Post#85 » by Yosemite Dan » Fri Dec 4, 2009 6:42 am
Although I'm not a big fan of Triano, easily his biggest failing as a coach is not holding the starters accountable for anything and even then it's a catch 22 situation because he's pretty much at BC's mercy because of many factors. That he was given 3 year contract so he doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds him because it may be only head coaching gig he ever gets after years of service to the Raps. He also faces several other obstacles. He has to appease Bosh because the last thing BC wants to be known for is causing Bosh to leave because of BC's perceived incompetence, righly or wrongly, in building a winner around Bosh. Jose, Bargs and Turk have all signed multi year expensive contracts and in no uncertain terms BC has let it be known by these signings that these 4 players is what he constitutues as the future of his team.
So what does this mean. Any criticism of Bosh for defensive shortcomings is ignored because he doesn't want to upset the "franchise player" into leaving and in addition has to be the main focal point of the offense, even to the detriment of other players contributions (Bargs, Turk), in order to make the star player "happy' with getting enough touches. He can't bench any of Bargs, Turk or Jose and embarrass the GM. How bad would it look if your hand picked head coach benched any of these three players 6 weeks into the season to be an overpaid bench player.
So what is Triano to do because his hands are pretty much tied because of BC's shortsightedness in having 4 starters who have always been poor defensively thier whole career yet can't be called out on it, it's politics like anything else. Anybody seeing these 4 clowns play defensively know they are just stupid. They don't understand when to rotate and when not to. They are all finesse players who get muscled off the ball. They double team for no apparent reason. You can get away with having 2 starters like that but we actually have 5 which is rare for any team, hence the historically poor defense emerging.
Greg Popovich couldn't get these guys above .500. The players are just too defensively stupid and don't care. Then the bench sees the starters given a free ride and they develop the same bad habits. When Phil Jackson came back the Lakers were 1st round fodder, even with Kobe, because he just didn't have the horses.
What choice does Triano have? He has to identify the starters' strengths and hope he can outscore the opposition because anything else is not a realisitic option at this point. BC is to blame for all the failings of this group.