Hey guys,
With the hiring inevitable at this point, I thought I would offer my input.
I know, I'm a Lakers fan from Canada, and some of you will probably figure I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I've seen the Gators play live a few times, and my older brother I would bet is the biggest Gators fan in the world. Why? I have no idea. So, with that, I've been nearly forced to watch the Gators since dating back to the Matt Walsh/Anthony Roberson days. My thoughts on Billy D are the following:
POSITIVES:
- He gets players to buy in:
Guys have always bought in to his program and his system as long as I've watched the Gators. And I'm sure they will all swear by him.
- Great leader:
He'll always back his team when it comes to the officiating, his speeches, direction out of timeouts, when to take timeouts, is excellent. At the same time, he's no one's BFF. Players respect him, they look at him as a father figure, however he doesn't cross that line and become someone's buddy. It doesn't matter if you're a guy like Brad Beal, Al Horford, Joakim Noah or if you're a guy on the bottom of the roster like Jacob Kurtz, Dan Werner (he's another story), or any other many walk on's he's had. He's consistent with every single player. There is no special treatment for anyone.
http://youtu.be/W4fLywgEQtsBy the way, great pregame speech there the night they won the first of their back to back national championships.
D:
He's a great defensive coach. He stresses it and you better play it or you're not playing. And if you're not a great defensive player, you better give absolute maximum effort. You better rotate, you better full court press hard, you better come over and trap in the areas he likes to, you better contest. You guys will be a much better defensive team. However, this will lead to one of my concerns.
- He has a great way of getting the best out of roleplayers.
Guys like Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey, Kenny Boynton, Patric Young, Michael Frazier II, Corey Brewer, David Lee, they've all excelled under him. Anyone who has a clear cut, defined role that fits into his offense will be a good piece of the puzzle and have great success. Some candidates on the Thunder, IMO, who will have big seasons -- DJ Augustin, Enes Kanter (similar to the Al Horford role, however, he better be a factor on the defensive end), Anthony Morrow, Serge Ibaka. I think Serge Ibaka will have his best all around season this year under Donovan. Similar to how Noah was used.
Now, onto the weaknesses and things that I have BIG question marks about.
His rotations/heavy minutes on star players:
Outside of two or maybe three guys off the bench, he does not rely on a deep bench. He sticks with a rotation that works, and if he does have to sub one of his main guys out, he'll sub them out for maybe a minute or two at a time to get them a quick blow. Speights never got a whole lot of playing time with the Gators. I didn't even think he would go to the NBA, but scouts realized he had a lot of talent and he was a projected first rounder. He never showed a whole lot while at Florida.
Getting the most out of potential stars:
First, Billy never landed a lot of high profile recruits. Brad Beal, Chris Walker, and Kasey Hill are really the only players that come to mind off the top of my head. While he gets a lot out of role players, stars tend to get the s**t end of the stick, especially the stars who need the ball in their hands to be successful. The ball HAS to move in his offense. He doesn't just run straight pick and roll and dribble the hell out of the ball and if you're that type of player, you don't want to go to Florida. It's why guys like Brandon Knight, Anthony Bennett and others have initially committed/leaned towards the Gators but ended up going elsewhere. You look at Brad Beal while he was there for a year, he deferred, played within the system and a lot of critics said he wasn't aggressive enough. While that was partly true, he didn't have the freedom in Billy's system to be the star player it was suggested he could be. It wasn't until late in the tournament that he started to come on.
Chandler Parsons is another example. When he came to Florida and developed his game, he had the potential to really be the number one option. Didn't happen, he looked like an average player that would be drafted in the second round and be out the league within years. He gets drafted second round, goes to Houston, became a major player and a lot of Florida fans just weren't surprised by that.
Chris Walker, Kasey Hill are other examples in recent history the past couple seasons. Both came in as projected lottery picks. Kasey Hill has completely fell off the map, will be returning for his third year. With Chris Walker, I think this is Billy Donovan's biggest Florida disappointment. He came in as a projected major talent and yes, I know he had academic issues, seniors ahead of him and that sort the first year, but he hardly saw the court this season. He was projected to be a major player. Instead, he didn't "buy in", Billy Donovan refused to use him as anything more than a screen setter, and now a potential star player probably won't even catch on to a team. This is a guy that should have been developed a lot better, not make one mistake and not see the court the rest of the game.
- He's stubborn.
Billy Donovan has a philosophy offensively and defensively and he hasn't shown the flexibility to change it for anyone. Unlike most coaches who run a system based off the strengths of their players, he doesn't. He has his system and you better abide by it.
Defensively, I really hope he has flexibility with this, is his full court press/trap defense. In an 82 game season, with 48 minute games, it would be physically impossible to have a deep playoff run if he uses this with as much regularity as he does at Florida. I don't know how much he can refrain from it, because it's what he's known for, but I have a really hard time believing professionals making millions of dollars are going to do this as frequently as college kids.
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There's my thoughts. A good college coach, but there's always been some things about Billy Donovan that I haven't liked at all and those couple issues (minutes, not using his bench, inability to get more out of stars, plays by a set system instead of playing to strengths) are the biggest question marks I have about him being a professional coach.
