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Will Hardy Ranked 7th Best Coach by CBS Sports

Also interesting that Quin seems to have lost his favor a bit among writers as a top coach.
 
Meh...I feel like Hardy should just be considered an INC at the moment. Given the circumstances, it's hard to have a strong opinion of him one way or another. It's kind of wild to rate him that high in front of several established coaches. Feels like he is still getting the "great hire" bump from the blog boy sphere. IMO, the paragraph written about is just a bunch of fluff. For example, the author talks about Hardy's record with his "proper" starting lineup but it totally overlooks the fact that Hardy's preferred starting lineup is what lead to the disaster of a start last season. He also talks bout how "well prepared" the Jazz are and his use of "unorthodox lineups"....yeah I don't buy it at all. I think the biggest demonstrated strength of Hardy is how he's garnered so much belief from his players. I don't really think he's been a standout X's and O's guy....and that's not really his fault as it's not been a goal of the franchise to win games during his tenure.

Also, I don't know what this revisionist history is....but why do people keep mentioning last year's first half as a "pleasant surprise"? The Jazz were expected to compete for a playoff position. They were 26-30 at the deadline which wasn't too far off of consensus expectation. It was really Collin Sexton who saved the first half of the season, and it's hard to say Hardy was the one enabling that breakout.

The whole Hardy section reads as someone how spent 5 minutes thinking about the Jazz last year.
 
As a Hardy homer, it feels bad to admit that Hardy's ranking is easily the least justified on the list.

By the way, this quote about Pop sums up quite well the expectations that people have for tanking teams.

He's made some pretty bizarre strategic decisions lately. Remember when Jeremy Sochan was their starting point guard last season? That might have been more of a long-term developmental ploy that was never meant to stick (that came with the added bonus of enforcing a tank), but it also more or less wasted the beginning of last season. It shouldn't have taken until January to realize how badly Victor Wembanyama needed Tre Jones.
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I mean, if you're expecting long-term results, what does it matter if he wasted the beginning of last season? Sure, Wemba needed Tre Jones, but does it really alter the projections that he was forced to play a few months without a proper pg? Also, maybe Pop sees a higher potential in Sochen and in order to be a valuable player in a winning team, he must be able to play as an offensive hub.

I think it is justified to say that Pop did exactly the things that are expected from the coach of a tanking team. Yet these are the very points that are raised as criticism, why he would not be such a good coach.

Edit. I would add that there is nothing wrong with his placement on the list in itself. The reasoning above is just dumb.
 
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Saint Cy of JFC said:
www.cbssports.com

Ranking every NBA coach for 2024-25 season: JJ Redick at the bottom, Pop outside top 10 and No. 1 in own tier

We're ranking all 30 NBA coaches in nine different tiers ahead of the new season
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

I really believe in Hardy, but this is a crazy ranking for a guy with two years experience and no playoff appearances.
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But look how much he has accomplished? He coached a team. Couple times. He manages to make Kessler look older, because he looks like he is 14. He, uh, did some summer stuff as a coach, like coach summer stuff. He left Boston just in time to avoid getting a ring. You know, he has accomplished so much!
 
y'all probably know i hate tanking, and he's tanked these last couple years. as far as i'm concerned he's a bad coach until he starts winning. (the 41 win year by Sloan was my idea of good coaching. screw the tank)
 
cctrackstar said:
y'all probably know i hate tanking, and he's tanked these last couple years. as far as i'm concerned he's a bad coach until he starts winning. (the 41 win year by Sloan was my idea of good coaching. screw the tank)
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He's clearly not a bad coach....

It should be an incomplete ranking, but he's done fantastic development work.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
He's clearly not a bad coach....

It should be an incomplete ranking, but he's done fantastic development work.
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Regular season coaching and post season coaching are different enough that you can't really know how good a coach is until you've seen them in the playoffs.
 
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