The Kenny Atkinson thread Part II

[steady]

The best coaches have a moment by moment sense of what is happening in a game and which subs make sense within flow of game, Popovich is best example of that. I wamt to see Atkinson use this season to develop that skill in himself and not be too overly concerned with making sure end of bench players are getting adequate minutes and opportunities to shine ... that should just happen naturally as it does for Spurs within the logic amd flow of the game. I see having Atkinson develop this skill as being as important a priority for Nets this season as many of the development goals we have for the players.

I still think the above is the one area KA could really improve this season. It's not even a real criticism because he has been so fantastic otherwise. More a developmental goal.

KA will get better,, and the team will get better as they settle into what they are - probably by early December. Nets are still way ahead of schedule ..

[Paradise]

Year 2 for Kenny.

Let's enjoy the rookie moments, though.

Watch on YouTube

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[vincecarter4pres]

Cost him 5 g's for that lol?

[ChokeFasncists]

~lol~ what was the crime?

[Andy123]

Goal of Atkinson last year was development , he was not focus on winning ... This year is development plus winning 50/50 ...

[Prokorov]

The best coaches have a moment by moment sense of what is happening in a game and which subs make sense within flow of game, Popovich is best example of that. I wamt to see Atkinson use this season to develop that skill in himself and not be too overly concerned with making sure end of bench players are getting adequate minutes and opportunities to shine ... that should just happen naturally as it does for Spurs within the logic amd flow of the game. I see having Atkinson develop this skill as being as important a priority for Nets this season as many of the development goals we have for the players.

Thats not the team goal though. Why would we make in-game win now moves when the goal is to develop our players especially the young ones? We saw how fantastic letting guys play through struggles worked to help futher their development. yanking guys who struggle to win meaningless games would be a horrible move. we can worry about spurs in game logic in 3-4 years once we shift to wins being a priority and being further along in this rebuild.

[MrDollarBills]

The future of this team is reliant upon maximizing the potential of Russell, Crabbe, LeVert, RHJ, Whitehead, Allen, and Dinwiddie. That means letting guys play through mistakes and teaching them in the film room, or playing young guys over experienced vets in the later half of the season late in games. Kenny's in game coaching will come under scrutiny more than likely next season as our young core will be more experienced and the expectations rise

[Roy Tarpley]

I think there will be a greater emphasis on wins than people think -- as my signature handle indicates.

Young folks are going to develop naturally by virtue of lots of playing time: Russell (30), Crabbe (28), Levert (24), RHJ (24), Allen (8), Dinwiddie (12) -- that's at least 126 minutes out of a possible total of 240 minutes. And Kenny will not be yanking these players regardless of whether we're winning or losing, as long as they're hustling and playing the right way. No one will have a problem with this.

My guess is that players like Harris and Whitehead will get scrub minutes, only coming in for blowouts and minor end of quarter minutes.

Last year was different because the team was so decimated by injuries that there was no expectation of winning and players like Harris, Whitehead, necessarily had to play.

[MrDollarBills]

The Nets will try to win as many games as possible while giving ample time to the 7 young guys. If the Nets are going to win games, the 7 young guys have to actually show improvement and contribute on a nightly basis. if they don't, doesn't matter what Lin, Booker, Mozgov etc does, we'll still lose.

[Roy Tarpley]

The Nets will try to win as many games as possible while giving ample time to the 7 young guys. If the Nets are going to win games, the 7 young guys have to actually show improvement and contribute on a nightly basis. if they don't, doesn't matter what Lin, Booker, Mozgov etc does, we'll still lose.

I have no doubt that the young guys will contribute. But how much they improve will determine whether the Nets are a 30 win team or a 40 win team.

[treiz]

The Nets will try to win as many games as possible while giving ample time to the 7 young guys. If the Nets are going to win games, the 7 young guys have to actually show improvement and contribute on a nightly basis. if they don't, doesn't matter what Lin, Booker, Mozgov etc does, we'll still lose.

I have no doubt that the young guys will contribute. But how much they improve will determine whether the Nets are a 30 win team or a 40 win team.

In order for that to happen, one of the main core guys will have to play at an MVP level, you're talking about winning 20 more games than last season here. Something that the Magic experienced drafting Shaq and we did after the Kidd trade.

If this team gets to 30 wins, that too shows the tremendous development of the young guys.

[Roy Tarpley]

The Nets will try to win as many games as possible while giving ample time to the 7 young guys. If the Nets are going to win games, the 7 young guys have to actually show improvement and contribute on a nightly basis. if they don't, doesn't matter what Lin, Booker, Mozgov etc does, we'll still lose.

I have no doubt that the young guys will contribute. But how much they improve will determine whether the Nets are a 30 win team or a 40 win team.

