Tell me about Lawrence Frank

[x-]

Looks like he's a serious candidate for the Rockets head coaching position.

From what I remember he's always standing on the sideline, calling out plays or shouting out instructions and likes to play zone on d.
His team usually plays at a pretty slow pace and he's not very creative on offense.

Does that seem about right?

What's he good at and what are his shortcomings?
Does he have a hard on for veteran scrubs?
What kind of offense does he run?

The more information, the better.

Thanks.

[8 Mile Ilic]

Some of his rotations will have you banging your head against the wall, especially when it comes to your team's young players.

But he designs offensive systems that get the most out of his star players.

Frank's tenure with the Nets was a mixed back but what makes it hard to objectively evaluate is that he wasn't given too much talent to work with / the talent he did have was an awkward fit (Kidd - Carter - Jefferson).

Oh also he really stresses defense, results with the Nets were once again a mixed bag but it's hard to tell if that was his fault or the fault of the roster he had to coach.

[NetsGod]

Don't expect Thabeet to have a breakout year under Frank.

Expect Kyle Lowry to beast, have a breakout year, only to lose MIP to someone who had a good year but is clearly not as deserving.

[8 Mile Ilic]

Thabeet's break-out year is already an unstoppable certainty.

[NyCeEvO]

Looks like he's a serious candidate for the Rockets head coaching position.

From what I remember he's always standing on the sideline, calling out plays or shouting out instructions and likes to play zone on d.

He doesn't play zone D that often. The only time he'll try to play it is when he feels that his individual defenders will be too overmatched to take up individual man-to-man assignments.
He's done it a few times. But there's no coach in the league that runs zones frequently anyway.

His team usually plays at a pretty slow pace and he's not very creative on offense.

That was one of the ironic things about Frank. He'd say "let's run" and no one would listen. I'm sorry but the guy has no commanding presence. Look at Thibs, if he says something you'll listen. Any coach that has played in the NBA has the respect of his players. Frank didn't even make his HS basketball team and I don't even mean that as a joke. He was team manager for 4 years in HS.
Back to the topic....therefore no matter what he says, the team usually feels like running at their own pace. His offense is a variation of the Princeton offense but to say that Frank has an "offense" is pretty funny. Easily, the number one thing I remember about Frank's offense was "VC ISO". He ran ISOs all day, everyday.
Yeah, I guess your best offense can be generated by your best player but not when it's 1 on 5. He's never had tremendous talent to work with so I can't judge him too hard. But when we started 0-17, you can clearly tell that the players had finally had enough.
[/quote]

What's he good at and what are his shortcomings?

For Frank, good is a relative term. The most I'll say is that I think he was better at defense than offense.

[8 Mile Ilic]

^ Yeah but... As we saw in Orlando and Phoenix despite his immense athletic gifts Vince was never a run and gun get out on the fastbreak player. ^

[NyCeEvO]

^That still doesn't take away from Frank's deficiencies as a coach. The best coaches run an offense that gets everyone a chance to score even if their team sucks. The best coaches overachieve (i.e. Popovich, Sloam, etc.) No matter how good or bad their team is, they know how to max out the potential of their players. Frank did not do that at all.

[8 Mile Ilic]

Look at who else was on the roster how in the world was anyone supposed to design an offense where guys like Double-Nickel and Jacque Vaughn have opportunities to score?

The competent scorers on the Nets got theirs (Jefferson, Carter, Nenad), there just wasn't enough talent on either end of the court to be an elite team.

[NyCeEvO]

I never said that they were going to be an elite team. If you have Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson on a team, your team should be much more efficient than what our team was at the time. You know how many times when Kidd would run his own plays cuz he had no respect for Frank and his offensive sets. Kidd getting traded wasn't just a "Send him off to a contender" move. He did not like Frank one bit. Look at what Adelman, Pop, and even Nellie did with their teams. They were able to develop offensive sets that incorporate all players. Matt Bonner would suck on any other team. The system that SA uses is the only reason why people know who he is. He just goes to his spots on the court where SA designs for him to be. They know that the only thing that he can do is shoot 3s, and therefore they create plays in which Bonner is constantly lurking on the 3pt line. Frank never designed plays to utilize anyone on his team, not even the best players. At most, it was VC Iso and pick and rolls, in which he never placed shooters, where they were supposed to be. He has no creative offense schemes at all.

