Alvin Gentry

[Herman4MVP]

I was wondering why nobody seems to even think about questioning our head coach for some of his actions this season...

The positives:
- nice guy with a positive attitude
- tries to build confidence for struggling players
- improved our commitment to defense and our hustle mentality
- again, nice guy you just havve to like (not like Phil or Pop)

The negatives:
- tends to panic when Nash is not on the court and then decides to overplay him
- sometimes has horrible timing when it comes to taking timeouts and changing lineups
- is maybe a little bit too nice - sometimes I miss a little Popovich in order to wake us up
- knew exactly what was going to happen with this roster and Hedo at PF but ignored the obvious
- does not always stick to his words:

one day he says Clark deserves more PT, the other day he says he will try Warrick as a starter for at least 10 games to see how it works...suddenly there's no word about either plan anymore and we are falling back to the old way of (over)playing our veterans because of stupid politics (like Grant NEEDS to start and Nash NEEDS his minutes and blablabla).

It should be the best players with the most effort out there in order to win.

It's no bashing of him, but I am a little bit concerned right now - after all Sarver was glad to just give Alvin the head coach job so he did not have to pay a veteran with more experience. Alvin exceeded the expectations but sometimes I wonder if he needs some support - and I don't think Thunder Dan is the answer.

For once - cut the crap and stick with your plan! Why are Clark and Lawal getting no time and why do we keep riding the Nash-train every time the game is close...Hedo played like our MVP yesterday, he needs to be able to show his great skills on a nightly basis. So he needs to start at SF. End of story - let Grant start the 2nd half so he can have the illusion of beeing a starter.

[Herman4MVP]

What I would like to see for a couple of games (if everybody is healthy):

PG nash 24 min / dragic 24 min
SG jrich 24 min / dudley 24min
SF turk 24 min / hill 24 min
PF warrick 24 min / childress 24 min
C lopez 24 min / frye 24 min

clark lawal barron siler

Goran likes to play with Frye and Channing has no problem coming off the bench.
Nash on the other hand will try to find Robin around the basket so both pair-ups should work just fine.
Grant can help Goran with some ballhandling and creativity and Josh is our new Marion.

[RunDogGun]

I have seen many game threads this year, where posters have said, "This loss is all on Gentry." So I think many have given him a bunch of blame.

The thing I liked most about Gentry was how he developed the bench and gave confidence to our younger players, while building on the up tempo offense. After that, I really don't see much difference from any other coach we had. He does make better in game adjustments than D'Antoni, but that isn't saying much, since Mike had no idea how to adjust during a game.

What really bothers me is Gentry either pulling out a player when they are hot, or forgetting to go to that man, when they are hot. We should be milking those cows until they are dry, and then move on to the next cow.

[Herman4MVP]

Yeah, I was referring to the press, news sites and analysts - nobody of them seemed to blame Gentry in the past - at least I have not read any of them...

Gotta agree on the hot/not hot mistake he is making on a reg. basis

[RunDogGun]

Yeah, I was referring to the press, news sites and analysts - nobody of them seemed to blame Gentry in the past - at least I have not read any of them...

Gotta agree on the hot/not hot mistake he is making on a reg. basis

I don't get it either. Last year he was pulling guys from the scorer's table if the guy they were replacing was on fire. Now he just sticks with his original choice to pull a guy.

I really haven't read any bad press about him either. Maybe they are letting him slide because of how bad the choice of letting Amare go by our front office looks right now. But he should be held accountable for choosing lineups and poor rotations.

[charley barkles]

What I would like to see for a couple of games (if everybody is healthy):

PG nash 24 min / dragic 24 min
SG jrich 24 min / dudley 24min
SF turk 24 min / hill 24 min
PF warrick 24 min / childress 24 min
C lopez 24 min / frye 24 min

i would like to see this too, except for having Turk and Hill switched. Hill was terrible off the bench. But I think a strict hockey-like substitution pattern would be really beneficial to our guys. They'd learn to play with their 5 consistently, and they'd know when exactly they will be coming in each game. Then you have Barron and Clark to fill in for whoever if they pick up early fouls or get hurt. Clear roles for everyone.

It seemed like last year was pretty close to a 5-in-5-out type of rotation, and i think it gave other teams problems because it's almost as if you have to prepare for 2 different teams.

