nykballa2k4 wrote:Handledatruth wrote:To be honest, Jeff did more with less talent than the other tanking teams. As a matter of fact, if he were truly a bad coach we would be talking about Ayton right now and not Bridges. My only frustration with him is how he handled Frank N's minutes this year, but looking at that now, Frank has had some pretty sub par PG minutes (minus his defense). I'm sure most coaches would not play a rookie that is struggling to adjust to the speed and strength of NBA players.
Did he?
Other teams played tank line ups. Jeff put out his most trusted vets every game. I don't like to play armchair expert, but in some cases, fans know more than the coach. There was a play in the baseball playoffs Mets vs Nats I believe where an OF caught a ball in foul territory which allowed a run to score. I was ELATED. I am no pro, but I felt it that if there was another swing, perhaps we'd have hit into a double play or had an unproductive out. Some professional choices don't pass the sniff test. Not playing Noah when our teams CLEAR deficiency was defensive intensity out of the gate, primarily from the center position, was just a complete miscue.
If something ISNT working, you gotta adapt. Jeffs philosophy and the personnel are a mismatch.
I'm not sure how you can consider tanking as successful coaching. You coach to win and as much as I dislike Jarrett Jack's defense, he gave our most effective PG minutes on the offensive end until Trey Burke came along (as awful as that sounds). Jeff's most effective brand of basketball occurred in Phoenix and revolved around PGs that attack and create. Despite that knowledge and armed with a top 10 pick in a guard heavy draft, all the Knick front office could give him for the majority of the season was Jarrett Jack. All that being said there are a few teams in the "tank" with more talent than the Knicks:
-Mavericks
-Suns
-Orlando
-Chicago
-Sacramento
-LA Lakers (ok maybe they are not fully in the tank)
I'll pick on one team in particular:
Orlando has Fournier, Vucevik, and Gordon but can only squeak out 24 games in a weak Eastern Conference? Name one player on the Knicks not named Porzingis that you WOULD NOT trade for any of those 3? Furthermore, why I am seeing news articles about Vogel after leaving a team that is currently in the playoffs to coach a 24 win team without talent issues? What am I missing about this amazing coaching job? Looking at the results on paper, we truly got the better coach, but in your measurement Vogel's tank job weighs more. I'm just not understanding the logic.
All that being said, if you go through my older posts you can see me vocally complaining about Hornacek's substitution patterns and his treatment of Frank. However, I understand that it is challenging to have a solid rotation with a roster full of flawed players (Noah obviously included). I honestly don't think he could have gotten anymore out of this roster given the circumstances (injuries, poor planning in the off-season, a lottery pick clearly not ready for the NBA), especially when the team was on track for the high 30s in wins prior to KP's season ending injury.