In order for that to happen, one of the main core guys will have to play at an MVP level, you're talking about winning 20 more games than last season here. Something that the Magic experienced drafting Shaq and we did after the Kidd trade.

If this team gets to 30 wins, that too shows the tremendous development of the young guys.

I disagree. Again, with a healthy Lin, the Nets likely would have won 30 games last year. So I don't think in terms of 20 game leaps, I'm thinking that tremendous improvement from the young guys could get us from 30 to 40 wins. Also, the Celtics in 2014-15 went from 25 wins to 40 wins, and that was with a ragtag, ugly crew where a lot of their players were shooting sub 30% on 3pters.

There's a lot of 40 win teams where no one is an MVP level candidate. You do need some near-All Star performers, which I think Russell and Lin could become.

[treiz]

I disagree. Again, with a healthy Lin, the Nets likely would have won 30 games last year. So I don't think in terms of 20 game leaps, I'm thinking that tremendous improvement from the young guys could get us from 30 to 40 wins. Also, the Celtics in 2014-15 went from 25 wins to 40 wins, and that was with a ragtag, ugly crew where a lot of their players were shooting sub 30% on 3pters.

There's a lot of 40 win teams where no one is an MVP level candidate. You do need some near-All Star performers, which I think Russell and Lin could become.

But here's the thing, he was injured and the Nets did win 20 games, that's what it'll say in the record books, so you have to think of it as a 20 game jump. All you're doing is speculating what could've happened with a small sample size that happened towards the end of last season when Lin came back. If you're going to speculate that, I could also easily speculate that if Lin didn't go down, then somebody else, Lopez perhaps, could've gone down injured and we still would've had 20 wins.

Why are you comparing this team to how the Celtics were? Two completely different teams, and Stevens was a legit COTY candidate that year. There's a reason why that Celtics season was considered an anomaly and why everyone was enamoured by Stevens after that year.

I didn't say that you need an MVP candidate to have 40 wins, but that we need a player to have an MVP-like season in order to have a 20-game jump. If you help a team improve by 20 wins, then you are the definition of MVP. Right now, there's just too many moving pieces, we have so many variables on this team right now and every single one of them has to go right in order for us to get close to that 20-win jump. We need our core guys to stay injury-free, we need 2 of Russell/Crabbe/Levert/RHJ to break out and be consistent, Mozgov to go back to his Cleveland days along with a 3pt shot, major contribution off the bench in order to lengthen the rotation and give guys days off due to our system and we're gonna need Allen to come in and be ready sooner rather than later. There's just a lot of question marks, I'm excited about the potential of this team, but as of right now, that's all it is, potential.

If that potential gets us to 30 wins, I'd be ecstatic. Because then that would require at least an all-star player and another one on the cusp of it. That's something to build upon and be excited about especially heading into year 3 of this regime.

[Roy Tarpley]

But here's the thing, he was injured and the Nets did win 20 games, that's what it'll say in the record books, so you have to think of it as a 20 game jump. All you're doing is speculating what could've happened with a small sample size that happened towards the end of last season when Lin came back. If you're going to speculate that, I could also easily speculate that if Lin didn't go down, then somebody else, Lopez perhaps, could've gone down injured and we still would've had 20 wins.

Why are you comparing this team to how the Celtics were? Two completely different teams, and Stevens was a legit COTY candidate that year. There's a reason why that Celtics season was considered an anomaly and why everyone was enamoured by Stevens after that year.

I didn't say that you need an MVP candidate to have 40 wins, but that we need a player to have an MVP-like season in order to have a 20-game jump. If you help a team improve by 20 wins, then you are the definition of MVP. Right now, there's just too many moving pieces, we have so many variables on this team right now and every single one of them has to go right in order for us to get close to that 20-win jump. We need our core guys to stay injury-free, we need 2 of Russell/Crabbe/Levert/RHJ to break out and be consistent, Mozgov to go back to his Cleveland days along with a 3pt shot, major contribution off the bench in order to lengthen the rotation and give guys days off due to our system and we're gonna need Allen to come in and be ready sooner rather than later. There's just a lot of question marks, I'm excited about the potential of this team, but as of right now, that's all it is, potential.

If that potential gets us to 30 wins, I'd be ecstatic. Because then that would require at least an all-star player and another one on the cusp of it. That's something to build upon and be excited about especially heading into year 3 of this regime.

I respect your point of view, and I won't try to change your way of thinking.

But I firmly believe there's a difference between fanciful speculation and reasoned estimations based on empirical analysis. No one can predict a Lopez injury, for example, but I am basing my wins prediction on many factors, including the Nets record last year with a healthy Lin, RHJ at PF, a healthy Levert, and no Bogs -- as well as the increases in talent and depth this year (Russell, Carroll, Crabbe, Mozgov). Sure, any of these players could get injured but NO ONE is entering preseason with an injury as far as I can tell. Crabbe and Carroll both seem ready to go.

