This'll be my first and last JB vent (on non-game threads!). Donning my kevlar for incoming
Why JB irks me:
- No accountability culture. He’ll occasionally and gently call a player out and then proceed to do nothing. Rotations largely remain the same. There's a reason why teams like the Heat are eyeing players like PJ. They know their culture can turn guys like him into more consistent performers. (we also need vets to enforce accountability, but that's another topic)
- This ties into roster inflexibility. Be flexible with rotations and matchups to gain advantage. If someone is playing poorly, stoopidly, lazily, yank them. If we need to in-game pivot on matchups (say, having Thor or Martin shadow a hot player for extended minutes), do it.
- System inflexibility – his defense hasn’t worked, doesn’t work, and won’t work. We have two middlingly capable bigs now in Mason and Trez – no need for constant zone, no need to switch everything. I’ve watched us switch all season for zero reason, only to swap a good matchup for a bad. This ties into point 1 above – play more man which would make players more directly accountable for their assignment.
- Cliff-like reluctance to develop prospects on-court (he leaves this to the very capable Jay H.). Thor has played largely out of necessity and has now been cast back into the shadows despite our defensive suckitude. We all know Nick should have been playing much more before Trez. Kai has been tearing it up in the G and can’t even see time during the end minutes of our far too frequent blowout losses. Can't really comment on Bouk - no idea with him. JB insists on running his fixed rotation to the very end of games. I mean does PJ really need to play 42 minutes in a game where you’re down 20 with 3 minutes to go? As mentioned in another thread, even Thibs is developing guys while coaching to win and guys like Ty Lue are riding 12 man rotations (with less talent than us) to winning records.
To wrap - I'm on the record as believing our issues are a mix of JB, FO and players. I'm not 100% JB should be fired. However, I am 100% that making coaching changes is the most quickly correctable of the three, whether this is change in philosophy from the coach himself, or an actual change of coach from the FO.
