10/25 | G4: Boston Celtics at Oklahoma City Thunder - 7PM CST

[slick_watts]

Aren't you sort of doing that also when you insinuate that Russ doesn't listen to him anyway though? If he's not listening to him then surely it mitigates how much credit Donovan gets for those victories, almost all of which Russ has a huge hand in.

yeah, we're both doing it. that's sort of the point, that it's untenable to assign 'blame' or 'credit' on billy donovan unilaterally the way this team is structured.

He actually went small in the Warriors series for the first to s that series, something Brooks had been doing very successfully, yet Donovan never did that save for those couple of games vs the Warriors.

everything comes with a caveat, huh.

donovan's use of 'dre in the warriors series was novel and stymied the warriors for the first four games or so.

It's almost like part of his job is to get players to respect him...

How dare you. How dare you demand of Billy The Conqueror to actually do his job. He was not hired to perform such a task. Just let him be.

what task was he hired to perform? do you know? he's in the fourth year of his contract, every statement from sam presti has been encouraging, every statement from westbrook and george has been encouraging. why do you assume that you know what task he was hired to perform?

look. billy donovan is not a good coach. almost anyone on this board can agree on that. the part that gets my goat is assignment of blame for nearly every bad thing that happens on this team to the coach. like somehow this isn't the flawed roster sam presti built for him, or that russell westbrook is somehow not an obstinate basketball personality whose catchphrase is literally 'i do what i want', or that this gameplan (run fast, be stupid) is not essentially what sam presti was pushing during his press conference this summer when asked about the lack of shooting. or that we lost our best assistant coach this summer to toronto for whatever reason. or that the 3rd or 4th best player on this team and one of the few smart ones has his career in jeopardy after an 'aggressive rehab'.

these aren't excuses, this is reality. it reminds me so much of when everyone wanted to fire scott brooks. i know some people who want billy gone on this board weren't fans of firing brooks but the current thunder landscape is so similar. just a shallow hatred directed at one guy because it's the easy thing to latch onto.

people thought it couldn't get worse than brooks, and yeah it can. people think it couldn't get worse than donovan.. yeah, it can.

[bondom34]

I’m glad some non-OKC fans can see what’s going on.

[Erik Horne] Donovan said he didn't think it was a terrible shot Westbrook took with the C's up 3 with 27 s left, but he also said message was "we don't need a 3." "He got off a clean look. As a player, you've got to be able to make those decisions at that point and time."

Read on Twitter

second comment down (Spurs flair)

“Translation: I didn’t call that **** play, **** took the shot himself, but I’m not gonna say how **** of a look it was or I’ll lose my job.”


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

So you're saying he can't do his job properly. Seems a fireable offense.

Let's at least call it for what it is - Presti hired his mate.

This

[Jstock12]

So you're saying he can't do his job properly. Seems a fireable offense.

This is one aspect that always fascinated me about the NBA. It's a player's league. The only coaches who can succeed are the ones that can legitimately command respect even from star players. There are very few coaches like that (Pop being the main one), and if you're not one of them, you just can't allow yourself to do anything that could potentially ruin the relationship with one of these NBA divas (talking in general), because the front office will never side with the coach. You have to be extremely diplomatic if that's the case. The complete opposite is true in Europe, because the talent pool is significantly weaker and pretty much EVERY player is replaceable in a matter of days. That's probably the reason why you see so many authoritarian coaches in Europe who yell (sometimes even worse) at their players if they mess up.

[spearsy23]

So you're saying he can't do his job properly. Seems a fireable offense.

This is one aspect that always fascinated me about the NBA. It's a player's league. The only coaches who can succeed are the ones that can legitimately command respect even from star players. There are very few coaches like that (Pop being the main one), and if you're not one of them, you just can't allow yourself to do anything that could potentially ruin the relationship with one of these NBA divas (talking in general), because the front office will never side with the coach. You have to be extremely diplomatic if that's the case. The complete opposite is true in Europe, because the talent pool is significantly weaker and pretty much EVERY player is replaceable in a matter of days. That's probably the reason why you see so many authoritarian coaches in Europe who yell (sometimes even worse) at their players if they mess up.

What does command respect mean? You certainly don't need to be authoritarian to do it. Stevens, Brown, Spoelstra, Atkinson, Casey all have player's respect and aren't authoritarian. Monty Williams was universally beloved and respected, Scott Brooks had our player's respect.

[spearsy23]

Speaking of Monty, I wonder if he'd be interested. May be one of the few guys with enough capital Billy up to straddle the line between what PG/Westbrook want and what they need.

[Jstock12]

So you're saying he can't do his job properly. Seems a fireable offense.

This is one aspect that always fascinated me about the NBA. It's a player's league. The only coaches who can succeed are the ones that can legitimately command respect even from star players. There are very few coaches like that (Pop being the main one), and if you're not one of them, you just can't allow yourself to do anything that could potentially ruin the relationship with one of these NBA divas (talking in general), because the front office will never side with the coach. You have to be extremely diplomatic if that's the case. The complete opposite is true in Europe, because the talent pool is significantly weaker and pretty much EVERY player is replaceable in a matter of days. That's probably the reason why you see so many authoritarian coaches in Europe who yell (sometimes even worse) at their players if they mess up.

What does command respect mean? You certainly don't need to be authoritarian to do it. Stevens, Brown, Spoelstra, Atkinson, Casey all have player's respect and aren't authoritarian. Monty Williams was universally beloved and respected, Scott Brooks had our player's respect.

Let's agree to disagree, because I don't think guys like Spoelstra or Brooks had 100% players respect on a deeper level. Good relationships? Sure.

[spearsy23]

This is one aspect that always fascinated me about the NBA. It's a player's league. The only coaches who can succeed are the ones that can legitimately command respect even from star players. There are very few coaches like that (Pop being the main one), and if you're not one of them, you just can't allow yourself to do anything that could potentially ruin the relationship with one of these NBA divas (talking in general), because the front office will never side with the coach. You have to be extremely diplomatic if that's the case. The complete opposite is true in Europe, because the talent pool is significantly weaker and pretty much EVERY player is replaceable in a matter of days. That's probably the reason why you see so many authoritarian coaches in Europe who yell (sometimes even worse) at their players if they mess up.

What does command respect mean? You certainly don't need to be authoritarian to do it. Stevens, Brown, Spoelstra, Atkinson, Casey all have player's respect and aren't authoritarian. Monty Williams was universally beloved and respected, Scott Brooks had our player's respect.

Let's agree to disagree, because I don't think guys like Spoelstra or Brooks had 100% players respect on a deeper level. Good relationships? Sure.

Spo didn't with Lebron, but does with his team's now.

Brooks absolutely did, guys would've ran through walls for him. The issues were scheme related, but they were executing the way he wanted them to.

[Revived]

Guys look on the plus side...you're guaranteed a win in the next game!

[spearsy23]

Guys look on the plus side...you're guaranteed a win in the next game!

That's probably enough to get Donovan a five year extension.