[Sundamental]

What I would like to see for a couple of games (if everybody is healthy):

PG nash 24 min / dragic 24 min
SG jrich 24 min / dudley 24min
SF turk 24 min / hill 24 min
PF warrick 24 min / childress 24 min
C lopez 24 min / frye 24 min

clark lawal barron siler

Goran likes to play with Frye and Channing has no problem coming off the bench.
Nash on the other hand will try to find Robin around the basket so both pair-ups should work just fine.
Grant can help Goran with some ballhandling and creativity and Josh is our new Marion.

A little unrealistic to play that way but I would certainly like to see a bit more parity between the starters and subs. Your general idea would still remain intact but we have to adjust for opponents line-ups, who's playing well and end of game situations. This will also help over the course of the full season and into the play-offs because while Gentry may think Nash and Hill are Superman, he needs to keep them fresh. Not like the last two games with Nash. An idea I had with Nash-Dragic is to start Dragic on the second game of back-to-backs. Make Nash the sub and play him as little as possible except in key situations. It would help Goran's long term development as well.

[JohnVancouver]

I was wondering why nobody seems to even think about questioning our head coach for some of his actions this season...

The positives:
- nice guy with a positive attitude
- tries to build confidence for struggling players
- improved our commitment to defense and our hustle mentality
- again, nice guy you just havve to like (not like Phil or Pop)

---- How can you not love Pop? I mean, really. Phil is an irredeemable douchebag though

[Herman4MVP]

Yeah, Pop is not a jerk like Jackson and a wonderful coach - but after years of owning our coaches with the Spurs I just can't say I like him

Great coach and funny guy - but when he's on the opposed side you just gotta hate him

[Cutter]

It seemed like last year was pretty close to a 5-in-5-out type of rotation, and i think it gave other teams problems because it's almost as if you have to prepare for 2 different teams.

I wish we could get back to this kind of rotation this year .

[Cutter]

What I would like to see for a couple of games (if everybody is healthy):

PG nash 24 min / dragic 24 min
SG jrich 24 min / dudley 24min
SF turk 24 min / hill 24 min
PF warrick 24 min / childress 24 min
C lopez 24 min / frye 24 min

clark lawal barron siler

Goran likes to play with Frye and Channing has no problem coming off the bench.
Nash on the other hand will try to find Robin around the basket so both pair-ups should work just fine.
Grant can help Goran with some ballhandling and creativity and Josh is our new Marion.

A little unrealistic to play that way but I would certainly like to see a bit more parity between the starters and subs. Your general idea would still remain intact but we have to adjust for opponents line-ups, who's playing well and end of game situations. This will also help over the course of the full season and into the play-offs because while Gentry may think Nash and Hill are Superman, he needs to keep them fresh. Not like the last two games with Nash. An idea I had with Nash-Dragic is to start Dragic on the second game of back-to-backs. Make Nash the sub and play him as little as possible except in key situations. It would help Goran's long term development as well.

I like the idea of starting Dragic on the second game of a B2B and think it makes a lot of sense. Last year we would rotate the whole bench in like clockwork into every game and the starters knew when they would be on the bench resting. Since we don't have that going on yet this year starting Dragic in certain games seems like a smart move.

[Miklo]

I think it's an excellent point that we have to look at Gentry just as closely as anything else when discussing our performance. I definitely see some of the qualities that ended up showing Frank Johnson the door, where he's more of a "player's coach". It's definitely important to strike a balance between your players liking you, and them respecting you. At this point my opinion is that yes he's being friendly to them BUT I don't see any of our players disrespecting him or trying to run their own show, so it doesn't seem excessive.

[BurningHeart]

I blame Gentry often, and I'm not usually a coach-blamer. Gentry lost Game 6 of the WCF last year, at the very least.

[DRK]

I blame Gentry often, and I'm not usually a coach-blamer. Gentry lost Game 6 of the WCF last year, at the very least.

I wouldn't say he "lost it" for us, but some of his coaching decisions were very questionable. i.e Not keeping Dragic out longer, or keeping Dudley on Kobe.

Kobe Bryant was the guy who buried us. Some of his shots were downright amazing. Even as a Suns fan, I was left gasping in amazement.

[BurningHeart]

Actually, Ron Artest buried us that game. There is no reason for that **** guy to score 25 points, especially when a ton of them were off corner pocket threes because we kept doubling Kobe. Gentry coaching mistake. Kept doubling, left douches like Farmar and Artest open, (Farmar 2-3 from 3, Artest 4-7). That's 6 unnecessary threes. Vujacic even decided to make one.

