From a mod standpoint, I'll add that that this is THE place to talk about Doc. He's not relevant to this year's team except in a sorta kinda comparative way--and even then, I'd prefer it if we kept discussion of a former coach's issues to a pretty small subset of what we talk about. I mean, he's not super relevant to us
now.So now I'll talk about Doc.
I think Doc is a player's coach in the sense that he gets the best out of certain players. DeAndre and Trezz come immediately to mind; I think, to a lesser degree, Doc got more than expected out of both Lou and Jamal. But look at those four players; they have similarities. They aren’t complete players; they’re more singularly skilled than a rounded player. Doc seems to know how to get performance out of some players that have obvious deficiencies. Whether he covers that up or makes them feel better or whatever, it’s useful.
Then you get a player like Chris Paul. CP is close to having no deficiencies on the court (being injury prone isn’t skill related). Kawhi. PG13. Blake. They don’t seem to get any push from Doc at all. Even lesser players that “only” have average to above average skills across the board—Tobias, JaMychal. Terance Mann. They don’t get much boost either. It seems like that indicates Doc is a guy who tells good players to just “go out and do your thing.” That’s actually successful for a guy like CP3, who (I think) would prefer the majority of his coaches to Shut The F--- Up and let him run things. And I think KG was largely the same way—he was successful with Doc, but not because of Doc.
But even good players sometimes/often need guidance—and teams as a whole do, too. I think Doc is a good motivator for people who know they are lacking, but doesn’t make better players or teams go beyond what is expected. He won’t make as many obvious errors, but in crunch time, he won‘t put a team in a situation to improve and step up. He can’t tell good players how to help themselves or the team. His response is to stay with what got the team to where they are—except playoffs are a new place. Everything shifts.
So I get what Terance’s Mom is saying. A big part of why we’re here is because Ty knew we needed to do something. Some changes didn’t work or haven’t worked. Some have. Mann had largely been successful. So has Luke. One of the sneakiest smart things we’re doing now is playing Batum more at C—apparently, Mook isn’t as much of small ball C as we think or want, at least in the playoffs. But Batum has been (very) solid. And when those guys got their numbers called to go on the court, or do something different, they were ready. Doc never seemed to get players to do that.
It makes me feel bad for a guy like Ben Simmons, who clearly needs some help right now. And Doc is exactly the wrong guy. I’m no psychologist, but this is not a new thing. And saying “He’s great player—he’ll play through it” is pretty much the worst answer imaginable. If Ben Simmons improves, it will be through individual initiative and personal growth. It won’t be because of Doc.
