at least tried it. We were getting burned by small ball 4 games in a row and Brooks started the exact same lineup in a do or die game 5. Unforgivable.