Re: Is Mike Malone a top 5 coach?
Posted: Mon May 15, 2023 3:41 pm
I don’t think so . No disrespect to him, but his team has never gotten better defensively .
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Teen Girl Squad wrote:nate33 wrote:Heej wrote:This is the most common textbook fan response about every coach so I don't believe this is a valid disqualifier
Yes, every time a coach lacks perfect 20/20 foresight to predict when a player will play good or bad, he is criticized for his "bad rotations".
Ryen Russilo had a great rant about this once. "Bad rotations" and "no adjustments" are code for "X didn't work, not X would have obviously worked 100% of the time." Basically it means you have no idea whats going on except you didn't like the outcome. Doesn't mean that there aren't times where its true, but you can actually single those out over a series (aka Bud refusing to change his defense on Butler).
As far as Malone goes, I put him in the 'Vogel' bucket of mid coaches who are good enough to win a championship but won't do anything special. He's good enough to play the obvious players/lineups and make the obvious adjustments so that the coaching advantage from someone like Spo won't be too big a factor nor will he put his team in obviously bad spots that set them up to struggle.
cupcakesnake wrote:Coaching rankings are always a bit silly because we don't see much of the coaching so we over index on the things we can see. We really value wins (and ignore roster talent often when accounting for those wins). We value highly visible adjustments. We value overachieving expectations.
Malone has never ranked in the top 5 of ElectricMayhem's Coaching Value Index.. He finished 8th this year and that feels fine by me. I'd argue for him as high as 6. There are 4 coaches I would rather have in a playoff run (Spo, Pop, Nurse, Carlisle) and I also have Jenkins ahead of him. He's clearly weathered some storms in Denver over the years and kept the ship afloat. Denver is always proactive and cohesive. He managed the regular season well and hasn't had any hiccups in the playoffs. Denver might just be so much better than the opponents they've faced, but Malone definitely doesn't seem to be hurting anything.
Heej wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:Coaching rankings are always a bit silly because we don't see much of the coaching so we over index on the things we can see. We really value wins (and ignore roster talent often when accounting for those wins). We value highly visible adjustments. We value overachieving expectations.
Malone has never ranked in the top 5 of ElectricMayhem's Coaching Value Index.. He finished 8th this year and that feels fine by me. I'd argue for him as high as 6. There are 4 coaches I would rather have in a playoff run (Spo, Pop, Nurse, Carlisle) and I also have Jenkins ahead of him. He's clearly weathered some storms in Denver over the years and kept the ship afloat. Denver is always proactive and cohesive. He managed the regular season well and hasn't had any hiccups in the playoffs. Denver might just be so much better than the opponents they've faced, but Malone definitely doesn't seem to be hurting anything.
Interesting because the best ball breakdown dude I follow imo is the bballindex dude and by his estimation Malone performed like the best coach the Lakers faced in the bubble from an Xs and Os chess match standpoint. He was making obvious decisive adjustments an entire game quicker than Spo was according to them.
To all the people mentioning Carlisle, he's the one other guy I was thinking of putting in but it's arguable with those 2 imo. Interesting tho seems top 8 is consensus here. Not bad at all
cupcakesnake wrote:Heej wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:Coaching rankings are always a bit silly because we don't see much of the coaching so we over index on the things we can see. We really value wins (and ignore roster talent often when accounting for those wins). We value highly visible adjustments. We value overachieving expectations.
Malone has never ranked in the top 5 of ElectricMayhem's Coaching Value Index.. He finished 8th this year and that feels fine by me. I'd argue for him as high as 6. There are 4 coaches I would rather have in a playoff run (Spo, Pop, Nurse, Carlisle) and I also have Jenkins ahead of him. He's clearly weathered some storms in Denver over the years and kept the ship afloat. Denver is always proactive and cohesive. He managed the regular season well and hasn't had any hiccups in the playoffs. Denver might just be so much better than the opponents they've faced, but Malone definitely doesn't seem to be hurting anything.
Interesting because the best ball breakdown dude I follow imo is the bballindex dude and by his estimation Malone performed like the best coach the Lakers faced in the bubble from an Xs and Os chess match standpoint. He was making obvious decisive adjustments an entire game quicker than Spo was according to them.
To all the people mentioning Carlisle, he's the one other guy I was thinking of putting in but it's arguable with those 2 imo. Interesting tho seems top 8 is consensus here. Not bad at all
I didn't listen to the pod so I can't really comment but maybe I'll give it a listen.
