Is Earl Watson doing a good job?

[WeekapaugGroove]

You're 100% right GMAT great post. Foolish moves to try and stay decent prolonged this rotten stretch we're in now. The warrik, hedo, childress summer was an absolute disaster. The worst part was it looked like an idiot summer when it was happening.

Ive said it before, Savers inability or unwillingness to honestly assess this team and where it fits in the hierarchy of the league has been his biggest weaknesses.

Sent from my SM-G930V using RealGM mobile app

[LacosteM]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

[Bogyo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

[LacosteM]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

[Zelaznyrules]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

He's playing too many minutes but gross exaggerations don't help your argument. He's played in 30 games this season, he's reached the 40 minute mark just 3 times and those occurred with TJ unavailable. And Tucker has played poorly for two years, for him to have any value at all he needs to play and he needs to play well. So far, this is easily the best he's looked since the 48 win season so maybe these minutes will bear fruit and someone will offer us a decent pick for him.

[LacosteM]

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

He's playing too many minutes but gross exaggerations don't help your argument. He's played in 30 games this season, he's reached the 40 minute mark just 3 times and those occurred with TJ unavailable. And Tucker has played poorly for two years, for him to have any value at all he needs to play and he needs to play well. So far, this is easily the best he's looked since the 48 win season so maybe these minutes will bear fruit and someone will offer us a decent pick for him.

Yes, I exaggerated a bit, but I still believe he's being vastly overplayed and honestly sometimes it feels like he spent 40 mins on the court.

What do you think Ryan could realistically get for him?? Early 2nd rounder?? Late first rounder ??

[Bogyo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

[LacosteM]

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

Absolutely agreed. Giannis was the example I just referenced in a 76ers game thread. Like you said Bucks allowed him to grow and play through his mistakes, while also utilizing his strengths and look at him now...

[LacosteM]

Another thought... Could it be that the bad influence on Watson's minutes redistribution is coming from Ty Corbin who is arguably one of the worst members of any coaching staff in the entire league. I've seen numerous comments from Jazz fans who said , that Corbin almost ruined them during his 3-year tenure. Remember we're talking about a guy who played Rudy Gobert only 9 minutes during his rookie season. After his departure Gobert's minutes tripled down and he almost single-handidly tranformed Jazz's defense from dead last to 12th. Many Jazz fans will tell you he was notoriously bad with developing young players and always applied seniority system in handling minutes.

I'm not sure if I can trust Watson/Corbin in developing young talent. Cornerstone to every rebuilding team is usually good coaching staff and I'm pretty sure Suns don't possess one.

[Bogyo]

I m not sure with anything anymore with the Suns. But if your 4th pick in the draft does not get any consistent playing time in a position of need, then something is wrong with the coaching, or went terribly wrong with the scouting of that player which is a management problem.

[Frank Lee]

Watson is an audio fortune cookie. He is trying to establish his style of coaching. To me he seems better suited to coach college kids, but then when you look at our lineup, almost half of them should be.

Venturing into what if land, suppose we never lost DAnt... since then it's been a sh*tsh*w at the helm. At least Pringles had a system.

[gaspar]

Sadly enough, he is spot on. My only hope in this regard is that McD will move Tucker at the deadline, and we are just playing him to get his value up, while getting the rookies up to speed/strenght during practices for the second part of the season where they'll play a lot more. Otherwise there is pretty much no difference in the results Horny got before he got fired and Watson gets now.

One could even argue that Watson has a better roster - less injuries(Bled, Knight) , no malcontents (MoBros), some good/improving young guys (Booker/TJ), and more savy, good lockerroom presence vets (Duds, Barbs, Chandler).

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

There are many words that can describe Bender's performance this year, but "amazing" is definitely not one of them. You are in for a big disappointment, if expect Bender to be anywhere as good as Giannis. Otto Porter - another forward from Giannis' draft who was picked in the top-3 and played only 300 minutes in his rookie season (and BTW is still most likely gonna get a max contract this summer) is probably a more realistic comparison for Bender. I think some of you are majorly underestimating how raw and physically underdeveloped Bender is right now.

[LacosteM]

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

There are many words that can describe Bender's performance this year, but "amazing" is definitely not one of them. You are in for a big disappointment, if expect Bender to be anywhere as good as Giannis. Otto Porter - another forward from Giannis' draft who was picked in the top-3 and played only 300 minutes in his rookie season (and BTW is still most likely gonna get a max contract this summer) is probably a more realistic comparison for Bender. I think some of you are majorly underestimating how raw and physically underdeveloped Bender is right now.

Otto Porter's limited minutes in his rookie season were primarily affected by his hip injury and the fact that Wizards were a playoff team at the time. The same cannot be said about the Suns and Bender. Therefore, very much flawed comparison.

As for Bender there really is no predicament of how his carrer projectory is gonna go. I'm pretty certain no one except the Bucks staff possibly could predict that Giannis would become a superstar, solely based on his performance in his rookie season.

