Discussing Potential Coaches Thread

[nate33]

I've raved about Scott Skiles' defensive coaching mind in the Bucks game thread a while back. But a recent conversation with Ruzious about Tyrone Lue got me to thinking about it some more.

Scott Skiles seems to have the opposite coaching philosophy of Eddie Jordan (and Mike Ayers, and Ed Tankscott). The stats suggest the Skiles is a lot less worried about "defending the paint" and is much more concerned with harassing the perimeter.

Consider the Milwaukee Bucks. Last year, they had the 30th ranked defense. This year, they rank 13th (and were actually ranked 7th a month ago). They lost Mo Williams, Desmond Mason and Yi, and added Ridnoir, Richard Jefferson and Mbah a Moute. That's a mild upgrade defensively, but not a radical one. The Bucks still have terrible individual defenders at guard (Ridnoir and Redd) and only a mediocre defender at the pivot (Bogut). Clearly, coaching philosphy has played a role.

What interests me is the opponent PER data at 82games.com. This year, the Bucks yield a PER of 15.4, 13.6, 14.4, 17.6 and 18.9 at PG, SG, SF, PF and C respectively. They contain the PG and lock down the wings, while allowing big men to wreak havoc. Last year, when they sucked on D, they yielded a PER of 20.4, 17.3, 17.8, 19.0, 18.1 at PG, SG, SF, PF and C respectively.

The same goes for Skiles' Chicago teams. in 2006/07, Skiles' Bulls yielded a PER of 12.7, 14.2, 13.8, 14.8 and 15.9 at PG, SG, SF, PF and C respectively. In 2005/06, the Bulls yielded a PER of at 14.9, 14.5, 16.6, 16.0, 15.3 at PG, SG, SF, PF and C respectively. (They had Chandler that season which might explain the better defense at C.) The 06/07 Bulls had the top ranked defense. The 05/06 Bulls were 7th. Both Bulls teams defended the guard spot well despite Ben Gordon, a well-known defensive seive, manning the SG spot.

Out of curiousity, I took a look at San Antonio's defensive performance over the last few seasons. I was surprised to see that in each of the past 4 seasons, the Spurs yielded a higher PER at the center position than any other position. And that's with one of the greatest defenders of all time manning the C position!

As you might have guessed, the Wizard's stats don't follow the same pattern. In 06/07, when we sucked ass on D (ranked 28th), we yielded the highest PER at PG and the second-highest at SF. Last year, when we concentrated on D more to make up for the loss of Arenas, we yielded the highest PER at SF, and the second highest at C. I guess we got things partially right, which explained our modest improvement on D (ranked 24th last year). I'm throwing this year out the window because we suck defensively at all positions through sheer lack of talent, instruction and effort.

I don't know what my point is, but I thought this was interesting. The conventional wisdom may be wrong. It appears that a defense oriented on defending perimeter players is more effective than one focused on defending the paint. What does Popovich and Skiles know that Mike Ayers doesn't?

[tkunit]

Mike Budenholzer he is the assistant coach of the spurs thats so good right. I want whichever assistant is the head and good one.

[miller31time]

I don't know what my point is, but I thought this was interesting. The conventional wisdom may be wrong. It appears that a defense oriented on defending perimeter players is more effective than one focused on defending the paint. What does Popovich and Skiles know that Mike Ayers doesn't?

Well, today's NBA is guard-oriented and the new rules allow perimeter players to draw a lot more fouls and get a lot more free throw attempts than ever before (which also explains why the NBA this season is averaging the 2nd highest FT%, historically speaking). I guess Skiles' rationale is - Stop the guards and you cut off the head of the beast.

[fishercob]

Nate, I think your point is that scheme matters, and the Wizards defensive scheme unequivocally does not work. We have ineffective "force rules" and double team philosophies, (forcing wing drivers to the middle instead of to the baseline, keeping weakside gaurds way too deep in the paint thereby allowing easy 3's with a simple ball reversal).

No matter who coaches this team next year, he MUST institute a new defensive scheme. Tommy Tippytoe, come to Washington!

[Dat2U]

Whoever the new coach of the Wizards is next year the first thing I'd like him to do is meet with all the players and say "whatever you learned the past few years from the previous coaching staff about defense, please forget it!"

[LyricalRico]

I don't know what my point is, but I thought this was interesting. The conventional wisdom may be wrong. It appears that a defense oriented on defending perimeter players is more effective than one focused on defending the paint. What does Popovich and Skiles know that Mike Ayers doesn't?

Well, today's NBA is guard-oriented and the new rules allow perimeter players to draw a lot more fouls and get a lot more free throw attempts than ever before (which also explains why the NBA this season is averaging the 2nd highest FT%, historically speaking). I guess Skiles' rationale is - Stop the guards and you cut off the head of the beast.