I think Malone was quietly spectacular in the Phoenix series. Even when the series was tied, Denver seemed in control of most facets of the game. Their choice to make life miserable for Durant and let Booker was functional and would have led to a sweep had Booker not shot out of his mind in those 2 games. Phoenix was a ton of firepower to keep in check, but Denver's defensive system never broke. On offense they did their thing unimpeded and kept everyone involved so they weren't ruined by a cold shooting night from Murray or MPJ.
I think Ham has been super solid thus far too, so I'm looking forward to this Western Conference Finals.
Jadoogar wrote:Twizlers wrote:This is worthy of my first post on this board.
No, he is not a top 5 coach. His refusal to continue to play Jeff Green in these playoffs is evidence of that. I wouldn't say he is a bad coach, but he certainly has questionable rotations and can't draw up plays.
i don't think he's a top 5 coach but who do you think he should play instead of Jeff Green? Deandre Jordan? Thomas Bryant?
In the playoffs, coaches tend to go with guys they trust. Jeff Green for all his faults is a veteran who knows how to play and won't make simple mistakes. That's a lot more than all these young players that people tend to suggest.
Twizlers wrote:This is worthy of my first post on this board.
No, he is not a top 5 coach. His refusal to continue to play Jeff Green in these playoffs is evidence of that. I wouldn't say he is a bad coach, but he certainly has questionable rotations and can't draw up plays.
iggymcfrack wrote:Jadoogar wrote:Twizlers wrote:This is worthy of my first post on this board.
No, he is not a top 5 coach. His refusal to continue to play Jeff Green in these playoffs is evidence of that. I wouldn't say he is a bad coach, but he certainly has questionable rotations and can't draw up plays.
i don't think he's a top 5 coach but who do you think he should play instead of Jeff Green? Deandre Jordan? Thomas Bryant?
In the playoffs, coaches tend to go with guys they trust. Jeff Green for all his faults is a veteran who knows how to play and won't make simple mistakes. That's a lot more than all these young players that people tend to suggest.
Christian Braun. He’s only 2 inches shorter than Green. I don’t buy that the size difference makes them completely different players defensively. This postseason, Green’s averaging 19 MPG to Braun’s 13 when Braun could easily be at like 24 MPG and keeping Green to 8 MPG or less. With that said, it’s a small enough issue mixing up the 7th and 8th man in the rotation that I don’t really hold it against Malone much. For the most part, I’ve been pretty pleased with his rotations and I feel he’s been above average in that department this postseason after a pretty shaky regular season.
cupcakesnake wrote:iggymcfrack wrote:Jadoogar wrote:
i don't think he's a top 5 coach but who do you think he should play instead of Jeff Green? Deandre Jordan? Thomas Bryant?
In the playoffs, coaches tend to go with guys they trust. Jeff Green for all his faults is a veteran who knows how to play and won't make simple mistakes. That's a lot more than all these young players that people tend to suggest.
Christian Braun. He’s only 2 inches shorter than Green. I don’t buy that the size difference makes them completely different players defensively. This postseason, Green’s averaging 19 MPG to Braun’s 13 when Braun could easily be at like 24 MPG and keeping Green to 8 MPG or less. With that said, it’s a small enough issue mixing up the 7th and 8th man in the rotation that I don’t really hold it against Malone much. For the most part, I’ve been pretty pleased with his rotations and I feel he’s been above average in that department this postseason after a pretty shaky regular season.
They play different positions in Denver's system. Braun is a defensive specialist on the wing. He comes in specifically to guard perimeter scorers, though he has shown some ability to guard up a bit. Jeff Green backs up the 4 and 5 position. He typically subs out Aaron Gordon, plays a few minutes with Jokic, and then shifts to the 5 when Jokic takes a breather (Gordon subs back in). One plays wing, one plays big.
Yes their listed heights are close but this are very different sized players due to their length. Braun is 6'5.5" with a 6'6.5" wingspan. He's actually pretty stumpy for a wing, which makes it all the more impressive how well he's been able to guard. Jeff Green is 6'7" with a 7'1.25" wingspan, giving him legit small ball center size.
Braun can't operate as a roll man like Green can, and his defensive tools aren't going to pop if they have him playing on the backline. Green is also too slow these days to guard full time on the wing.
iggymcfrack wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:iggymcfrack wrote:
Christian Braun. He’s only 2 inches shorter than Green. I don’t buy that the size difference makes them completely different players defensively. This postseason, Green’s averaging 19 MPG to Braun’s 13 when Braun could easily be at like 24 MPG and keeping Green to 8 MPG or less. With that said, it’s a small enough issue mixing up the 7th and 8th man in the rotation that I don’t really hold it against Malone much. For the most part, I’ve been pretty pleased with his rotations and I feel he’s been above average in that department this postseason after a pretty shaky regular season.
