LFrank coaching better this season?

[litex]

I dunno if its just my perception, but it seems that Frank is actually doing a pretty decent job coaching this team this year. I mean, there are still the occasional moronic rotations, and there's no reason Simmons should ever be allowed on the floor, but no coach is perfect. And in a lot of other ways, I think Frank's done a heckuva job. I mean, Harris is the first clear example of a player who actually thrives in Frank's wierd iso/quasi-break offense (which is accentuated because Kidd was such a poor fit for the system that he essentially had to override it and do his own damn thing half the time, and the result was that even when the team was healthy with Vince, RJ and Krstic and Kidd they still never quite meshed). And he's handled the rookies quite well--I've been particularly impressed with the commitment to defense he's coaxed out of Brook Lopez. Obviously Frank's still no Popovich, but for now I'm not spending my time wishing we had a new coach (like I did during most of the Kidd/Frank years).

[Preludepunk27]

Do I feel Frank is a good coach? No I do not.

With that said, I feel management did an excellent job creating a roster full of players willing to buy into Frank's system. As much as I dislike Frank, I gotta eat my words a little bit because we're playing good basketball when nobody expected us to even be around .500 right now.

I feel when your top players buy into a system, everyone else follows suit. Last season, we have 2 of our guys not doing that. They are gone now. The could be a reason.

In the end, I still don't think Frank is a great coach, but my perception of him could be a little off because of other factors (see: RJ and Kidd). But the kids are buying what he's selling right now and I am happy about that.

[vincecarter4pres]

I like Frank for this season, while we are in a competitive rebuild.

Next year, with a full season under the rooks belts and if most everyone is back?
Not so much.

[Rockice_8]

Frank is OK that's it. You always hear about how hard he works which is good. Alot of everyones beef comes from him not playin rookies but he's doin that this year and he's allowing them to work through mistakes. He's been here for a while and I think that I'm (and everyone else) might be getting sick of the offense a little bit .

[Stone]

He did a good job of giving Harris the freedom he needed to bring his game to another level so far. Coaching and playing are simular in reguards to growing with experiance. He now has 200 wins under his belt. He is gaining respect around the league and that is building his confidance. He has Rod Thorn in his corner thats say's a lot right there.

Don't mean to hi-jack the tread but...........look at Doc Rivers in Boston. They were calling for his head over there. Then they made some great off season moves and look at how things turned out up there.

Here's a hypothetical question. Does anyone believe that if Frank coached Boston last year the results would have different?

I believe that Boston would have gone on to win the champianship with Lawance Frank as coach.

[lurkingobeiscity]

He has been good this year but he could definitely be better.

Incorporating the dribble-drive was a very smart move, but the lack of called plays for both Yi and even more-so Lopez is a problem. The Sacramento game stands out as one of those games where there wasn't nearly enough post-ups for Lopez called.

Designed plays for Bobby Simmons absolutely should never be called. I don't care who is guarding him. He doesn't have the talent or experience to be a focal point of an offense.

Harris has recently started using his left hand to finish. Whether that is the work of the coaching staff or just an adjustment made by Harris, who knows.

The biggest problem I have right now is how he is using Yi. I think it really stunts his growth to let him drift around the 3 point line, letting his teammates create all his shots. He also never rolls to the basket after setting a pick. He is rarely given the opportunity to create on offense no matter the area on the floor.

Overall, I'm fine with Frank as the coach right now, but I would like to see him give the ball to the young guns when they are doing well.

[VCRJKidd15]

if he tries this line up for one game ill love him forever
PG-Devin Harris
SG-Vince Carter
SF-Yi
PF-Boone
C-Lopez

if the lineup does horrible in the first 6 minutes of the game then reset the lineup

[ecuhus1981]

I have no clue why people are infatuated with the idea of running Yi at SF. Bargnani, for example, is quicker and has a steadier handle than Jianlian, and still, Andrea barely gets by, as far as both ends of the court are concerned. Yi would abuse the matchup on offense by chucking 3's all night, every night, but He doesn't have the tenacity to consistently use the mismatch for posting up smaller defenders. Also, he would routinely be "outquicked" when guarding his man, which would lead to a defense that is perpetually in collapse-and-recover mode.

Utilizing Yi at SF didn't even work for China in the Olympics, when he had the twin towers (Wang Zhi Zhi and Yao Ming) both on the floor to cover for Yi's defensive miscues. I see no reason that it should work in a faster-paced game with less defensive help at the ready. Just a season full of empty stats, with very few Ws to show for it.

[G_MoNeY]

look at my sig, that answers your question OP.

[WiLL 2 iLL]

Personally i think the players have been executing better then yrs passed. Not necessarily Frank coaching better.

