Info on Alvin Gentry?

[fatlever]

Bobcats fan here...

We are apparently considering Gentry for our next coach. Makes some sense due to his local ties (grew up about a hour west of Charlotte and went to college at App St in NC).

What can you guys tell us about Gentry?
What are his biggest strengths? Weaknesses?
How will he handle a point guard like Kemba?
How would MKG fit into his system?
More emphasis on offense or defense?
Would he look to push the tempo like he did with the Suns?
Would he look to run similar pick and roll offense?
More of a players coach or an XOs guy?
Better with young players or veterans?

Thanks

[Bulk]

Players coach that is definitely better with vets. I would not be thrilled to have him for a rebuilding and player development process.

[rsavaj]

Others can probalby go more in-depth, but just as a quick response:

Weaknesses
-Overreliance on his bench. Likes to play the entire bench together as a 5-man unit, which doesn't work out unless your bench is really, really awesome. Questionable rotations sometimes.
-Not great at calling plays out of timeouts. Pretty bad at it, actually.
-Not a great defensive mind.

Strengths
-Player's coach through and through. Inspires intense loyalty amongst his ballclub. If given the right group of players(usually vets), he really can lead them
-Pretty good offensive sets(almost identical to D'Antoni's). Pick and Roll + spreading the floor is basically the basis of what he likes to do. The system works with a playmaking PG that can handle the load...I haven't watched much of Kemba so I can't comment there. I imagine he would continue to push the tempo, especially since you guys have some serious athletes.
-What's a weakness above can also be a strength here: he loves going 10 deep, so there aren't going to be too many guys who aren't getting PT

Overall, I'd say he's an above average coach. Not in that "these coaches will transform your ballclub" tier like Thibs, Pop, Riley, Phil, etc, but he's heads and shoulders ahead(IMO) of guys like VDN, Mike Brown, etc.

Then again, there's the question of whether or not coaches really matter that much in the NBA. The data shows that unless you have one of the truly great coaches(like some listed above), your talent means a heeeeell of a lot more than the person coaching it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 25220.html

[Revived]

Bobcats fan here...

We are apparently considering Gentry for our next coach. Makes some sense due to his local ties (grew up about a hour west of Charlotte and went to college at App St in NC).

What can you guys tell us about Gentry?
What are his biggest strengths? Weaknesses?
How will he handle a point guard like Kemba?
How would MKG fit into his system?
More emphasis on offense or defense?
Would he look to push the tempo like he did with the Suns?
Would he look to run similar pick and roll offense?
More of a players coach or an XOs guy?
Better with young players or veterans?

Thanks

His biggest strength is that he's a player's coach. His biggest weakness is also that. Not much of a disciplinarian.

He would be able to handle Kemba in an excellent way imo. Dragic often credits Gentry for his development so I see no reason for Kemba and Genty to not find instant chemistry.

MKG would fit into his system in a similar way Grant Hill fit into our system back in '10 and '11. Expect MKG to be guarding the opposing team's best player and also be used as a slasher a lot.

More emphasis on offense...his defensive game plans really didn't work here in PHX but perhaps that's cause of the personnel.

I would expect him to push the tempo. That's what he's had most success doing. He didn't have nearly as much success running different kind of offense with the previous teams he coached.

Idk if he would look to run a similar pick and roll offense. It worked here when he had Nash but it didn't really work much with Dragic. So I guess it depends on how you look at Kemba...is Kemba more like Nash or Dragic?

Definitely players coach. By far.

A bit of mixture but mostly young players I would say. Hard to answer this one though.

No problem. Good luck!

[bigfoot]

Never seems to call timeouts when the other team is making a big run

Okay at offense but doesn't coach defense

Never did show he can develop young players (here or with the Clippers)

Easy practices to keep the vets happy

Burps an awful lot during press conferences

[rsavaj]

Never seems to call timeouts when the other team is making a big run

Okay at offense but doesn't coach defense

Never did show he can develop young players (here or with the Clippers)

Easy practices to keep the vets happy

Burps an awful lot during press conferences

I'm gonna dispute point number 3. Dudley and Dragic have credited Alvin with their development, and I trust their firsthand accounts over anything else.