They play different positions in Denver's system. Braun is a defensive specialist on the wing. He comes in specifically to guard perimeter scorers, though he has shown some ability to guard up a bit. Jeff Green backs up the 4 and 5 position. He typically subs out Aaron Gordon, plays a few minutes with Jokic, and then shifts to the 5 when Jokic takes a breather (Gordon subs back in). One plays wing, one plays big.
Yes their listed heights are close but this are very different sized players due to their length. Braun is 6'5.5" with a 6'6.5" wingspan. He's actually pretty stumpy for a wing, which makes it all the more impressive how well he's been able to guard. Jeff Green is 6'7" with a 7'1.25" wingspan, giving him legit small ball center size.
Braun can't operate as a roll man like Green can, and his defensive tools aren't going to pop if they have him playing on the backline. Green is also too slow these days to guard full time on the wing.
That’s a very good point on the wingspan difference. I didn’t realize it was that large. If Malone wants to play Jeff Green all of Jokic’s bench minutes as a small ball 5 I’m totally fine with that. I think the rest of the time, they’d probably be better off with Braun in the game, but again this was never a major complaint with me.
The fact that he waited the entire regular season to play another starter in most of Joker’s bench lineups is more concerning. He’s doing the right thing now, but I kinda have to question what the point was not really trying that during the regular season. It doesn’t seem like homecourt in the Finals is something you’d just give away on purpose to “save it for the playoffs”. So in that sense, it does kinda feel like he’s happening into some things through luck. He’s certainly been much better than say Monty Williams though with rotations and I do think he’s a good coach, but I would also say he’s closer to league average than he is to someone like Spo.
cupcakesnake wrote:Heej wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:Coaching rankings are always a bit silly because we don't see much of the coaching so we over index on the things we can see. We really value wins (and ignore roster talent often when accounting for those wins). We value highly visible adjustments. We value overachieving expectations.
Malone has never ranked in the top 5 of ElectricMayhem's Coaching Value Index.. He finished 8th this year and that feels fine by me. I'd argue for him as high as 6. There are 4 coaches I would rather have in a playoff run (Spo, Pop, Nurse, Carlisle) and I also have Jenkins ahead of him. He's clearly weathered some storms in Denver over the years and kept the ship afloat. Denver is always proactive and cohesive. He managed the regular season well and hasn't had any hiccups in the playoffs. Denver might just be so much better than the opponents they've faced, but Malone definitely doesn't seem to be hurting anything.
Interesting because the best ball breakdown dude I follow imo is the bballindex dude and by his estimation Malone performed like the best coach the Lakers faced in the bubble from an Xs and Os chess match standpoint. He was making obvious decisive adjustments an entire game quicker than Spo was according to them.
To all the people mentioning Carlisle, he's the one other guy I was thinking of putting in but it's arguable with those 2 imo. Interesting tho seems top 8 is consensus here. Not bad at all
I didn't listen to the pod so I can't really comment but maybe I'll give it a listen.
I think Malone was quietly spectacular in the Phoenix series. Even when the series was tied, Denver seemed in control of most facets of the game. Their choice to make life miserable for Durant and let Booker was functional and would have led to a sweep had Booker not shot out of his mind in those 2 games. Phoenix was a ton of firepower to keep in check, but Denver's defensive system never broke. On offense they did their thing unimpeded and kept everyone involved so they weren't ruined by a cold shooting night from Murray or MPJ.
I think Ham has been super solid thus far too, so I'm looking forward to this Western Conference Finals.
cupcakesnake wrote:Coaching rankings are always a bit silly because we don't see much of the coaching so we over index on the things we can see. We really value wins (and ignore roster talent often when accounting for those wins). We value highly visible adjustments. We value overachieving expectations.
Malone has never ranked in the top 5 of ElectricMayhem's Coaching Value Index.. He finished 8th this year and that feels fine by me. I'd argue for him as high as 6. There are 4 coaches I would rather have in a playoff run (Spo, Pop, Nurse, Carlisle) and I also have Jenkins ahead of him. He's clearly weathered some storms in Denver over the years and kept the ship afloat. Denver is always proactive and cohesive. He managed the regular season well and hasn't had any hiccups in the playoffs. Denver might just be so much better than the opponents they've faced, but Malone definitely doesn't seem to be hurting anything.