Coach Steve Nash

[ecuhus1981]

I'm not ready to say he's cost us games already. As I've said numerous times, we're trending toward 57 wins. That is above even my homerish expectation, and a good 5-8 wins above most preseason projection models. Nash is yielding wins. The problem is that, like tobacco farming the same soil year after year, you get weaker results as you continue to over-burden land for the crop.

He's leaning on his superstars for more minutes than they should need to play to win at this rate, even with so many other bodies missing. That tells me he doesn't trust his own in-game strategic acumen to keep his team afloat, in the 12-15 minutes that his stars are not on the floor. That alone is going to cost us games in the future, either through exhaustion or injury of KD and JH. Once we hit that wall, we'll really be in a hurt box, with no juice left for the playoffs.

[bubonicphoniks]

How are we feeling these days?

[Prokorov]

Where are you guys at with this guy?

Seems like he gets out coached every night. I am still trying to figure out where he adds to this team. I never hear the players even speak his name.

Have NOT been a fan of his tenure but I would like to hear from you guys.

I had him pegged as not just the worst coach in the league but as DRASTICALLY unfit and unqualified to coach in the NBA as far back as 6 weeks into last season,

He does some things well like manage egos and personalities off the court and is flexible with lineups. But in-game coaching he is as bad as I can ever remember seeing at the NBA or college level.

[Prokorov]

I think hes gotten worse without D'Antoni. Our offense looks cooked.

Marks made a stupid hiring to help out his friend. Nash is only good at managing personalities. He has no idea how to make adjustments.

I will never understand why we didn't just hire Ty Lue.

Yeah, Nash skipping the line was really bad....

And honestly is a real black eye on Marks to skip over SEVERAL more qualified Black/Minority/Female candidates to hire his friend instead. ESPECIALLY in a predominantly black league in the current climate of social justice.

[Prokorov]

How are we feeling these days?

Same as a year ago.

Worst coach in the league. unfit and unqualified to coach. Costs us every game (whether its turning a win into a loss or making what should be a blowout close). Could very well cost us a title.

And still BS he got the job over more qualified minorities and women

[GYK]

Only problem I have with Nash is his influence on Marks roster construction. Besides that zero complaints. He’s pretty calm. His sets work well. He lets guys play. Some of his lineups are funky but that’s his influence fault not the wrong player at the wrong time. He wanted the wrong personnel and sometimes suffer for it, especially against good teams.
Nevertheless if he had the right personnel he would buzzsaw the league. Take shots in the media for guys and calls a good game. His beliefs in what a “championship” team is f’s him.

[Suwanee]

Nevertheless if he had the right personnel he would buzzsaw the league. Take shots in the media for guys and calls a good game. His beliefs in what a “championship” team is f’s him.

Is that even remotely true? From what I can remember, in the post game interviews, it’s always players fault if we lose. He never blamed himself.

[GYK]

Nevertheless if he had the right personnel he would buzzsaw the league. Take shots in the media for guys and calls a good game. His beliefs in what a “championship” team is f’s him.

Is that even remotely true? From what I can remember, in the post game interviews, it’s always players fault if we lose. He never blamed himself.

Well depends on how you look at it. He certainly doesn’t allow anyone under the bus. They’ll ask specifically about a player and a mistake and he’ll say we had chances before or after. That that wasn’t what did it. He makes sure no one is singled out even last year when Bruce and Joe lost us games in the PS. He also has taken it to the chest calling out his rotation. Naw Nash don’t let you hang.

[therealbig3]

He’s a good coach, not many people can do what he has with a depleted lineup for 2 years.

This team really isn’t that great outside of our big 3, and our big 3 was more like a big 1.5 for most of the year. And yet we’re still right there at the top of the East.

[TheNetsFan]

He’s a good coach, not many people can do what he has with a depleted lineup for 2 years.

This team really isn’t that great outside of our big 3, and our big 3 was more like a big 1.5 for most of the year. And yet we’re still right there at the top of the East.

So long as the players are happy, he's doing what was asked of him. He's gifted with the media and seemingly, thus far, great at managing egos. He is not an Xs & Os coach by any means, and does lack in game feel. D'Antoni was a great compliment last year, because Nash was able to be the face, with MDA doing the rest.

