How about some calming insider info?

[younggunsmn]

I've heard reports that other teams are concerned about Al's knee. Do you think the reason we're not going to trade him now is that we'd like to show that he's back to normal to maximize the return?

Knee Injury + Big Contract = More than enough to scare off most teams. I know you guys love the al for prince+7 idea here, but honestly I don't think that's realistic at this point, in this economy, with the new CBA coming up and the league (supposedly) losing 400 million in a single year.

It will take Al returning to pre-injury production and knocking a year off his deal to bring that kind of value for him.

Love on the other hand, is at peak value this offseason. Next offseason we will get less for him because he will be a year from getting paid (unless he blows up into an all-star or something, in which case why trade him?)

It would be nice to know this inside info that supposedly explains Rambis's problems with Love.

I liked the bit about the triangle being a teaching tool, and a way for the players to get into their own offense without the sidelines calling plays all the time.

[MattyP]

Yeah, when I read that part about the triangle and the coach not calling plays, I immediately envisioned Phil Jackson sitting in his chair... like he always does.

[younggunsmn]

I really like it because it makes the players more self-reliant. I also liked the part about Rambis knowing it's a player's league. I can see a lot of that zen-master philosophy in Rambis.

I always hated coaches who micro-manage the game. I think 80% of coaching is done in practice. You teach the players your system in practice, teach them fundamentals and game situations. If you've done your job in practice and you have talent you really shouldn't have to do a ton of work in the game to win if you can run a decent rotation and make small adjustments to counter what the other team is doing. Honestly we didn't have any wings with the talent to execute our offensive scheme or big who could on D (until Darko came).

[MplsFonz]

All this stuff about Rambo having a method to his madness is fine and dandy, but at the end of the day, can he win ball games? It's great that he's building and developing solid, physical, smart, tough, well rounded players (What he did with Flynn and Love), but is this going to translate to winning? I don't think I'll be a believer in Rambis until the team is able to win convincingly. New players that fit his vision should help. I would also like to hear him admit that he got owned when McHale clotheslined him.
I think the major issue with Love was that Rambo noticed he was cheating for position to get rebounds, and doing other things to help himself and not the team, and when Love was called on it, he began whining and pouting and that caused a rift that didn't really get better once Darko came in and got a ton of minutes.

Good info on Love and Jefferson. If both stay, then Pek is obviously being moved.

[TrentTuckerForever]

No offense, but it sounds like front office induced damage-control BS. It actually makes me even more nervous about the decision-making.

I have to agree. There's some good points in the original post. It's quite possible that there was a bigger picture in play with Rambis's moves. That said all of the most important off-season, working hard, having a lot of assets, and a long term plan in place is all talk until we see proof. Right now it's no different than any other team in the lottery trying to generate interest and nothing we haven't heard a variation on in the past.

I don't feel anything either way. We won't know until August if Kahn knows how to convert these assets into players. Draft night will be one piece, but there will be free agent moves as well. We shall see.