No one can turn scrubs into allstars, but good coaches make the game easier for all players by developing sets for their teams so that don't have to create all of the time. SAS is probably the best at working off of the pick and roll and it's not just because Duncan is there. Coming off the screen, their shooters go straight to the wings, so that once Parker comes off the pick and the defense collapses, he can either drive it to the lane or kick it out to a wide open shooter.

To me, it just seems like he's a mediocre coach at best. Everyone thought he was so good when Scott was fired and we won like 14 straight games. That wasn't because of him. That was because Kidd no longer clashed with his coach and he ran over Frank like a puppet. They should've credited the record of most consecutive wins as a new HC to Kidd, not Frank.

[jeff1624]

I never said that they were going to be an elite team. If you have Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson on a team, your team should be much more efficient than what our team was at the time. You know how many times when Kidd would run his own plays cuz he had no respect for Frank and his offensive sets. Kidd getting traded wasn't just a "Send him off to a contender" move. He did not like Frank one bit. Look at what Adelman, Pop, and even Nellie did with their teams. They were able to develop offensive sets that incorporate all players. Matt Bonner would suck on any other team. The system that SA uses is the only reason why people know who he is. He just goes to his spots on the court where SA designs for him to be. They know that the only thing that he can do is shoot 3s, and therefore they create plays in which Bonner is constantly lurking on the 3pt line. Frank never designed plays to utilize anyone on his team, not even the best players. At most, it was VC Iso and pick and rolls, in which he never placed shooters, where they were supposed to be. He has no creative offense schemes at all.

No one can turn scrubs into allstars, but good coaches make the game easier for all players by developing sets for their teams so that don't have to create all of the time. SAS is probably the best at working off of the pick and roll and it's not just because Duncan is there. Coming off the screen, their shooters go straight to the wings, so that once Parker comes off the pick and the defense collapses, he can either drive it to the lane or kick it out to a wide open shooter.

To me, it just seems like he's a mediocre coach at best. Everyone thought he was so good when Scott was fired and we won like 14 straight games. That wasn't because of him. That was because Kidd no longer clashed with his coach and he ran over Frank like a puppet. They should've credited the record of most consecutive wins as a new HC to Kidd, not Frank.

Kidd never gave any indication that he disliked Frank, if anything he spoke highly of him if I recall correctly.

[8 Mile Ilic]

Yeah I don't recall Kidd having any beef with Frank... But I do think he may have had some beef with VC toward the end of his tenure with the Nets.

[kamaze]

L.Frank will get another job in the nba but I'm not sure if he's the best fit for Houston.
Rick Adelman ran a good offense that wouldn't be the case if they go with Larry.
As others have said he's a good defensive coach that's why Doc jumped on it when Thibs left Boston.

For Houston I think Maurice Cheeks would be a good choice.

[SpeedyG]

Frank's an above average Xs and Os guy. I do feel that he had a terrible "feel: for the game though. Too many runs that could have been stopped by a good timeout. Bad match-up substitutions. And then there are the situationals...such as not fouling up 3 with little time to spare (Pistons, playoff game), not pressuring an EXHAUSTED Anthony Johnson, and instead letting him WALK it up court (Johnson would have probably crawled if he could crawl fast enough to get through the halfcourt line within allotted seconds)

Also, I will disagree with 8 Mile here. I thought Frank made a bad decision in going away from the Princeton offense and going more of an isolation offense featuring RJ/Vince. I felt like, the Nets championship years missed two things: a SG who has the confidence and range to hit outside shots, and a C who can run the Princeton offense from the high-post. He got that in Vince and Krstic, but instead of sticking with it, he scrapped it for a simplified offense that far too many times turned Kidd into a spectator rather than the distributor (it's amazing how many assists he still racked up given how less he had the ball in comparison to RJ/VC), and allowed VC or RJ to go one-on-one far too many times.

Don't get me wrong, RJ/VC racked up the stats (much like Devin Harris did when Frank chose to run the dribble-drive offense), but in the overall scheme of things, I think he wasn't able to maximize the ability of his team.