I think it is clear now that Nash seemingly wanted to be more defense focused than MDA. I think there needs to be a balance. Play athletic defenders, forget about size and rebounding. Harden is a big defensively & PG offensively, so he needs to be paired with guys like Claxton, Bembry & Brown who can guard the perimeter and set screens/roll, not Aldridge. Aldridge can come in & bang bodies with opposing bigs when the matchup permits, but he should not be a rotation fixture. His insane early season shooting was a deceiving outlier that covered up for his lack of mobility. Blake is a better fit backing up Claxton.

[Prokorov]

He’s a good coach, not many people can do what he has with a depleted lineup for 2 years.

This team really isn’t that great outside of our big 3, and our big 3 was more like a big 1.5 for most of the year. And yet we’re still right there at the top of the East.

I would argue that any one of us could do it.

Depleted? he had 1-2 top 10 players for pretty much every game last year. in the COVID era most teams dont have a pool of 3 stars for availability. I dont see any NBA coach who wouldnt have gotten us to the same spot or further.

Oh whoa is nash... he "only" gets to roll out KD/Harden or Harden/Kyrie or... god forbid... only KD?!

[therealbig3]

He’s a good coach, not many people can do what he has with a depleted lineup for 2 years.

This team really isn’t that great outside of our big 3, and our big 3 was more like a big 1.5 for most of the year. And yet we’re still right there at the top of the East.

I would argue that any one of us could do it.

Depleted? he had 1-2 top 10 players for pretty much every game last year. in the COVID era most teams dont have a pool of 3 stars for availability. I dont see any NBA coach who wouldnt have gotten us to the same spot or further.

Oh whoa is nash... he "only" gets to roll out KD/Harden or Harden/Kyrie or... god forbid... only KD?!

Nah, it’s a team game. And plenty of teams have two stars. We barely had a big 3 last year, and have barely had a big 2 this year. So we really haven’t had much better high end talent than most of the good teams around the league, and we have a worse supporting cast. The role players are extremely limited, they look better than they actually are because of A. our stars, and B. Nash, he’s been putting them in positions to succeed. But because we’re paying for 3 max contracts, but only getting 2 of them at a time, our supporting cast is not as good as most of the contenders around the league.

Dude, our supporting cast features Patty Mills as our best player by far. He’s a good shooter, and that’s essentially it. A liability at pretty much everything else, and not worth playing if he’s not hitting his shot. Joe Harris is the same, and he’s our 4th best player when everyone is healthy.

Our team is the big 3 and then a bunch of mediocre at best role players. And our big 3 have barely been on the court together.

What Nash has done in terms of us winning games despite constantly changing lineups and injuries is impressive. Not just anybody could do it.

[Prokorov]

He’s a good coach, not many people can do what he has with a depleted lineup for 2 years.

This team really isn’t that great outside of our big 3, and our big 3 was more like a big 1.5 for most of the year. And yet we’re still right there at the top of the East.

I would argue that any one of us could do it.

Depleted? he had 1-2 top 10 players for pretty much every game last year. in the COVID era most teams dont have a pool of 3 stars for availability. I dont see any NBA coach who wouldnt have gotten us to the same spot or further.

Oh whoa is nash... he "only" gets to roll out KD/Harden or Harden/Kyrie or... god forbid... only KD?!

Nah, it’s a team game. And plenty of teams have two stars. We barely had a big 3 last year, and have barely had a big 2 this year. So we really haven’t had much better high end talent than most of the good teams around the league, and we have a worse supporting cast. The role players are extremely limited, they look better than they actually are because of A. our stars, and B. Nash, he’s been putting them in positions to succeed. But because we’re paying for 3 max contracts, but only getting 2 of them at a time, our supporting cast is not as good as most of the contenders around the league.

Dude, our supporting cast features Patty Mills as our best player by far. He’s a good shooter, and that’s essentially it. A liability at pretty much everything else, and not worth playing if he’s not hitting his shot. Joe Harris is the same, and he’s our 4th best player when everyone is healthy.

Our team is the big 3 and then a bunch of mediocre at best role players. And our big 3 have barely been on the court together.

What Nash has done in terms of us winning games despite constantly changing lineups and injuries is impressive. Not just anybody could do it.