[bigfoot]

Never seems to call timeouts when the other team is making a big run

Okay at offense but doesn't coach defense

Never did show he can develop young players (here or with the Clippers)

Easy practices to keep the vets happy

Burps an awful lot during press conferences

I'm gonna dispute point number 3. Dudley and Dragic have credited Alvin with their development, and I trust their firsthand accounts over anything else.

Yeah but look at Earl Clark, Robin Lopez, Dragic played poorly in his last year as a Sun and hence his trade to the Rockets, Kendall Marshall, Lamar Odom regressed under Gentry ... I'll give you Dudley but one out of five really doesn't seem like a good showing for developing young players.

Edit: I'm glad you did not dispute the burping. I would have pulled out dozens of videos and had to put together a Gentry burping highlight reel with sound effects.

[rsavaj]

Not sure how we can say Kendall Marshall "regressed", because that implies a fall-off from a previous point. He's a rookie, and not a very good one at that. Jury's still out.

Lopez is a curious case. He was having the best season of his career under Gentry until his back injury. Then he regressed. Now he's healthy, and he's playing well again. Not sure that you can pin that one on Alvin.

Clark is another interesting case. He wasn't going to get PT here when we were trying to make our playoff push, and perhaps you can fault Alvin for that. But he didn't show anything in Orlando either, under SVG, a coach who I think is held in very high esteem around the league. He's shown some flashes in LA, but overall, it's not like he's had some sort of huge breakout season.

Dragic was having an absolutely atrocious few months before he was traded, that much is true. But again...he says that Alvin is the guy who made him the player he is today. And I trust Goran about Goran.

Odom? I honestly don't remember man. Always thought he was a space cadet, lol. I'll take your word on that one.

[RunDogGun]

Rsavaj, I think he meant for the regression thing to be applied to Odom, just like he went into depth after he names Goran.

As for Gentry, I was ok with him at first, but the more I watched him, the less I liked. I did like how he worked with Goran, but that just might be because he is a nice guy.

I was glad to see him go, but you never know, maybe he can change and become a more disciplined coach. I don't wish him any ill, and I think he is a good assistant coach. But from what I've seen from him, and from what I've seen from his past, I am unimpressed by his body of work as a head coach. Vets do seem to like him, but I thought it was because he allows them to do whatever they want. Very hands off.

[thamadkant]

Bobcats are full of young players...
Gentry has not shown much skills as a developer of youth.

Unless Bobcats plan to trade some youth for veterans..

Suns can help...
2013 heat pick 30, Scola, O'Neal, Frye, Dudley for Biyombo, 2013 pick and filler

[Revived]

Never seems to call timeouts when the other team is making a big run

Damn, how did I forget to mention this one?

That is by far his biggest weakness. When other teams are going on 14-0 or 20-2 runs, Gentry simply stands by the sideline looking like he's about to throw up without calling one of the many timeouts he has.

Its as if he wants to save timeouts at the end of the game..it doesn't do s**t when the game is already blown out by the end of the game.

[rsavaj]

I forgot the timeout thing too. Relic from the D'Antoni days I guess. Neither of them called them when we needed them.

[ASU MVP]

Never seems to call timeouts when the other team is making a big run

Damn, how did I forget to mention this one?

That is by far his biggest weakness. When other teams are going on 14-0 or 20-2 runs, Gentry simply stands by the sideline looking like he's about to throw up without calling one of the many timeouts he has.

Its as if he wants to save timeouts at the end of the game..it doesn't do s**t when the game is already blown out by the end of the game.

Seriously, it was so damn annoying. I also hated his overuse of the bench, we have starters for a reason. It worked really well in the WCF run because our bench was so deep and dominant, but he was always over reliant on the bench.

Speaking of throw up, didn't he actually puke one time during a game? Either that or I must have been dreaming because I could have sworn that happened

[ASU MVP]

Suns can help...
2013 heat pick 30, Scola, O'Neal, Frye, Dudley for Biyombo, 2013 pick and filler

2nd pick in the draft and guaranteed worst record next year for a solid chance at Wiggins? Sign me up for that one! Tell Sarver to buy MJ a new Ferrari as well if that deal gets done

[fatlever]

great info guys. thanks. i think you all confirmed the impressions i had about gentry. i agree with the notion that perhaps he is better suited as a top assistant than as a head coach. or at least if he is the head coach he needs to have some assistants that can help focus on defense, XOs and player development.