Lack of stopping the double team is what got us in the hole to begin with.

I understand Kobe was amazing, but Kobe (unless he quits on his team like in Game 7 in 2006) is ALWAYS amazing. You have to stop the other guys from beating us. Let Kobe do what he wants.

And all the other stuff Gentry did/didn't do in that game.....I remember typing up a decent post explaining my thoughts after the game, but too bad there is no "search by users posts" function on RealGM.

EDIT: Found the post I had in mind.

BurningHeart wrote:You Laker fans can save the plastic kindness. It's utter garbage. People in LA are fake as ****.

We lost because we got outcoached. You see the zone not working because the Laker losers are hitting their shots, THEN CHANGE IT UP.

You keep saying "hey guys, we're in it, there's a lot of time" even if it's the fourth quarter? C'mon man. It's not OK. Light a FIRE.

You leave Barbosa in after the time out in the fourth instead of bringing your starters in? You never play Nash and Dragic together? You remove Dragic, the guy responsible for our comeback? Jeez. You're getting killed on rebounding, then put Lou in!

You sit there and let Kobe pat you on the ass as Kobe drops a dagger? Are you KIDDING? You stand there and smile with him and basically suck him off right after he put the kaibosh on your team? SHOW SOME FIRE! BE PISSED!

I love Gentry but jeez man, he does a lot of crap wrong.

Great season, but not enough for me. I'm sick of "almost". I'm sick of "coulda, woulda, shoulda". I'm sick of being forced to feel "content". I'm sick of moral victories. I'm sick, sick, SICK of it.

**** WIN.

[Herman4MVP]

I hope Gentry is a man of his words and will leave if we are to trade Nash like he said a few weeks earlier.

Seriously, we have no plan whatsoever and are relying on a 36 year old legend with a lot of talented players rotting on the bench. Plus we released our only PG insurance in Matt Janning and are absolutely helpless when injury strikes.

I don't have to mention the PF situation again and tonight Gentry chose the wrong time to get Goran out of the game. Since then the game just slipped away from us.

=> maybe Gentry is a good assistant coach, but as a head coach I think he is not enough for us

[Jimmy76]

gentry isnt the problem he's a decent coach

[Herman4MVP]

gentry isnt the problem he's a decent coach

I respect other opinions but I still think "decent" is not enough for our situation.

[Jimmy76]

gentry isnt the problem he's a decent coach

I respect other opinions but I still think "decent" is not enough for our situation.

unless the coach can control the paint it won't matter

Bill Russel player/coach is the only coach that could help us

[B-Ball-IQ]

I was wondering why nobody seems to even think about questioning our head coach for some of his actions this season...

The positives:
- nice guy with a positive attitude
- tries to build confidence for struggling players
- improved our commitment to defense and our hustle mentality
- again, nice guy you just havve to like (not like Phil or Pop)

The negatives:
- tends to panic when Nash is not on the court and then decides to overplay him
- sometimes has horrible timing when it comes to taking timeouts and changing lineups
- is maybe a little bit too nice - sometimes I miss a little Popovich in order to wake us up
- knew exactly what was going to happen with this roster and Hedo at PF but ignored the obvious
- does not always stick to his words:

one day he says Clark deserves more PT, the other day he says he will try Warrick as a starter for at least 10 games to see how it works...suddenly there's no word about either plan anymore and we are falling back to the old way of (over)playing our veterans because of stupid politics (like Grant NEEDS to start and Nash NEEDS his minutes and blablabla).

It should be the best players with the most effort out there in order to win.

It's no bashing of him, but I am a little bit concerned right now - after all Sarver was glad to just give Alvin the head coach job so he did not have to pay a veteran with more experience. Alvin exceeded the expectations but sometimes I wonder if he needs some support - and I don't think Thunder Dan is the answer.

For once - cut the crap and stick with your plan! Why are Clark and Lawal getting no time and why do we keep riding the Nash-train every time the game is close...Hedo played like our MVP yesterday, he needs to be able to show his great skills on a nightly basis. So he needs to start at SF. End of story - let Grant start the 2nd half so he can have the illusion of beeing a starter.

Wow, one of the most articulate, logical, and wise posts in a long time. Words of wisdom my friend, props to you...