Please Grade Eddie Jordan as a Coach.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Oh God....................NNNNNNNNNNNNO!

We already have double-team problems, my god it's a hazard seeing this team play it's "switching zone", to see a Rashard open or to see any kind of 3pt shooter open for 3. Then they "close down the 3pt shooters" and give up wide open lay-ups! The kind of infuriating coaching that leads to 41-41 records lol.

And the thought of Reggie Evans receiving any more then the 10 MPG he's mercifully given is UGH.

So it looks like personel wise, unless we can rid ourselves of Evans. Doug Collins is our guy.

[sfam]

For 76ers fans, I think most in DC probably agree that Jordan makes a far better offensive assistant than he does a head coach. While he does have some fairly good traits, he has some glaring faults as well - ones that didn't seem to get addressed by his choice of assistants.

[corwin]

I would like to thank all of the Washington fans for these insights. I haven't had a chance to link this post to the Philly board but will do so. He surely doesn't sound like any sort of impact coach & given our offensively challenged personnel, I don't think this will end well if he is hired.

[DCZards]

EJ’s mom here. My son’s a good man and a great offensive coach. I admit he’s not very good at getting his players to defend, but then again the personnel hand he was dealt with the Zards was rarely a good one defensively…but no excuses.

I suggest you first look at how well the EJ-led Zards played when truly healthy during the 2007-08 season. You’ll get a pretty good idea of the efficiency of the offense he runs. And don’t let anyone tell you health doesn’t matter. (Comparing losing Jameer Nelson to losing Arenas when you have Superman, Lewis, Turgolou and Alston is downright stupid isn’t it?)

Your guys will play hard for EJ and have fun. T. Young will become a star under EJ and AI’s career will continue to take off. And A. Miller is the closest thing EJ will have to the PG who ran his offense in NJ--JKidd. (That team made the NBA finals under head coach Byron Scott.) And, when I think about it, Brand is the kind of good passing from the high-post big man that would excel in EJ's offense.

EJ will make some mistakes with his late game decisions, but his play calling is pretty good…guys will get a ton of open looks. (See if you can get Korver back.) EJ is especially good at getting his players wide open shots coming out of timeouts.

A word of advice: keep in mind that about two-thirds of the guys posting here have pretty much hated EJ from day one...or at least after the first lose. (Doclinkin is probably the fairest and clearest thinker of those who have responded to your question. But I think doc may be a long lost relative of EJ and myself.)

And don’t think for a minute that those who post here speak for most fans in DC or that we are anymore NBA-astute than those hardcore Wizard fans who have never and will never post on this board--or any NBA board for that matter. Travel with me through the “streets (and barber shops) of DC” and you’ll meet some old schoolers who truly know what’s up when it comes to the city game.

As for me, I'm giving my son a B+ for his offensive coaching, a D- for his defensive coaching and an A for his leadership skills. Overall, a solid B.

Bottom line: trust your GM Stefanski. He knows EJ (they were together in NJ, right?), he knows your team and he knows NBA ball better than any of us on this board

[Wizards2Lottery]

EJ’s mom here. EJ is especially good at getting his players wide open shots coming out of timeouts.

everyone's favorite, the Gilbert and Caron isolation! Such a genius EJ was!

[sec-106]

Of all the guys mentioned for the PHI job, EJ is my least favorite.

And that was before I read this thread.

Thanks again for everyones insights.

[JWizmentality]

Bottom line: trust your GM Stefanski. He knows EJ (they were together in NJ, right?), he knows your team and he knows NBA ball better than any of us on this board

I swear, if an NBA GM told you that jumping in the Hudson river in the middle of winter would improve your basketball prowess, you'd be on here with your frostbitten behind telling us how little we know. Have you no ability to think for yourself? Or in the very least have confidence in your own knowledge?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

DCZards, one thing about EJ is just when you're most frustrated with his coaching he'll coach out of his mind good.

I can't say he's a bad coach because of the west coast trip where the Wizards beat all the good teams when they were at their best: Phoenix, LA, SA, and New Orleans.