[litex]

Here's a hypothetical question. Does anyone believe that if Frank coached Boston last year the results would have different?

Put me down as one. Which isn't to say that he's a worse coach than Rivers. I think both he and Rivers are mediocre-average compared to the rest of the league (which isn't saying much. most NBA coaches are pretty bad. Which isn't necessarily their fault, its just the player and league culture makes it really, really had to actually coach a bunch of nba players and establish a good system). Frank has a tendency to overcoach and overthink, while Rivers tends to undercoach and underthink. But when you've got a bunch of outstanding, intelligent, veteran superstar players who mostly already play usnelfishly and are committed to winning, you're better off with a guy who gets by on managing people's egos and motivating and letting them do their thing than a guy who is gonna put himself on a cot in the office and watch video so long that for every clever little trap he devises there is a time where he just completely loses touch of who a player is and what makes sense for them to be doing-- not in some abstract little math and video world but in the common sense real world.

The funny thing is that Frank started like a Rivers because he was so young and inexperienced, so his coming in was basically just giving Jason kidd to run the team for a while, which worked out okay for a bit. But the longer Frank was in the league, the more he seemed to think he could outthink basketball. He's by no means a dumb guy. He's occasionally something worse, which is a somewhat intelligent guy who has convinced himself that he's a genius. Or, rather, that heneeds to be a genius, that the team will be helped if he can only somehow perform as one, and that the answer is to spend roughly 400,000 times as much time with video as with his wife's vagina. Kidd-Carter-RJ never made a ton of sense in terms of meshing, but I firmly believe they could have clicked much better than they did without Frank's meddling.

However, whether you believe

the players have been executing better then yrs passed. Not necessarily Frank coaching better.

or that

Coaching and playing are simular in reguards to growing with experiance. He now has 200 wins under his belt. He is gaining respect around the league and that is building his confidance.

Or both.

I think its pretty clear the net effect of his coaching, meaning his system and ethic and in-game decisions, has on the whole been significantly less detrimental, and occasionally even an asset, to our team's performance as a whole this year. I personally think its both management saying "okay, well he's worked out this system, whether we like it or not so we might as well go get some players who make sense for that" and as a result of that and the resulting success Frank has been getting more confident, which is the key to not overthinking.

And, of course, when your team isn't stacked with Kidd's or KG's, you're much better off with a guy committed to x's and o's than a cheerleader like Doc. Doc's Pre-KG and Ray Celt's were much, much worse than they should have been. Just as Frank would, I think, screw up the Celtics by giving them restrictions and changes they don't need, I think Doc would be a *terrible* choice to have come coach the Nets, and that if he were here we'd be losing like Memphis.

[vincecarter4pres]

Or, rather, that he needs to be a genius, that the team will be helped if he can only somehow perform as one, and that the answer is to spend roughly 400,000 times as much with video than with his wife's vagina.

I was flat out rolling when I read this line.

Overall very good post as well.

[Adam1221]

A decent job?
More like an outstanding job.
Sorry guys but Im gonna say this again we as fans have to let go of last season.
Yeah last year Frank was downright awful I couldnt stand anything about him from his system to his rotation to the way he developed the team but we have to admit that this year he's been nothing short of spectacular he took an extremley young team with clear rebuilding plans with some of the worst expectations in the league (worst/2nd worst in the east) into the 5th seed in the east and lead them to wins over teams like Detroit,Pheonix,Utah,Toronto and ATL (twice).
He took a a player in Harris a young player with tremendous upside that was just never really utilized and handled him absulotley perfectly by awaking the inner all star in him and just letting him go out there and wreck havok.
He rejuvinated Vince Carter (either that or a healthy ankle can really do wonders).
He introduced a brilliant offensive system that has done wonders for this team.
Unlike last year he's actually doing an excellent job of teaching and developing our young guys like Yi,Ryan and Lopez.

So yeah guys I know we all blamed Frank for the lack of acheivments in the JKidd era but come on he's doing an excellent job out there maybe he's just a much better coach on a rebuilding team than on a so called contending team.

[TDevilsG]

The bottom line is and will always be this: as long as a team is winning, all of the problems associated with the team are far less magnified. Frank has gotten these kids to believe in the system that he's attempting to establish on the floor, and the results have been positive thus far. In the past couple of years, I think Lawrence was in over his head and he eventually saw a dramatic decline in his team's willingness to go on the floor and run the sets he establishes in practice.

In summary, I don't necessarily believe that Lawrence is coaching any better this season. Rather, I believe that his players are finally starting to believe that his system can actually work and the result is a team that comes out with tenacity on a more often then not basis. I can't see Lawrence's position in any form of jeporady regardless.