Over The Top: The James Borrego Thread

[LofJ]

The Knicks, Grizzlies, and Suns all interviewed Borrego and none of them offered him the job. The best aren't exactly lining up to be employed by the Charlotte Hornets. We're a middling franchise, I guess we need to remember that.

[DY_nasty]

"i dont know anything about him. lets hurry and be disappointed"

lmao never change

[Braggins]

What does this even mean?

The worst of their coaching tree who was never going to get a head coaching gig unless we hired them. At least its a good coaching tree.

He interviewed for most of the coaching vacancies this summer. It's not like this signing is that far out of left field.

Fair enough. Still feels like he probably wasn't going to get hired this summer unless it was by us.

[yosemiteben]

I'm guessing we just hired the Steve Clifford of the Popovich coaching tree.

What does this even mean?

The worst of their coaching tree who was never going to get a head coaching gig unless we hired them. At least its a good coaching tree.

This seems like such a dramatic take. We have no idea who is the "best" or "worst" of their tree anymore than you know who is the "best" or "worst" of our current assistants, and I think it's totally reasonable to think that maybe Mitch just liked him the best. We could complain about every single candidate we interviewed (Larranaga - not an Xs and Os guy, Messina - not a development guy, Fizdale - not a relationship guy, Borrego - "the worst of Pop's coaching tree", etc.).

[Braggins]

"i dont know anything about him. lets hurry and be disappointed"

lmao never change

Without much to go on its definitely the safer bet with this franchise to assume they made the wrong move.

[fatlever]

https://orlandomagicdaily.com/2015/02/07/james-borrego-coach/

Borrego certainly took some influence from Jacque Vaughn. Like Vaughn, he is a quiet measured coach it seems. Aaron Gordon said after the game that Borrego would come into huddles and ask the team what they were seeing out there. This was something Vaughn had done in the past too, but the new voice brought some poignancy to it.

Gordon said Borrego was very encouraging from the sideline and trying to inject some more enthusiasm into the team. That was plainly seen as the bench would erupt even for the simplest plays. Tobias Harris said the team’s energy was at an all-time high.

“He acts pretty well,” Kyle O’Quinn said after the game Friday. “He talks low, but you can feel it. You can feel his energy. He wants to win just like us. If you know JB, you know how he speaks.”

Borrego does have that quiet fortitude about him as he paced the sideline. There was certainly a lot of chaos going on the floor, some that Borrego probably did not expect to deal with or even know how to handle as a first time head coach.

The fire within Borrego also exists too. He was whistling to get his player’s attention on the sideline and he certainly put an emphasis in his first meeting with the team and shootaround on defense and energy.

from 2015

[Marino]

I will hold off on judgment of the man until he has coached a few games. I know nothing about him but I hope he brings something worth watching.

[yosemiteben]

The Knicks, Grizzlies, and Suns all interviewed Borrego and none of them offered him the job.

Recent history suggests doing things differently than the Knicks, Grizzlies, and Suns is the right move.

[JDR720]

https://orlandomagicdaily.com/2015/02/07/james-borrego-coach/

Borrego certainly took some influence from Jacque Vaughn. Like Vaughn, he is a quiet measured coach it seems. Aaron Gordon said after the game that Borrego would come into huddles and ask the team what they were seeing out there. This was something Vaughn had done in the past too, but the new voice brought some poignancy to it.

Gordon said Borrego was very encouraging from the sideline and trying to inject some more enthusiasm into the team. That was plainly seen as the bench would erupt even for the simplest plays. Tobias Harris said the team’s energy was at an all-time high.

“He acts pretty well,” Kyle O’Quinn said after the game Friday. “He talks low, but you can feel it. You can feel his energy. He wants to win just like us. If you know JB, you know how he speaks.”

Borrego does have that quiet fortitude about him as he paced the sideline. There was certainly a lot of chaos going on the floor, some that Borrego probably did not expect to deal with or even know how to handle as a first time head coach.

The fire within Borrego also exists too. He was whistling to get his player’s attention on the sideline and he certainly put an emphasis in his first meeting with the team and shootaround on defense and energy.

from 2015

Oh god, he really if the Clifford of the Spurs. Hopefully he knows something about offense.

[fatlever]

https://www.foxsports.com/florida/story/orlando-magic-jeff-turner-q-a-james-borrego-021615

2015

FOX SPORTS FLORIDA: After seeing them for a few games, what are your impressions of how the Magic have looked with James Borrego as interim coach? Where has he put his stamp on the team?