[Jdiddy701]

He believes in 2nd units, which is not good when you don't have a bench. He doesn't believe in giving your best players a lot of minutes, which is not good. He gives the worst players the most minutes. He's not great with substitutions. He lost us a lot of games. I think he was overrated as a coach. If Lebron James played for this team, he would average 30 mins a game. He doesn't know the importance of having our best player on the floor the majority of the time. Bassy and Dragic basically split minutes.. same with Nash and Bassy last season.

He doesn't coach. Too much of a friend to his players and I believe it hurts the team. A coach has to coach.

Any coach that plays Shannon Brown a lot of minutes basically is asking to get fired.

[phrazbit]

He believes in 2nd units, which is not good when you don't have a bench. He doesn't believe in giving your best players a lot of minutes, which is not good. He gives the worst players the most minutes. He's not great with substitutions. He lost us a lot of games. I think he was overrated as a coach. If Lebron James played for this team, he would average 30 mins a game. He doesn't know the importance of having our best player on the floor the majority of the time. Bassy and Dragic basically split minutes.. same with Nash and Bassy last season.

He doesn't coach. Too much of a friend to his players and I believe it hurts the team. A coach has to coach.

Any coach that plays Shannon Brown a lot of minutes basically is asking to get fired.

He is not a great coach, and I agree that he is too soft on his players, but some of these critiques are out of touch with reality.

Nash averaged 32-33 minutes a game under Gentry, a whopping 1-2 minutes less per game than he did under Mike D (who gets accused of running his starters into the ground). And for all the ripping of him for using the bench... the bench was the only reason the Suns won half of their early games.

And this is not to say I like Shannon Brown... but pretending there was a significantly better option is also a joke. Wes Johnson had some moments (as did Brown) but was a lousy player this year and statistically inferior to Brown in every stat but rebounding.

[bigfoot]

He believes in 2nd units, which is not good when you don't have a bench. He doesn't believe in giving your best players a lot of minutes, which is not good. He gives the worst players the most minutes. He's not great with substitutions. He lost us a lot of games. I think he was overrated as a coach. If Lebron James played for this team, he would average 30 mins a game. He doesn't know the importance of having our best player on the floor the majority of the time. Bassy and Dragic basically split minutes.. same with Nash and Bassy last season.

He doesn't coach. Too much of a friend to his players and I believe it hurts the team. A coach has to coach.

Any coach that plays Shannon Brown a lot of minutes basically is asking to get fired.

He is not a great coach, and I agree that he is too soft on his players, but some of these critiques are out of touch with reality.

Nash averaged 32-33 minutes a game under Gentry, a whopping 1-2 minutes less per game than he did under Mike D (who gets accused of running his starters into the ground). And for all the ripping of him for using the bench... the bench was the only reason the Suns won half of their early games.

And this is not to say I like Shannon Brown... but pretending there was a significantly better option is also a joke. Wes Johnson had some moments (as did Brown) but was a lousy player this year and statistically inferior to Brown in every stat but rebounding.

Hands down Brown was vastly superior in the chucking department than WesJo. Brown did shoot a significantly worse 3pt percentage too.

[DRK]

And this is not to say I like Shannon Brown... but pretending there was a significantly better option is also a joke. Wes Johnson had some moments (as did Brown) but was a lousy player this year and statistically inferior to Brown in every stat but rebounding.

What Shannon Brown did (didnt do) on the court is not represented in statistics at all.

He killed the flow of the offence every time he got the ball. He was an extremely selfish player, and refused to even pass to the point guard.

Wesley Johnson WAS a significantly better option than Shannon Brown. He played hard every minute he was on the court, played solid defence (which Brown did not), hustled for rebounds, and he played within the offence, not once killing the flow.

Looking at statistics to judge the play of Shannon Brown is like looking at Gortat's shot blocking numbers and saying he's a better defensive player than Tyson Chandler.

[phrazbit]

Again, I am not trying to say that Brown is anything but a bad player, however, the hype Wes Johnson is getting here is over the top. Wes Johnson played terrible defense, Wes Johnson reeeeally struggles to dribble, shoot, pass or defend, while Shannon Brown was a black hole... Wes Johnson made him look generous.

Wes may have been more ascetically pleasing, it was nice to see him get hot from 3 a few times, but his results were worse in almost every way than Brown's were.