Good points. Another idea I had was that even though some bigs have high PER and FG%, they are low usage players who rarely score in bulk. So even if a guy like Haywood goes 5/6 on easy dunks with a really high PER, he's still only scoring 10 points and that doesn't hurt you as much as Gil or Caron going off for 30+.

I would probably venture to say that most of the blue chip talent in the NBA is at the 1-3 positions. So it definitely makes more sense to focus on the guys who have the ability to hurt you the most, even if it means sacrificing a few easy baskets to low usage bigs who aren't real dangers offensively. It's almost brilliantly simple.

[miller31time]

Whoever the new coach of the Wizards is next year the first thing I'd like him to do is meet with all the players and say "whatever you learned the past few years from the previous coaching staff about defense, please forget it!"

Absolutely, but what if our next coach is Wes Unseld Jr.? I doubt he's going to implement a new defensive strategy.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Patrick Ewing? He played under Grunfeld, and for Riley. He's an aspiring coach, and a local icon from his days at G'Town.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

also played for John Thompson...

[nate33]

Was Ewing an assistant coach here for a while? If I recall correctly, he did zippy.

[closg00]

Zo Mourning for big-man coach. I'd like to see the entire lot of Wiz staff removed, clean house.

[GilArenas88]

I've actually thought of Silas as well, and I don't think he tolerate shot jacking from our wings and guards...

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I think Ewing was here as an assistant under Collins... MJ brought him in as a big man coach.

[miller31time]

Zo Mourning for big-man coach. I'd like to see the entire lot of Wiz staff removed, clean house.

Yup. Surround this team with defensive teachers -- guys who know defense inside and out.

If we do this, defense doesn't become a chore but rather a habit.

Also, trade Jamison in a deal that nets us Andrei Kirilenko.

[miller31time]

BTW, I still have Jeff Van Gundy as my 1-A in terms of potential coaches, with 1-B being TT.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

What about Rick Pittino?

[doclinkin]

Next plan (if we don't hire the champion rockets):

Abe retires for medical reasons. Thank you Abe. City declares holiday in his honor.
Ted Leonsis, GTown Alum hires JTIII as head coach.
Hires Big John as low-post consultant, dangle ownership stake or frontoffice position, make up your own title.
Gtown bigman alumni adopt the team, Zo as asst coach or even summer workout coach. They make McGee their personal project.
JT3 runs princeton sets with the GTown defense and bigman twist.
Championship, much rejoicing.
Players dedicate the championship to Abe Pollin, wheeled out to accept the trophy, tears uproarious cheers, much rejoicing.
Dynasty ensues. Karma banked finds its own expression.
16 years of Obama presidency as Michelle runs after Barak's term expires.
Simple fusion discovered. Colonize the moon to mine for helium3 for fusion reactors. Terraform with green domes. Humanity expands to the stars. 1000 years of relative peace. Joy reigns, a love supreme.

[Dat2U]

^ That plan works fine by me.

But I'm still not sold on the Princeton as an offense that works in the pros. Against a defense like ours, it probably would be very successful b/c it doesn't take more than one or two passes for our defense to breakdown but against teams like the Spurs, Celtics or Cavs, an offense predicated on the defense making a mistake probably doesn't have enough time (with the 24 sec shot clock) to create anything other than a contested perimeter jumper.

The only reason its had some success in DC is because Gil is an incredible offensive weapon and Jamison & Caron are two highly skilled, offensive minded forwards. Bottom line the offense should have been pretty good anyways.

I'd rather see a more pro-style offense with a mix of pick & rolls, drive & kick action and inside cuts to the basket.

I'd also like to see an offense that doesn't require the use of a guy like Antawn Jamison at PF to "spread the floor"

[nate33]

As with everything else involving Abe Pollin's franchise, the choice of the new coach will likely revolve around Arenas, the mercurial star who is armed with a $111 million contract and a mixture of talent and personality that can alternately make a coach look like a genius or make him want to jump off the Key Bridge.

"Bottom line: Whoever gets that job -- and it's a good job if Gilbert is right and you come back with Butler and Jamison -- priority one is handling" Arenas, said a rival front-office executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to hamper future dealings with the Wizards. "The thing you had to appreciate about Eddie Jordan was that he had a system that made the kid a star but he also handled all of his quirks. That's a rare combination and, now, the guy has that contract. There are some coaches who flat out could not deal with a player like that. So, whoever Ernie chooses, that coach is going to have to be able to work around Arenas. How that plays out is going to determine the direction of that franchise."

link

Wow, those are pretty strong words. Is Arenas that difficult to deal with? Is his presence going to drive away potential candidates? Will Arenas' "quirks" be less of an issue now that he's had an additional 2 years of maturation while watching from the sidelines?

[LyricalRico]

^

We're screwed.