[thamadkant]

Another thought... Could it be that the bad influence on Watson's minutes redistribution is coming from Ty Corbin who is arguably one of the worst members of any coaching staff in the entire league. I've seen numerous comments from Jazz fans who said , that Corbin almost ruined them during his 3-year tenure. Remember we're talking about a guy who played Rudy Gobert only 9 minutes during his rookie season. After his departure Gobert's minutes tripled down and he almost single-handidly tranformed Jazz's defense from dead last to 12th. Many Jazz fans will tell you he was notoriously bad with developing young players and always applied seniority system in handling minutes.

I'm not sure if I can trust Watson/Corbin in developing young talent. Cornerstone to every rebuilding team is usually good coaching staff and I'm pretty sure Suns don't possess one.

I hated the Tyron Corbin move... I was surprise there werent enough negative reaction to it.

[Big NBA Fan]

Frank Lee, I know many like you lament D'Antoni's departure- and he himself says he regrets quitting on the Suns - but he has nobody but himself to blame.

Steve Kerr was not asking for anything crazy; all he wanted was for Mike D to hire a good defensive coordinator which he now has in Houston with Jeff Bzdelik.

Mike was just too stubborn and too arrogant to admit it until the Knicks, Lakers, and now Rockets forced him to hire a defensive assistant.

[thamadkant]

Just regarding Bender and Giannis... Bender does not have the wiry muscular build that Giannis has... He's a freak.


Bender is what he is... Skinny... Seriously he is too skinny still to guard PFs and any hard bodied player. He can guard SFs... But thats where Suns are stacked at the moment... Tucker, Dudley, Warren and even Booker.

As I said... I expect Bender to get more minutes post trade deadline and all star. But he needs to get his strength up... Could use the Tucker diet to get there lol

[Bogyo]

But even if they're playing Tucker to boost up is his value, is it really neccessary to give him 40+ mins every night? He's been in the league for 5 years, I'm pretty sure that GM's know what he's capable of. Overplaying him to the maximum isn't really going to change his value that drastically imo.

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

There are many words that can describe Bender's performance this year, but "amazing" is definitely not one of them. You are in for a big disappointment, if expect Bender to be anywhere as good as Giannis. Otto Porter - another forward from Giannis' draft who was picked in the top-3 and played only 300 minutes in his rookie season (and BTW is still most likely gonna get a max contract this summer) is probably a more realistic comparison for Bender. I think some of you are majorly underestimating how raw and physically underdeveloped Bender is right now.

Though LacosteM answered most of this - yes, I only ment it as a comparison for a young, talented, skinny rookie forward on a bad team. As for the term "amazing", I did not mean it for his season so far, but some of his plays, as stated above. And I stand by that. You can't really expect anything else (or any better) when he only plays so small bits and pieces that his muscles dont even warm up, in addition to having no role on offense, despite his passing skills.

[Zelaznyrules]

No, giving him this many minutes is completely useless. Guess where my vote went in the poll...
Giannis played like 24 minutes in his rookie season with the Bucks, and made plenty of bad plays and rookie mistakes, but was allowed to grow through these. Bucksfans be praisin' the Lord for it as he is putting up videogame numbers this year, and he is still improving.
I don't see why Bender could not be something similar with adequate coaching, becouse he has done some amazing things (with some pretty bad rookie mistakes) when given minutes, and he has no role whatsoever when he enters the game, besides standing in the corner. Talk about bad coaching, Mr “For us, what I do not want to happen is I never want Dragan Bender to consistently know what it feels like to not play. That can’t happen”...

There are many words that can describe Bender's performance this year, but "amazing" is definitely not one of them. You are in for a big disappointment, if expect Bender to be anywhere as good as Giannis. Otto Porter - another forward from Giannis' draft who was picked in the top-3 and played only 300 minutes in his rookie season (and BTW is still most likely gonna get a max contract this summer) is probably a more realistic comparison for Bender. I think some of you are majorly underestimating how raw and physically underdeveloped Bender is right now.

Otto Porter's limited minutes in his rookie season were primarily affected by his hip injury and the fact that Wizards were a playoff team at the time. The same cannot be said about the Suns and Bender. Therefore, very much flawed comparison.

As for Bender there really is no predicament of how his carrer projectory is gonna go. I'm pretty certain no one except the Bucks staff possibly could predict that Giannis would become a superstar, solely based on his performance in his rookie season.

There were plenty of fans and talking heads predicting stardom for Giannis during his rookie season. He may not have had a great season but he had plenty of great moments.

I like Bender and I want to see him play but when he enters the game he's still far more liability than asset. He needs to fill out, get stronger, learn the game and he still needs to adjust to the speed and physicality of the NBA. Some of that requires court time, much of it doesn't. If we had a reasonable alternative, I'd prefer that he continue to develop away from the court. But given that we don't, I'd rather we pay the price and let him learn the hard way. Hopefully Watson has a plan for the second half of the season that involves increased playing time for Bender and the other youngsters.

[kennydorglas]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5k5kzm/earl_watson_is_quietly_making_a_run_at_being_the/?

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic at times, but pretty much sums up my sentiments on Watson so far.

lol
thank you for this link
I'm still crying about that 6-step plan for playoffs
dear lord

[AtheJ415]

I would say no at this point. Mostly due to my frustration with Bender's lack of PT.

That said, if we can work some magic to add a young PG and C or picks at the deadline while moving some of the vets, I'll chalk it up to featuring those guys.