As far as I'm concerned EJ only needs to improve in two areas: He needs to use numbers/metrics to tell when a strategy of his does or doesn't work. For example, opponent FG% when he goes small. Or, opponent possession or second chance points when he's got a non-rebounder at C. (Good news for EJ is that both Brand and Evans will rebound the ball even at C). If EJ looked at numbers, he'd have put aside any personal bias against Haywood and realized how much better the Wizards were when Brendan played. Second area EJ needs help on is in-game adjustments. He seems very reluctant to change strategy, which is what separates him from being a very good coach IMO. EJ seems very head strong and at times very predictable.

EJ is a great guy and one players look up to. I think he'd be a winner if he made the adjustments above.

[FreeBalling]

If you pick up EFJ!

I hope you have love for the small ball game, he drive me crazy playing that B.S. all the time.

Player development, EFJ will ride the VETS until they break down.

[nate33]

I agree with the general sentiments heard so far about EJ. He's a poor defensive coach and a good offensive coach. He's good with player motivation, so-so with player development, poor at making quick, in-game adjustments. I think the grades given in this thread are a bit harsh though. Overall, I give EJ a B-. He's an average NBA coach, perhaps slightly above average.

I was happy to see him go because I felt that the team had learned about as much as they were going to learn from EJ. It seemed like some of the young guys had tuned him out, and the vets weren't getting any better on defense. But prior to this past year, I thought EJ's positives generally outweighed his negatives.

I think the biggest problem with EJ is that he runs the Princeton Offense, and I just don't think you can win with the Princeton Offense in the long run. The P.O. requires big men with good shooting and passing skills. Unfortunately, bigs with those type of skills rarely come with with top notch rebounding and defensive skills.

Another problem is that the P.O. is so complicated that the team has to spend way too much time working on it in the offseason. That takes away time that would be spent on defensive schemes. It also means that it takes a long time to integrate new players into the system, which makes mid-season trades difficult.

As far as his player rotations, EJ will always prefer a guy with offensive aptitude over a guy with defensive aptitude. His reflex is to try to outscore the opposition rather than try to stop them. This inevitably leads to smallball configurations down the stretch in the fourth quarter with a floorbound 6-8 PF like Songaila playing center, or a 6-5 SG/SF like Jarvis Hayes playing PF.

[Don]

All we need in Philly is another Mama McNabb, DCZards- perhaps you can get yourself a Chunky Soup commercial with her. Don't expect the fans to like you though.. they lambast Mama McNabb regularly. You might consider staying in DC.

[DCZards]

EJ’s mom here. EJ is especially good at getting his players wide open shots coming out of timeouts.

everyone's favorite, the Gilbert and Caron isolation! Such a genius EJ was!

The play worked well enough to turn both GA & CB into all-stars. Didn't it?

[WizarDynasty]

erase

[76ers76ers]

I guess our starting lineup with E.J would be:

C-Elton Brand
PF-Thadeus Young
SF-Andre Igoudala
SG-Willie Green
PG-Andre Miller (if he resigns) or Lou Williams

[corwin]

So EJ's system has forced the wizards to pay low field goal percentage offensive players with poor defensive production all star money.

EJ supported this longterm move and that's why i am glad he and his offensive over defensive philosophy for player personnel decisions is gone.

I cut the rest of this to make it more readable. Thanks but the more I read about Eddie Jordan the more depressing it gets. I just wish the Philly GM would take a look at this thread!

[fishercob]

EJ's not a perfect coach, but he's better than most here make him out to be. I know because I'm starter than all of them.

Big cons would be refusal to learn advanced stats and therefore let Haywood languish on the bench so much, defensive philosophy predicated on "disruption," failure to establish a consistent rotation.

Pro's are he as phenomenal offensive tactician -- one of hardest in the league to defend; he can keep a locker room together (which is no small task in the NBA) and can get big production out of guys who may not fit into traditional molds of certain types of players.