JEFF TURNER: A couple of things I noticed: The pace has slowed back down a little bit, which is probably not a bad thing. That may not be by design. It could be because they’re talking a lot about defense and things like that. But from the defensive end, the things that J.B. talked about in his press conference were protecting the paint and contesting shots at the rim, which kind of go together. And if you look at it, the numbers bear out that he’s made an impact, that he’s got their attention. Points in the paint (allowed), we’re doing much better there. People are not scoring as easily. The shot-blocking is up a little bit — not a lot; we’re last in the league, so there’s really nowhere to go but up. But we’ve seen (Dewayne) Dedmon and (Kyle) O’Quinn coming in together in the second unit. We really hadn’t seen that a lot. Their thing is defense. So those are the good things.

Rob (Hennigan, Magic general manager) talked about wanting to see an improvement in competitive spirit, and I think the games have been pretty well-contested. There was one in Washington (a 96-80 loss), I thought that was initially pretty good but we let it get away with a couple of 3-pointers to start the third (quarter). But it wasn’t a lack of effort. We just couldn’t make any shots. So if you look at the things that they wanted improved, I think we’re seeing improvement.

[JDR720]

https://www.foxsports.com/florida/story/orlando-magic-jeff-turner-q-a-james-borrego-021615

2015

FOX SPORTS FLORIDA: After seeing them for a few games, what are your impressions of how the Magic have looked with James Borrego as interim coach? Where has he put his stamp on the team?

JEFF TURNER: A couple of things I noticed: The pace has slowed back down a little bit, which is probably not a bad thing. That may not be by design. It could be because they’re talking a lot about defense and things like that. But from the defensive end, the things that J.B. talked about in his press conference were protecting the paint and contesting shots at the rim, which kind of go together. And if you look at it, the numbers bear out that he’s made an impact, that he’s got their attention. Points in the paint (allowed), we’re doing much better there. People are not scoring as easily. The shot-blocking is up a little bit — not a lot; we’re last in the league, so there’s really nowhere to go but up. But we’ve seen (Dewayne) Dedmon and (Kyle) O’Quinn coming in together in the second unit. We really hadn’t seen that a lot. Their thing is defense. So those are the good things.

Rob (Hennigan, Magic general manager) talked about wanting to see an improvement in competitive spirit, and I think the games have been pretty well-contested. There was one in Washington (a 96-80 loss), I thought that was initially pretty good but we let it get away with a couple of 3-pointers to start the third (quarter). But it wasn’t a lack of effort. We just couldn’t make any shots. So if you look at the things that they wanted improved, I think we’re seeing improvement.

We didn't want to fire Clifford, so we just hired a younger Clifford didn't we?

[SeanBobcats]

https://orlandomagicdaily.com/2015/02/07/james-borrego-coach/

Borrego certainly took some influence from Jacque Vaughn. Like Vaughn, he is a quiet measured coach it seems. Aaron Gordon said after the game that Borrego would come into huddles and ask the team what they were seeing out there. This was something Vaughn had done in the past too, but the new voice brought some poignancy to it.

Gordon said Borrego was very encouraging from the sideline and trying to inject some more enthusiasm into the team. That was plainly seen as the bench would erupt even for the simplest plays. Tobias Harris said the team’s energy was at an all-time high.

“He acts pretty well,” Kyle O’Quinn said after the game Friday. “He talks low, but you can feel it. You can feel his energy. He wants to win just like us. If you know JB, you know how he speaks.”

Borrego does have that quiet fortitude about him as he paced the sideline. There was certainly a lot of chaos going on the floor, some that Borrego probably did not expect to deal with or even know how to handle as a first time head coach.

The fire within Borrego also exists too. He was whistling to get his player’s attention on the sideline and he certainly put an emphasis in his first meeting with the team and shootaround on defense and energy.

from 2015

Defense and energy. Maybe I'm wrong, but those two things are what rookies/young players struggle with. Sounds like a player development type guy to me, maybe we're going for the rebuild route?

[yosemiteben]

Reading time:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-magic-coach-james-borrego-0301-20150228-story.html
https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/nba/knicks/2018/04/23/new-york-knicks-coaching-search-5-things-know-james-borrego/542186002/

[DY_nasty]

emphasizes defense = must be steve clifford. amazing

guys its okay to hope and be open lmao

[Braggins]

What does this even mean?

The worst of their coaching tree who was never going to get a head coaching gig unless we hired them. At least its a good coaching tree.

