Although I have my own critical points (who doesn't... everyone thinks they would do better than any coach in the league) I will defend the coach here.
Lord Cuban wrote: I started the Barnes topic because he is a scrub being paid like a top player...
Come on now... Barnes is not a scrub. He is overpaid, but he is not a scrub. He is a legitimate starter.
- He's playing his bench squad to much time... I will not talk about the first two quarters of the game because to me the problem is in the 3rd and 4th quarter... He always gives a rest for the starters with about 4 or 5 minutes to the end of the 3rd quarter (That's not a problem) but he will give his bench mob about 7 minutes in the 4th while the starters will only play about 5 minutes... That's crazy and he refuses to adjust no matter what... Like other said it's like he's just looking at the clock...
- With his bench mob eating to much minutes.... We have other problem... It seems to me that he has not managed well the hot players... In countless moments we have seen Doncic, Harris or even Barnes on fire and RC just decide to make a sub... The only guy that's immune to this is Barea...
I have to agree about this to some extent. I am trying to understand why he is playing bench players so much in second half and here are some possible reasons:
- he wants to keep everyone happy an feels that everyone should be getting playing time; he plans to narrow the rotation as season goes on
- he wants to keep starters accountable and hungry for closing the game
- he feels that bench is often closer to the starters than some would say; opposing coaches are subbing around the same time so it might be a psychological trick to try to keep both teams' bench on the court for as long as possible, if you think that your bench is better than the opponents' bench
- Mavs bench is often better than the opponents' bench
- Main players are either not in best physical shape and/or have problems with injuries; he wants to keep players fresh for a game being played next day or the day after
- Most coaches have fixed rotation/sub times; with some of the best coaches you could pretty much exactly predict when a certain player is going to be playing; an example of such coach would be Pop back in the best times
What Rick does seem to have problems with is not recognizing hot/cold hand. This is something I think many NBA coaches could learn from European coaches. If a player is not playing well - bench him. If on the other hand a player is playing game of his life, let him end the game, even if he is a bench player.
Archx wrote: But like "2011Champs" said, he should criticize his veterans more during the game. Saw quite often that he yelled at Luka for example, why not tell Barnes to freaking pass the ball to an open guy when he is stuck around 3 defenders, and still pulls up an impossible shot. Or tell DAJ to bring more effort on D or tell Powell to actually stop shooting like he was Ray Allen etc... Those "small" things are killing Mavs this year and if this continues, i am 100% sure they won't make PO.
First of all... nothing is 100%. If you are 100%, give me appropriate odds and I will bet against you.
Shall we say 1000:1? I bet 5 bucks, you pay me 5000? A steal for you if you are 100% sure.
I agree that he should criticize his veteran players but... maybe he does. Just not during the game. Wes has experienced the intervention and as a consequence, he is playing much better and his game is more aligned with what team needs or doesn't need. Who is to say that such discussions are not being done with each player? In fact, most probably they are.
At this point we should at least entertain the idea that some of the things we are complaining about are actually intended. There could be various reasons for that. For example as much as Rick hates turnovers, he said that it's better that Luka keeps his game and has a turnover or two extra per game. DAJ's lack of defense... I HAVE to believe that these are the instructions given by the coaching staff. Often he is going out of his way to not give an impression that he is playing any defense at all. In fact he gets extremely annoyed whenever he gets a personal foul, I can almost see him saying "Ref, I am actively trying NOT to play any defense at all, are you kidding me?!" Keeping DAJ out of foul trouble might be extremely important to the coaching staff. They might think that with the new rules risk of getting a foul is way too high compared to the potential benefit of being more engaged in defense.
agentofatlas wrote:I see the annual "RC sucks" crowd is alive again lol. I say he's been fine and adjusted accordingly. I mean you only have to compare to the games beginning of season to now. Instead of losing in blowouts on the road, the team is actually keeping it close. It's all fine tuning from here with the mindset of the development of not only Luka but DSJ as well.
As for the comment that the game passed him well I disagree. He actually runs very modern offensive sets (which features Luka a ton btw).
Agreed. Rick has made big adjustments since the start of the season, he is running good plays. He is however a coach that has his players' back. He is loyal to his players and his players are loyal to him. Otherwise it's hard to lead the team these days. The veterans have earned his trust and they will be rewarded. I don't even blame him for that. It's not like Mavs are contenders.
Archx wrote:Call me crazy, but i think Dirk should have been on the floor for those last 4 seconds... That would have been another decoy RC could have used to free up someone. I really expected Dirk to be there. And maybe Luka or Dirk could have got themselves open for an easy 3.
Agreed, Dirk could have been out there, easily.