While he had some very very good talent here, two main things kept him from being succesful: (1) he could never seem to have all that talent healthy at the same time and (2) the rest of the roster was never very good. When guys like Jared Jeffries, Mike Ruffin, Jarvis Hayes, Juan Dixon and talented but very inconsistent pups like Blatche, Young, etc., are in your rotation, you're just not going to have that great of a team.

It'll take Philly a while to learn his intricate system. But seeing as they were 13th in the league in defense this year -- better than the Wizards ever were -- I think he can be a great addition for them. I think he could do great things for Lou Williams, Iggy and Thad Young. He's never had a post scorer/banger as reliable as Brand (assuming health) and has never had a backup big as good as Speights. I'd hire him if I were Stefanski and not re-sign Dre Miller. Roll with Lou Williams and one of the talented PG's in the first round.

As a Wiz fan, I'd much rather see Eddie in Sacramento.

[LyricalRico]

I guess our starting lineup with E.J would be:

C-Elton Brand
PF-Thadeus Young
SF-Andre Igoudala
SG-Willie Green
PG-Andre Miller (if he resigns) or Lou Williams

Yeah, but once you got down by double figures, EJ would go to his "energy" lineup and you'd look something like this:

Evans
Iguodala
Green
Williams
Miller

You would pretty much see that every second quarter. Dalembert and Speights would probably be inactive. LOL Jason Smith would have a chance because he can shoot jumpers, but he'd probably be playing center and you'd get killed on the boards and in the paint.

The only real way to save your team with EJ as coach is for the GM to "EJ-proof" the roster. You have to get any undersized big men (like Reggie Evans) off the team and you can't have any veterans on your deep bench (like Donyell Marshall) otherwise they'll end up starting over younger guys. And you have to also get enough guys hurt so that EJ is forced to only play an 8 man rotation, otherwise he'll use 10-12 guys every night in odd groupings searching for a "lightning in a bottle" combination.

If all of those things happen, EJ actually looks like a decent coach. But it's only because he's forced to coach like an NBA coach. Once everybody is healthy again, he goes back to being a hubris driven mad scientist bent on proving that his college system can work in the pros. Remember Steve Spurrier? Yeah, it's kinda like that.

[nate33]

The only real way to save your team with EJ as coach is for the GM to "EJ-proof" the roster. You have to get any undersized big men (like Reggie Evans) off the team and you can't have any veterans on your deep bench (like Donyell Marshall) otherwise they'll end up starting over younger guys. And you have to also get enough guys hurt so that EJ is forced to only play an 8 man rotation, otherwise he'll use 10-12 guys every night in odd groupings searching for a "lightning in a bottle" combination.

If all of those things happen, EJ actually looks like a decent coach. But it's only because he's forced to coach like an NBA coach. Once everybody is healthy again, he goes back to being a hubris driven mad scientist bent on proving that his college system can work in the pros. Remember Steve Spurrier? Yeah, it's kinda like that.

Rico EJ

[DCZards]

EJ requested these player from EG and this is why he got fired and why EG may get fired for building a team around offensive low field goal percentage shooting bench player rejects from other teams.
Jamison and Butler were both bench players on their teams and neither had defensive reputations. EJ, " the supposed expert of basketball" advised grunfeld that these two players didn't deserve to be bench players on other teams and should be the wizards starters all because EJ valued offense over defense.

What are you talking about? Butler and Jamsion were "bench player rejects from other teams"? Did you just start following the NBA or something? AJ has been a starter every one but one of his 10 plus years in the NBA. And the year he wasn't a starter he was "6th man of the year" with the Mavs.

CB was a starter with both Miami and LA. In fact, he was the Lakers go to guy after Kobe got hurt late in CB's first and only season with the the Lakers. I guess you're suggesting that trading Kwame for CB was a mistake.

AJ and CB may be poor defensive players but they are hardly anybody's "rejects."

[DCZards]

I cut the rest of this to make it more readable. Thanks but the more I read about Eddie Jordan the more depressing it gets. I just wish the Philly GM would take a look at this thread!

You can't be serious, Corwin. Any GM who would even consider making personnel decisions based on the opinions of a few fans on an internet discussion board is an idiot.