This seems like such a dramatic take. We have no idea who is the "best" or "worst" of their tree anymore than you know who is the "best" or "worst" of our current assistants, and I think it's totally reasonable to think that maybe Mitch just liked him the best. We could complain about every single candidate we interviewed (Larranaga - not an Xs and Os guy, Messina - not a development guy, Fizdale - not a relationship guy, Borrego - "the worst of Pop's coaching tree", etc.).

I said it was just a feeling. I'm not convinced he is going to bad, but my initial impression is very suspicious and the franchise has a long record of making terrible coaching hires. There were plenty of guys available that I would have been much less worried about.

One of the reasons I was initially suspicious of Clifford before he proved himself to suck was that he had been coaching in the league forever without getting any interest for a head coaching job. That isn't a good sign and it seems to be a similar situation with Borrega. He was the least heralded of all the San Antonia coaches that were interviewing for jobs and has been in the league for 15 years without ever being considered a stand out or someone who was on the short list of guys who are sought after as a head coach. Some guys just take a long time to get a shot for whatever reason, but once they do they show everyone they deserved it. I'm hoping thats the case with Borrego, but as of now I don't feel good about this hire at all. I'm not writing him off. Just very concerned.

[LofJ]

The Knicks, Grizzlies, and Suns all interviewed Borrego and none of them offered him the job.

Recent history suggests doing things differently than the Knicks, Grizzlies, and Suns is the right move.

There's an argument there, but I'm still not encouraged by this hire. He does have more experience than Larranaga, Udoka, and Stackhouse though so he's got that going for him at least. And although he didn't play basketball professionally, he did play in college (he's 6'5). And that's important for some players.

[yosemiteben]

One of the reasons I was initially suspicious of Clifford before he proved himself to suck was that he had been coaching in the league forever without getting any interest for a head coaching job. That isn't a good sign and it seems to be a similar situation with Borrega.

He was one of two finalists for the HC gigs for the Grizzlies (they chose Fizdale) and the Rockets (they chose MDA) in 2016. He interviewed for the HC gig for five teams this summer (PHX, NYK, MEM, ORL, CHA), and was going to interview for MIL. This is just an obviously untrue statement.

[fatlever]

Reading time:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-magic-coach-james-borrego-0301-20150228-story.html
https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/nba/knicks/2018/04/23/new-york-knicks-coaching-search-5-things-know-james-borrego/542186002/

5. Why the Knicks might be interested
The Knicks have made it clear they're looking for a coach who can relate to today's players and is willing to work with and embrace all parts of the organization. A young coach might best fit that description, and the 40-year-old Borrego would qualify.

While it could be a risk to name a rookie head coach, Borrego's time learning from Popovich might lessen that risk.

The Knicks want a defensive-minded coach, and under Popovich, consistently have one of the NBA's best defenses.

Since Borrego rejoined the Spurs in 2015, San Antonio has ranked first, second and tied for first in points given up per game in the last three seasons.

[Braggins]

One of the reasons I was initially suspicious of Clifford before he proved himself to suck was that he had been coaching in the league forever without getting any interest for a head coaching job. That isn't a good sign and it seems to be a similar situation with Borrega.

He was one of two finalists for the HC gigs for the Grizzlies (they chose Fizdale) and the Rockets (they chose MDA) in 2016. He interviewed for the HC gig for five teams this summer (PHX, NYK, MEM, ORL, CHA), and was going to interview for MIL. This is just an obviously untrue statement.

Him getting interviews doesn't do much for me. Lots of bad coaches get interviews. Hes just never a guy I've heard mentioned by anyone when talking about top coaching prospects. Again, doesn't mean he can't be good, but its still troubling and the teams past with coaching hires makes it difficult for me to lean towards optimism with what we have to go on.

I admit that I didn't know about him previously being a finalist for the Rockets and Grizzlies jobs. Those are good signs. Thanks for pointing that out. That makes me feel less worried.

The next indicator for me will be hearing what he has to say in upcoming interviews. I never got the impression from Clifford that he was particularly smart, at least by the standards of what you'd want for a head coach (he didn't seem like a dummy or anything), when I would listen to him in interviews.

[fatlever]

"His way — it's different from any other coach you're going to see in the NBA," Williams said. "He's just real patient and plods along. You almost think he's too laid-back at times, but he's got a bit of a [fiery] streak in him, too, and I've seen it come out when he wants to make his point. I just think he's got a great personality to be a head coach."