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From Coach Spo (thanks to Badonkadonk for transcription):
I've known Darko for a while. I've always been... super impressed with him. He's been long deserving to get his opportunity. You know, the record doesn't show the work that he's doing right now. They're definitely building the right, appropriate habits with that young team. They play hard.


The front office has been hitting with their draft picks - but the coach is the one coming up with the development plans. They brought the right coach in.

The team is fully bought in and love their coach. Nick Nurse never got results from calling out a player. Darko got a positive response immediately. That says something about the bond between the coach and his players.

The team is improving in every facet - including defense. You can see the in-season growth. It makes it really motivating to watch games. I love watching them get better with reps and coaching.

They play hard every night despite all of the losing. Rookies tend to be inconsistent with their energy. Heck look at Ochai and Boucher - it's not even the rookies. But when the team loses focus or stops giving energy, Darko calls a time out and they respond more often than not.

Losing is tough and locker rooms usually implode after a string of losses. (We are seeing it all over the Association) Darko has kept this team focused on playing for each other.

This is the best development staff I have ever seen anywhere and I have been watching the NBA (all of the league games I can get my eyes on) since 1994.

The fact that they keep playing well organized and functional basketball despite all of the injuries and rookies is a small miracle. I really think the media and fans are undervaluing this.

He is not perfect. His late game management, rotations and challenges are all works in progress. But for someone new to head coaching who was brought in to develop our players, he's done a heck of a job (even with the vets).

Some may say it's too soon to make this thread but I am making it based on the progress I have seen in development and the consistency I see in effort due to Darko demanding it.

This has been the most fun rebuilding season I have ever watched and Darko and his staff are a huge reason why.

Thanks coach!

Of course because good coaches wouldn't have wanted to put up with the rosters of the past 2 seasons. Unless Darko shows improvement, which is definitely possible, he will get treated as a stop gap coach.

It will be obvious once this franchise is actually trying to compete beginning next year. Let gets a development pass until then.

I imagine next season the staff gets reworked and an assistant or two with HC experience is hired. Darko will get the Casey treatment and every opportunity to succeed.

If you truly wanted this team to rebuild then you would be ecstatic with the job Darko has done. Young players are improving, style of basketball is fun and the players play hard.

He’s not someone I want coaching game 7 of the NBA finals. But he is a guy I want coaching a young, rebuilding team.

Darko will be the coach that will develop all the young guys with very minimal success in the win department...When we actually have a legit team put together we prolly bring in someone new....Cycle of the beast...

The thing I like about about Darko is that he's trying lineups, that are in theory, not able to work properly,

Something like extremely limited spacing, like having Jakob, Davion and Mogbo on the floor together.

The principles remain the same (maybe tweaked a bit Jakob, because he hasn't taken an in rhythm 3), it's just a "Worse fit" player, filling a spot.

Davion being "wide open" allows guys that attract a double (or triple) team, to work on their passing. The Target may be open, but there's more pressure on the pass, or the ability to score is harder.

When the lineup gets healthy, That rhythm will become easier, and easier. The defense will have a harder time committing to double (or triple).

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It's sort of the "team version" of Gradey from last year.

When we sent him to the 905, he was basically playing the exact same way, with more volume.
Everyone wanted him to chuck like 30 shots a game.
But that wouldn't have helped, when he returned to a smaller role with the Raptors.

pretty much a tank coach. hire the winning coach when we get our ducks in order.. This is how the NBA goes

Beyond the player development, we have been competitive in all but three games this season. We had a legit shot to win almost every game we’ve played. And that’s with important guys coming in and out of the lineup, playing mostly unheralded guys and rookies. That’s a good coaching job. Of course it’s easy to say Darko lost us a bunch of games late, and there two or three that he probably did, but overall, if we watch enough basketball on any level of basketball, we know that the end of games largely depends on scoring in tough situations and staying composed, which is more talent and experience than coaching. If guys make FTs, drill an important wide open three, or don’t throw the ball away carelessly at the end of games, we probably have five more wins. He’s not perfect but done a great job.

HiJiNX wrote:Beyond the player development, we have been competitive in all but three games this season. We had a legit shot to win almost every game we’ve played. And that’s with important guys coming in and out of the lineup, playing mostly unheralded guys and rookies. That’s a good coaching job. Of course it’s easy to say Darko lost us a bunch of games late, and there two or three that he probably did, but overall, if we watch enough basketball on any level of basketball, we know that the end of games largely depends on scoring in tough situations and staying composed, which is more talent and experience than coaching. If guys make FTs, drill an important wide open three, or don’t throw the ball away carelessly at the end of games, we probably have five more wins. He’s not perfect but done a great job.

This is the season where we WANT him to lose ALL of the games late. And just keep doing a great job of developing the players we already have.

deeps6x wrote:

HiJiNX wrote:Beyond the player development, we have been competitive in all but three games this season. We had a legit shot to win almost every game we’ve played. And that’s with important guys coming in and out of the lineup, playing mostly unheralded guys and rookies. That’s a good coaching job. Of course it’s easy to say Darko lost us a bunch of games late, and there two or three that he probably did, but overall, if we watch enough basketball on any level of basketball, we know that the end of games largely depends on scoring in tough situations and staying composed, which is more talent and experience than coaching. If guys make FTs, drill an important wide open three, or don’t throw the ball away carelessly at the end of games, we probably have five more wins. He’s not perfect but done a great job.

