So I've been meaning to make a much larger post that touches on many other issues but with this point being a large focus. I realize I probably never will make that thread and I originally posted this as a reply to the thread of the Jazz hiring another assistant. My idea for a big splash this summer wouldn't even be a player personnel issue.
My hope (not realistic, but in an ideal world) was that we could bring on a real assistant coach. That's not meant as a slight to any of the guys on the coaching staff, but what I mean is someone who has already been a head coach at the NBA level and can identify with issues Quin is going through and speak with the kind of experience that the other guys can't. Someone who may be a figure that Quin looks up to. For instance, Penny Hardaway hired Larry Brown at Memphis. That's the kind of move that I think would be helpful. It doesn't even have to be a good coach. It just needs to be someone that Quin would listen to to give an outside opinion (from experience) or give small tweaks when something is really going off the rails. I know he has somewhat of that kind of connection with Doug Collins. This was what I thought the biggest splash of the off-season could be. Quin is a great coach. I think us being top 5 in both offense and defense is of great credit to Quin, and as amazing as Rudy is, I'd be nervous about replacing Quin because I don't think other coaches would be able to utilize him the way he has, and I think that has been and will be probably the largest key to our success. But there are some blind spots that I think would best be addressed by having someone Quin would respect enough to listen to. That's not to say he wouldn't listen to his staff, but these guys are all up-and-comers and rightly recognize Quin as the captain of the ship. Some of the guys on our staff may go on to be head coaches, but I don't like the way we're approaching the assistant coaching in the same way DL handled the end of the bench. We've got a bunch of guys we're hoping to develop, when we need to bring in an established vet.
It took way too long for us to get going after adding Mike and Bojan. Our teams have a hard time keeping focus and keeping the foot on the pedal. Every team does, but we tend to lose focus and that's been an issue for a while. I attribute this to coaching. Even though our offensive numbers in total looked great in the playoffs, we go through too many lulls that lead to us losing a 25 point lead, or dropping 4 games in a row, or losing a 3-1 series. Is anyone aware that we haven't won an overtime game since January 24th of 2018? We are 0-8 since then. We have a difficult time focusing in the crunch. Our best bet is to not keep games close. This is a mental thing, and I'm afraid our approach when we lose focus is to try to directly address this by "focus harder!" which becomes counter-productive and has the exact opposite effect. He has not been able to calm these situations and whatever it is he is doing always seems to be predictable in us coming apart. We've seen this in close games the entire season, and especially in the playoffs the past two years. I believe a calming influence on the coaching staff would go a really long way to remedying this issue, and we've seen enough to say it's an issue. There's nothing that we've done to address this issue --at all -- besides putting more talent on the team that hopefully keeps us out of these situations. But the playoffs are about these situations becoming much more common than the regular season. This is our biggest issue... bigger than small ball. Bigger than our rebounding issues. Bigger than our perimeter defense. Even bigger than health. All of the aforementioned are problems, to be sure. But this overshadows all of them.
No more developmental guys (coaches). Bring in the vets. DL farted around with the end of the roster. JZ got serious and addressed this. It's time for Quin to do the same. You hear all the talk of how good it is for Don to have Wade. Well, imagine if Quin had his Wade. Quin metaphorically left the nest and showed mom and dad he can fly on his own. He can, and he proved himself in most all ways that you can. But now it's time to settle down and get serious about new heights. Bring dad back in for his wisdom and experience, whoever that may be.
[I don't know anything about this new guy and it's not a slight to him, it's just that the hire got me around to finally post about this issue]
My hope (not realistic, but in an ideal world) was that we could bring on a real assistant coach. That's not meant as a slight to any of the guys on the coaching staff, but what I mean is someone who has already been a head coach at the NBA level and can identify with issues Quin is going through and speak with the kind of experience that the other guys can't. Someone who may be a figure that Quin looks up to. For instance, Penny Hardaway hired Larry Brown at Memphis. That's the kind of move that I think would be helpful. It doesn't even have to be a good coach. It just needs to be someone that Quin would listen to to give an outside opinion (from experience) or give small tweaks when something is really going off the rails. I know he has somewhat of that kind of connection with Doug Collins. This was what I thought the biggest splash of the off-season could be. Quin is a great coach. I think us being top 5 in both offense and defense is of great credit to Quin, and as amazing as Rudy is, I'd be nervous about replacing Quin because I don't think other coaches would be able to utilize him the way he has, and I think that has been and will be probably the largest key to our success. But there are some blind spots that I think would best be addressed by having someone Quin would respect enough to listen to. That's not to say he wouldn't listen to his staff, but these guys are all up-and-comers and rightly recognize Quin as the captain of the ship. Some of the guys on our staff may go on to be head coaches, but I don't like the way we're approaching the assistant coaching in the same way DL handled the end of the bench. We've got a bunch of guys we're hoping to develop, when we need to bring in an established vet.
It took way too long for us to get going after adding Mike and Bojan. Our teams have a hard time keeping focus and keeping the foot on the pedal. Every team does, but we tend to lose focus and that's been an issue for a while. I attribute this to coaching. Even though our offensive numbers in total looked great in the playoffs, we go through too many lulls that lead to us losing a 25 point lead, or dropping 4 games in a row, or losing a 3-1 series. Is anyone aware that we haven't won an overtime game since January 24th of 2018? We are 0-8 since then. We have a difficult time focusing in the crunch. Our best bet is to not keep games close. This is a mental thing, and I'm afraid our approach when we lose focus is to try to directly address this by "focus harder!" which becomes counter-productive and has the exact opposite effect. He has not been able to calm these situations and whatever it is he is doing always seems to be predictable in us coming apart. We've seen this in close games the entire season, and especially in the playoffs the past two years. I believe a calming influence on the coaching staff would go a really long way to remedying this issue, and we've seen enough to say it's an issue. There's nothing that we've done to address this issue --at all -- besides putting more talent on the team that hopefully keeps us out of these situations. But the playoffs are about these situations becoming much more common than the regular season. This is our biggest issue... bigger than small ball. Bigger than our rebounding issues. Bigger than our perimeter defense. Even bigger than health. All of the aforementioned are problems, to be sure. But this overshadows all of them.
No more developmental guys (coaches). Bring in the vets. DL farted around with the end of the roster. JZ got serious and addressed this. It's time for Quin to do the same. You hear all the talk of how good it is for Don to have Wade. Well, imagine if Quin had his Wade. Quin metaphorically left the nest and showed mom and dad he can fly on his own. He can, and he proved himself in most all ways that you can. But now it's time to settle down and get serious about new heights. Bring dad back in for his wisdom and experience, whoever that may be.
[I don't know anything about this new guy and it's not a slight to him, it's just that the hire got me around to finally post about this issue]
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