[xam2k7]

idk what you guys problem was with frank... i always thought he was an above average to really good coach. like you keep saying, look at the talent on the team. other than RJ, and an aging kidd and carter we had guys like rodney buford and jacque vaughn and jason collins and jabari smith, mikki moore, etc etc making out the rest of the playing time. i guarantee if it werent for all those injuries at the beginning of last year resulting in the 0-19 start lawrence frank would still be the coach here. hes a great defensive coach and a good offensive coach. he will probably be able to do very good things with a team with the talent level that the rockets have.

[kamaze]

I thought Frank made a bad decision in going away from the Princeton offense and going more of an isolation offense featuring RJ/Vince. I felt like, the Nets championship years missed two things: a SG who has the confidence and range to hit outside shots, and a C who can run the Princeton offense from the high-post. He got that in Vince and Krstic, but instead of sticking with it, he scrapped it for a simplified offense that far too many times turned Kidd into a spectator rather than the distributor (it's amazing how many assists he still racked up given how less he had the ball in comparison to RJ/VC), and allowed VC or RJ to go one-on-one far too many times.

Don't get me wrong, RJ/VC racked up the stats (much like Devin Harris did when Frank chose to run the dribble-drive offense), but in the overall scheme of things, I think he wasn't able to maximize the ability of his team.

RJ benefited from Kidd's play making big time. After they got Vince the offense changed; not that was bad; but #24's play suffered.

They could have maximized on VC if Rj was traded earlier looking back but that's water under the bridge.

[8 Mile Ilic]

Also, I will disagree with 8 Mile here. I thought Frank made a bad decision in going away from the Princeton offense and going more of an isolation offense featuring RJ/Vince. I felt like, the Nets championship years missed two things: a SG who has the confidence and range to hit outside shots, and a C who can run the Princeton offense from the high-post. He got that in Vince and Krstic, but instead of sticking with it, he scrapped it for a simplified offense that far too many times turned Kidd into a spectator rather than the distributor (it's amazing how many assists he still racked up given how less he had the ball in comparison to RJ/VC), and allowed VC or RJ to go one-on-one far too many times.

After Kidd's surgery and the departure of Martin the Nets were never the same defensively. The fact is that even when the Nets ran the Princeton offense they were a pretty piss poor offensive team

I see where you're coming from but you have to admit that Frank got the most out of both Devin Harris and Vince Carter.

[x-]

Thanks guys.

Really appreciate it.

[crazykidd2k6]

I thought Frank was a super hard working coach. He was very detailed on his schemes pre-game. However, his big problem is changing his game-plan in-game. Thats why we always win the first quarter and always loose the 3rd. That's due of him lacking to play in the NBA since he really doesn't understand the situation players go through. Also, I never liked his subs (But Byron Scott was worst) however, you can't blame him due the fact that we never added talent except for our starters.

I thought he was between to an average to above average coach. I think the fact that he is a very hard worker makes him the perfect assistant coach

[NyCeEvO]

I thought Frank was a super hard working coach. He was very detailed on his schemes pre-game. However, his big problem is changing his game-plan in-game. Thats why we always win the first quarter and always loose the 3rd. That's due of him lacking to play in the NBA since he really doesn't understand the situation players go through. Also, I never liked his subs (But Byron Scott was worst) however, you can't blame him due the fact that we never added talent except for our starters.

I thought he was between to an average to above average coach. I think the fact that he is a very hard worker makes him the perfect assistant coach

Actually, yes.

Those were two of the positive things about Frank. You could tell that he studied stats and schemes a ton. He would go all out for pre-game preparation and he was very hard working. He had a lot of head knowledge about the game, which is why I think he excels as an assistant coach. He is and would always be a great assistant coach, teaching the players how to get better with defensive schemes. He was great at that but his ability to change in-game was horrendous. That's one thing that got me upset. He just couldn't make any in game changes.

[8 Mile Ilic]

The Houston Rockets have narrowed its choices for its head coaching job.

As of Monday, the following names had emerged as leading candidates: Lawrence Frank, Dwane Casey and Kevin McHale.

Frank is considered to be the front-runner.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/21 ... z1Lu1wvpDL

LET'S GO FRANK!
LET'S GO FRANK!