GONYK wrote:KnicksGod wrote:GONYK wrote:
I'm not even talking about Fisher here specifically. It's just that this notion that the players playing hard is 100% the coach's responsibility is a little off to me.
How can you remove all responsibility from grown men who are paid millions to be ready when the opening tap is thrown up?
I suppose I subscribe to some old-school principles that aren't talked about anymore very much. One of them is that I think a team's players take on the coach's personality to a large extent.
But a good plan keeps guys rowing together and a bad one, even separate from pure energy or caring which is how it's interpreted by fans, will see guys getting surprised and not keeping the initiative as much. I don't know about responsibility as a moral thing, but I do believe in plans working or not.
How else do you explain Thibs or Riley when he came to the Knicks? They turned guys into the players, especially defensively, they wanted them to be. Without them, the gameplan wouldn't have existed, and the players would have been on a different plan. Like ours.
Gameplan is not the same as effort or energy.
Gameplan is knowing what to do. Effort and energy is putting forth maximum focus to do it.
I've never in my entire life had a boss that could
make me put in maximum focus every M-F every day of the year. Have you?
I just don't think sports and business are the same in THIS way, but I know where you're coming from overall.
I don't really disagree with being frustrated with guys getting paid millions and looking out of it. But all NBA players are getting paid a lot and each night, some will win and others will lose. And I'm not talking about holding guys responsible or personal feelings about it -- I'm just saying that great coaching will lead to sustained success on a very tight plan. Then if you're not as good a coach, you'll see the other team's millionaire athletes get the better of you. Again, I don't think it's as much about caring and being 'alive' as people say.
It's more complex than that in terms of factors, but those factors are dictated by the coach's plan and the coach's talent for coaching and leading -- most of all it's organizing men for battle. Regular jobs don't really work QUITE that way, but there is some overlap.
All about seizing the initiative and effecting a plan that people follow and that leads to consistency in effort, performance, etc. Sounds like cliches yeah but I believe it 100%.
No players can really coach themselves. Remember how Phil got the Lakers humming after Dell Harris. Do you think Phil would preside over a team that is caught with its pants down as much as we are? Hells to the no. He wouldn't. Which, kind of sort of, proves my theory.
Best coaches get guys giving sustained effort through all the levers at their disposal. The weaker ones succumb to the better coached teams. Just a very Darwinian thing about the NBA.
Thibs would have this cleaned up pretty fast. You would see a very similar plan and direction, and some results, as the Bulls had. Not quite the same, talent matters, but lots of closer games, way more D, and more organization from the top down. 100%. Thibs would succeed in NY in ways Fish cannot right now.