nate33 wrote: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.
I don't get the final grade after you tally up all these things. All that adds up to C- or worse.
Basically he can win if he has all the talent and no one gets injured and even then, you don't have any D. That gets you to about 500% with some luck. If you have to many prolonged injuries, you have nothing in the wings and you crash and burn. His best rotation moved were forced on him not because of insight. You never make it very deep in the playoffs because you have no D and your playing AJ on a defensive last stand play with 4 seconds on the clock. Haywood, he is on the bench.
Again, how do all these negatives add up to anything more then a failing grade which is at least a D. We are talking head coach of an NBA team. More specially, a winning NBA team. Last time I checked, you want that coach to take you deep in the playoffs and give you a chance to win it all. You want the coach to be a difference maker on the margin. Someone that can make the tough call or the balls out move that gets you over the top.
It's not like was talking about a young assistant who hasn't been given a chance. We know his track record and it's one of a man that doesn't adjust to his weakness.
We'll miss ya buddy. Tell EJ that we wish him the best.