Actually, few teams have even 1 superstar, let alone 2 or 3.

There are 15 ALL-NBA players. probably another 5-8 that are that calibur. there are 30 teams. there would need to be 50+ superstars to put 2+ stars on most teams.

We had games where 1-3 of our stars missed games. but the past 2 seasons we have had at least 2 stars on the floor 90% of the time. EVERYONE is dealing with player availability issues. only other teams dont go from 3 stars to 1-2 stars. they go from starting with 0 stars to playing bench players and gleaguers with no star to anchor them.

No team had our talent level last year and this year even with our injuries factored in.

[Prokorov]

Our team is the big 3 and then a bunch of mediocre at best role players. And our big 3 have barely been on the court together.

alot of teams are a big 1 with mediocure or worse role players

What Nash has done in terms of us winning games despite constantly changing lineups and injuries is impressive. Not just anybody could do it.

not only is it not impressive, but we should have won 8-10 more games the past 2 seasons, easily.

everyone is going through the need for lineup changes. it effected everyone, not just us. and other teams dont have the luxury of multiple stars so even when 1-2 are out you still have one.

I mean, look at Dallas. Dallas at full strength is what we look like when KD, Kyrie, and Mills are all out.

If Dallas loses 1 star, they become a G-League qualtiy team. if we lose 1 star, we are a chmpionship contender.

[HardenGoat]

This offense was built largely by Durant, Kyrie, and Nash with the help of Dantoni. When Harden came in he capitalized on Dantoni who helped groom the sets he was running. It seems that the loss of Dantoni has affected Harden to some degree but the biggest factor was his conditioning and the lack of having a healthy Claxton (or similar player) most of the year and a lack of spacing. The efficiency and flow was great last year until he got hurt. This year he seemed lost as he recovered and tried to build back to playing shape along with a quagmire of unstable offensive rotations. The offense was built to run a large percentage of Nash-21 sets (pistol) which is something Dantoni used a ton with the Rockets and was born during his coaching on the Suns using Nash and Stoudemire. Up to this point, this year, it has not worked, it is the big secret that has disgruntled Harden the most. Harden for the most part had to nearly stop running it when the floor lacks spacing. The fall back offense is largely Durant point screens and iso play and some PNR using LMA as a dump pop player when he is in. Nash is a coach that allows the point guard freedom to call the plays where he sees potential mismatches or reads adjustments from the defense. But now we have Kyrie. Kyrie helps the sets spacing and offers a dump out that will prevent the league known doubling of Durant. Plus Kyrie is an iso option in his own right but, more importantly, he can run the Nash-21 as well. Players like Mills or Carter simply can’t, they lack the threat of scoring at the rim/paint which is what drives the success. This has put the burden of reading and running the offense on Harden alone so far. I think Nash has done well considering the limitations we had with Harden and the loss of Kyrie that affected our spacing and play sets more than people realize. Plus, to be most effective, the sets need a paint threat that collapses it and opens the wings and a good trailer. We had Jeff Green last year. He was low key a great trailer and a respectable rolling big that could finish as a small ball 5. Griffin has largely been a disappointment this year. Brown is not a bad trailer, but Bembry is starting to excel here. He's becoming awesome. Don't even want to comment on Millsap. Which leaves us with our primary rolling big being Claxton. I think we will see a trade happen that addresses this glaring hole. We need an athletic big that can play good defense but most importantly, has good timing and good hands. Jordan was the hope last year but he couldn’t hold up defensively and was regressing pretty rapidly. I’m praying Claxton steps up another level, which seems to be starting to happen. So ... Kyrie basically adds the missing link to the offense that was originally constructed and provides the spacing to make it work. It allows Harden to become a screener himself, and Kyrie can run the screen sets even when Harden is off the floor. Without Irving, when plays collapse we get stuck in dead plays (searching for Durant). With Kyrie there is no dead play anymore and Harden provides a gravitational point off the ball that creates spacing for Kyrie and vice versa. It is exactly why the big 3 is what makes us really scary! Adding Kyrie unlocks a lot of what we are blaming Nash for hindering .. so yeah .. Kyrie will probably save Nash in a sense, at least on the offensive end.