IF the Nets win 40 games this season, the uneducated media will fawn all over the Nets, claiming that NO ONE could have predicted a 20 game jump, but some fans who have carefully watched the Nets over the last year will have an explanation. And it will be the one I just gave.

I do agree that everything has to go right for a 40 win season so taking into account a normal injury possibility (not catastrophic), I should probably temper my prediction to 35 wins.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is with Vegas bets on the Nets over (28.5) and smaller bets on the Nets making the playoffs and even winning the Atlantic Division.

[Ror1997]

We've done this the past 2 years. I'm not doing it a third. If we win games, awesome. If we lose games, it sucks. As long as the young guys are showing improvement, I could care less.

[MrDollarBills]

a 20 win swing is seriously a lot to ask for from a team full of young guys. 32 wins would be a successful year imo

[FlipFlopShot]

Forget about Lin. We've retained everything good from last year (Brook ). With so many variables, from rookie breakout to playoff experience to 3 point bombardments, if everything does line up, we can shoot for the moon. I've reserved 1% of making the first round competitive. 99% is full cruising on development.

[treiz]

I respect your point of view, and I won't try to change your way of thinking.

But I firmly believe there's a difference between fanciful speculation and reasoned estimations based on empirical analysis. No one can predict a Lopez injury, for example, but I am basing my wins prediction on many factors, including the Nets record last year with a healthy Lin, RHJ at PF, a healthy Levert, and no Bogs -- as well as the increases in talent and depth this year (Russell, Carroll, Crabbe, Mozgov). Sure, any of these players could get injured but NO ONE is entering preseason with an injury as far as I can tell. Crabbe and Carroll both seem ready to go.

IF the Nets win 40 games this season, the uneducated media will fawn all over the Nets, claiming that NO ONE could have predicted a 20 game jump, but some fans who have carefully watched the Nets over the last year will have an explanation. And it will be the one I just gave.

I do agree that everything has to go right for a 40 win season so taking into account a normal injury possibility (not catastrophic), I should probably temper my prediction to 35 wins.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is with Vegas bets on the Nets over (28.5) and smaller bets on the Nets making the playoffs and even winning the Atlantic Division.

But it is speculation mainly because, apart from Lin (and even he's a bit iffy mainly due to health concerns), there's nobody on this team that's a guarantee. They all have great potential, and on paper we did add more talent and depth, but again a lot of the talent and depth as of right now is potential. We need Russell/Crabbe/Levert/RHJ to post much better numbers than last year to show progress and take that next step in their careers in order for us to touch 30 wins IMO and that's 4 players that needs to have essentially career years thus far in their young careers and the probability of all four happening is quite slim. Even with the older guys in Mozgov and Carroll, there's huge question marks on whether they can get back on track and we're going to need those 2 especially to help guide this young team. Heck even Kenny (to get back on track) and Marks needs to show improvements on being a head coach/GM in order for us to push on from this year.

That bolded part is all it is, like MDB said asking for 40 wins is asking A LOT for a team as young as ours, anything over an 8-win improvement is what I would call a successful season and then we should push for 40 wins in year 3.

[Roy Tarpley]

But it is speculation mainly because, apart from Lin (and even he's a bit iffy mainly due to health concerns), there's nobody on this team that's a guarantee. They all have great potential, and on paper we did add more talent and depth, but again a lot of the talent and depth as of right now is potential. We need Russell/Crabbe/Levert/RHJ to post much better numbers than last year to show progress and take that next step in their careers in order for us to touch 30 wins IMO and that's 4 players that needs to have essentially career years thus far in their young careers and the probability of all four happening is quite slim. Even with the older guys in Mozgov and Carroll, there's huge question marks on whether they can get back on track and we're going to need those 2 especially to help guide this young team. Heck even Kenny (to get back on track) and Marks needs to show improvements on being a head coach/GM in order for us to push on from this year.

That bolded part is all it is, like MDB said asking for 40 wins is asking A LOT for a team as young as ours, anything over an 8-win improvement is what I would call a successful season and then we should push for 40 wins in year 3.

You're taking a pessimistic view, that's fine.

I'm taking the optimistic view. I'm not asking for or expecting 40 wins, I'm saying that we have a shot at 40 wins if things go well. If we don't win 40, I won't be disappointed because I wasn't expecting 40 wins. I'll only be disappointed if the Nets win less than, say, 34 games.

[ChokeFasncists]

Besides injuries, the biggest variable/x-factor is still the defense of DRuss and Crab.

If it's good, this team is good