This is the season where we WANT him to lose ALL of the games late. And just keep doing a great job of developing the players we already have.

I understand we need more talent on the roster and it’s a good draft (I don’t think it’s generational like it’s being hyped up to be), but it’s also important for players to win close games. It helps with confidence and development. They need to get some of these close ones.

Right coach and right players.

Having a guy like RJ ultra stoked to be home and play like he'd die for the Raptors has brought signs of life back into Barnes.

Dick, Ochai, Mitchell, Battle, almost everyone is in it to compete on both ends and make the right plays for the right person. We are playing team basketball again.

All the right coaching doesn't matter when you have your Mid-3, the vets mind you, all betting on themselves and looking to dribble 30 secs or take 30 shots.

In any lineup experiment the probable causes of failure are the guys who don't want to do what's needed and not so much the talent combinations.

We probably want to lose and are likely to lose but every time I watch these guys play I feel very OK with wins. Haven't seen this kind of team play & overall compete since the title defense year when by all expectations we were supposed to be a wasteland after Kawhi left. Guys coached and played with pride.

Darko has shown countless times that he knows the assignment. Having Walter in there for the last few minutes of the Heat game - when the Raps had clawed and scratched their way to within 7 points despite crappy FT shooting - was a pure "development" move. And much to the credit of management, Walter is a guy worth developing.

The only thing I care about is development, and Darko has done a good job with that. He's also getting the guys to play hard, which is nice during a tanking season. We're losing games, but we're not losing them by 20+ points like Detroit and Washington were over the past few years. We're not building a "losing culture", which is what treadmillers are often afraid of.

Los_29 wrote:If you truly wanted this team to rebuild then you would be ecstatic with the job Darko has done. Young players are improving, style of basketball is fun and the players play hard.

He’s not someone I want coaching game 7 of the NBA finals. But he is a guy I want coaching a young, rebuilding team.

We need a coach-exchange program with the Sixers. When they are wallowing in the depths of a rebuild because Embiid is broken down and PG has fallen off we can send them Darko for couple of years and we can have Nurse back for when we need a playoff tested coach.

ConSarnit wrote:

Los_29 wrote:If you truly wanted this team to rebuild then you would be ecstatic with the job Darko has done. Young players are improving, style of basketball is fun and the players play hard.

He’s not someone I want coaching game 7 of the NBA finals. But he is a guy I want coaching a young, rebuilding team.

We need a coach-exchange program with the Sixers. When they are wallowing in the depths of a rebuild because Embiid is broken down and PG has fallen off we can send them Darko for couple of years and we can have Nurse back for when we need a playoff tested coach.

Thanks but no thanks. Darko will be a great coach once we add some more talent and our players get in another year of development. We may have to add an assistant coach who focuses/specializes on defense next summer.

tecumseh18 wrote:Darko has shown countless times that he knows the assignment. Having Walter in there for the last few minutes of the Heat game - when the Raps had clawed and scratched their way to within 7 points despite crappy FT shooting - was a pure "development" move. And much to the credit of management, Walter is a guy worth developing.

I don’t mind it at all, especially in a lost year. There are ways to get the young guys “bigger game” experience that isn’t actual playoff games. Putting them in late in tight games against solid teams is one way. The in season tournament games seems to be played at a level above regular season games. These games aren’t full playoff intensity but it’s experience above and beyond normal regular season drudgery.

Kreamy wrote:

ConSarnit wrote:

Los_29 wrote:If you truly wanted this team to rebuild then you would be ecstatic with the job Darko has done. Young players are improving, style of basketball is fun and the players play hard.

He’s not someone I want coaching game 7 of the NBA finals. But he is a guy I want coaching a young, rebuilding team.

We need a coach-exchange program with the Sixers. When they are wallowing in the depths of a rebuild because Embiid is broken down and PG has fallen off we can send them Darko for couple of years and we can have Nurse back for when we need a playoff tested coach.

Thanks but no thanks. Darko will be a great coach once we add some more talent and our players get in another year of development. We may have to add an assistant coach who focuses/specializes on defense next summer.

How do we know this? He’s missing a lot of the small things that aren’t talent related. I don’t really trust his late game execution and we don’t know anything about his ability to make adjustments at a high level. I really like what he’s done development-wise but it hasn’t been great as far as minutiae goes.

Darko was hired to be the coach of another team, not this one. That one failed, so has this one. Rationalize that however you want.

Harcore Fenton Mun wrote:Darko was hired to be the coach of another team, not this one. That one failed, so has this one. Rationalize that however you want.

Once again, you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

The summer after he was hired and before season started, all Darko talked about was building the team around Scottie. The name "Pascal" hardly ever passed between his lips.

I wonder if most people posting in this thread are the same people that wrote Dick off early last season.

It's even worse as you are judging Darko on something he didn't even have an opportunity to do, which is coaching a reasonably talented team.

When he started with a new philosophy with Nick Nurse's team (arguably worse, no Fred but with Dennis), he was around .500 if I recall, till OG gave up. That's virtually no difference from Nurse's last season play in record.

After the OG trade and before the Pascal trade the team played so well, however Pascal injured Poeltl during that west coast trip just before he got traded.

Just saying (and I could be wrong) this may be another case of this board's premature mental ejaculation.