Is Woody a bad coach?

[Harry10]

going into the season, most people expect the Hawks to be a +45 win team and ranked 4th behind the Celtics, Cavs, and Magic.

put a different coach in here like D'Antoni, Larry Brown, Avery Johnson, etc.... do the Hawks get pass the Celtics, Cavs, or Magic?

[NBA Junkie]

While I don't think Mike Woodson is that good of a coach, I also can't see the Hawks greatly improving by having one of the higher profile coaches in the league. The NBA is a league of players. It's not like college where a good coach is pivotal to have. Most of the players have learned the fundamentals of the game by now or they are beyond hope of ever playing the game the right way. Now I'm not saying that improvement can't be made by having a better coach, I'm just pointing out that exponential growth is not likely.

We also shouldn't count out the Hawks this season. While they are more likely than not to finish 4th, injuries to the other teams could make them vulnerable. The new players on the Cavaliers and Magic might not develop good chemistry too. The Hawks didn't make any major changes, so we can expect them to play just as well if not better than last year. The same can't be said for the Magic and Cavs.

[JoshB914]

Woody is middle of the pack. His offensive scheme is definitely not what we want, but we are a team that are at our best when we are improvising via the fast break anyway. Defensively I think he does have a solid gameplan when we execute it.

I'd rather have him than the vast majority of the alternatives, he's been here for some time and knows the players.

[evildallas]

I've heard that studies show that a coach has little impact on NBA win total (+/- 3 games). The issue with switching coaches is that a new coach almost always wants to change the roster makeup or apply a certain system they are comfortable with. It's rarely a case of a coach figuring out what system gets the most out of the talent assembled and goes with it. If the personnel and the system match up right away then you tend to see instant success that is often mistaken for great coaching. If they don't you get bad results which is often mistaken for bad coaching (or it could be bad coaching).

D'Antoni system doesn't guarantee wins if the talent doesn't fit it. Larry Brown changes personnel and when he can't (like in New York due to bad contracts) it implodes. Avery Johnson is a task master on the offense end. I don't think there is a coach out there who magically steps in an boosts Atlanta higher without roster changes at the same time.

[MaceCase]

I can't really knock Woody considering that he coached the team to 10th in offensive efficiency and 11th in defense but his main flaw, at least with me, is his inability to adapt within game situations. If his gameplan is on then it's clicking but on those nights or situations that it's off he refuses to deviate from it. The Spurs game at home last season is an example that always sticks out in my head. Duncan was out but on every trip down on offense the Spurs would set a pick on Bibby with whoever Horf was guarding leading to isolations where Parker was going one on one with Horf. I can't remember but the Spurs did this to the tune of 40 or so points from Parker with nary an adjustment from Woodrow. He wouldn't change the zone, wouldn't even adjust how we attacked the pick. The only difference I remember was that he threw Joe at Parker for a possession or two where Parker just blew by him.

At the same time though, the one time I do remember him making adjustments was in the Cleveland series even though they proved fruitless. In that series we switched everyone on Lebron and failed, Joe had him, Mo had him, Josh had him, Marvin did the best with him but was severely limited with the injury, hell he even threw Mario at him. We tried to trap at halfcourt, pressure fullcourt, double on the perimeter, double on the baseline, deny the ball, everything short of a box and 1 and Lebron just shredded them all. That was my "go figure" moment because here Woody was actually adjusting but it had no effect.

[HoopsGuru25]

He's a good defensive coach and we have made a significant improvement every year besides 2007 when the entire team was hurt. I was impressed that they won 10 more games last year with more injuries than the previous year and no major free agent signings or trades. His offensive schemes are a joke and he has a few other weaknesses that every fan base complains about...but he's a pretty average coach who I've grown to get used to.

BTW-No coach in the world is going to make up the difference between a team predicted to win in the mid to late 40s and 3 teams predicted to win in the high 50s to low 60's.

[lethalweapon3]

For this franchise, Woody's the Best Coach...
...that money (or a lack thereof) can buy.

~lw3