Reply With Quoteziggy (02-14-2013)
Popovich and Rivers.. two of the best coaches in the NBA, right? Well they both were almost fired.. Pop in 1999 and Rivers in 2007.. and they had good teams. The Bobcats dont.. this team will be the same if Sloan was coaching. Sloan coached a stellar team for 23 yrs and couldnt win a title..think he should have been fired?
It takes time to build, we arent even at all-star break and people want him fired. Smh.. he deserves more time. This team was lead by a "good" coach last year and did worse. I could see if this team was a .500 team and he ruined them.. but it's not. It was the worst team in NBA history, regardless of how you slice it, this team is better(and we arent even mid-season yet) and they respect Dunlap. He deserves a chance..
" It's rare i listen to people who never been in my position, a caterpillar can't relate to what an eagle envisions"
ziggy (02-14-2013)
When you have a losing team like this, a big part of what the coach has to do is manage the emotion of the locker room. Losing over and over is really deflating. A good coach would constantly be telling the guys: keep your heads up, Every game is a brand new game, Keep grinding, Forget about the losses things will get better for us if we keep working, Take it one game at a time, don't worry about the score, take it one play at a time.
If we don't have a coach that can lead the culture of the locker room we are going to develop a culture of losing. Guys are going to look out for themselves rather then focus on team goals. I don't want to see that happen to us.
You know what else is really deflating. The other team hitting a three. The other team getting an easy bucket on an open look. We give up more threes then any team in the league. We give up more assists then any team in the league. The reason for that is coaching. We don't need a gimmick defense which only gives us a chance vs teams who don't make the extra pass and can't shoot threes.
For every coach who sucked at first and then turned out to be great there are a bunch that didn't. I am fine giving him until the end of the year as long as he still has some fight left in him. If the he starts to look like the losing is getting to him too its time to go.
What did Phil Jackons, the greatest coach ever, do when his guys weren't playing well? Did he panic and call a timeout? Did he sub in some other guys right away? No, he let his guys play through it more often then not. He showed confidence in his guys at the moments they must have been doubting themselves the most. That's what we need from a head coach, a leader.
If the second half of the season looks like the first I am ready to make a change. The zone, and the constant doubling don't give our guys a chance to stop somebody one on one. Does he really have that little confidence in our players on the defensive end. Clearly what he is doing is not working because there is no way we are the worst defensive team in the league personal wise. If Dunlap cannot fix all the open threes and easy baskets or defense gives up, he is clearly not the guy we need.
You can certainly question some of the x's and o's at times but i still think it's gonna be about 2 more years before we have the team that we're going to really move forward and try to make a run with. Until then there's no way i'd get rid of Dunlap. His development of Kemba and Mullens alone makes it worth him being here right now. And who knows,by the time we have our true core maybe he will have grown as a coach. I honestly see no reason to rush it. I'd much rather suck for a little while longer and have all of our young guys properly developed than bringing in some Larry Brown type and having their spirit crushed.
I'm still surprised that no one is taking the fact we lose games by the biggest difference of any NBA team, have the lowest field goal percentage of any NBA team, lowest assists per game of any NBA team, allow the other team more assists per game then any other NBA team (which indicates allowing a smoother offensive flow for them), and largest negative margin between the rebounds our team takes vs the rebounds our team gives up out of all NBA teams as indications that Dunlap isn't doing such a great job this year....
Like I said, I don't support firing him until seeing what he does after next season. But don't compare him to Pop, Coach K, or Doc. We have no team chemistry and the numbers reflect it.
Look at them for yourselves: http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortab...nf=1&prd=1#top
Twan's Kin (02-14-2013)
Well the question still would come back to how much adding Sessions/Haywood/Gordon/MKG/Taylor would actually improve on basically the worst team ever to play in the NBA last year? You have to acknowledge where Dunlap started from and how far he can realistically take this current group while also realizing that 1) his primary mandate is developing the younger players and 2) he's a rookie himself.Originally Posted by BETCATS
Hope Resurrected: "I think I can bring an attitude to a team as far as, ‘All right, no matter what, we are not losing this game'." - Kemba Walker
"Its okay to be bad; just so long as you're bad ass." - Keetch
This thread is still going huh. SMH.
Why does that surprise you that no one is talking about those stats you rattled off. I'll tell you why, because they are completely irrelevant.
Greg Popovich went 17-47 his first year.
Its well known Duke looked terrible and everyone wanted K fired before he went on one of the greatest coaching runs in basketball history.
Doc Rivers went 3 season in Boston before sniffing the playoffs and went 24-58 the season before the big 3 and winning the rings.
Another words everyone just relax. No stats matter right now. We want a positive team, a healthy environment in the locker room, and continued, noticeable improvement in young individual players. Dunlap has provided all that and more so far.
I certainly agree that he is a rookie and should be judged as one. We gave him a 2 year contract for a reason; because this year is a building block and another lottery trip. I am just saying he's being overblown by his supporters in this thread. I do not believe we are getting maximum results from our roster and I do think Dunlap's inconsistent rotations are a big reason why. The stats I found illustrate that.
The logic you used is the thing that really irked me and lead me to respond to begin with. Mike Dunlap is no Popovich. He's no Kryzewski. Doc had already won Coach of the Year by the time he got to Boston. The main thing Dunlap has in common with them is that he is still "unknown" in many ways. But all indications thus far show he is not in the same league as those guys. They had winning systems. Right now, there are aspects I like about Dunlap but the fact he has a low regard for consistency is why the numbers are so low. Are we really only going to cite a lack of talent for why this team is preforming so poorly and pawn it all off on our roster? I believe Dunlap deserves some of the responsibility and the way he coaches deserves to be looked at.
I'm also not convinced he is the main reason for the development of our guards (Stephen Silas is still on our staff for a reason) or that he's really getting maximum results from our young players. I'm not in the group that says fire him now. That is a worse option for a number of reasons. I just think we are being overly-speculative to over-sell a coach. When has the team clearly not being a playoff contender stopped us as a fan base from criticizing a coach or the system being used before? It shouldn't be off limits now.
Felton for Prez (02-13-2013), StakJak (02-13-2013)
Is this really a discussion?
No matter the coach, what did you guys expect to see this year? In all honesty I didn't expect a much better win % than last year. Lack of talent and pieces is a key factor. Not everybody gets a Miami Heat type of roster
C'mon dude. "they had winning systems" ? What part of Pop going 17-42 in his first year screams winning systems to you? Fun word to throw around and all but its meaningless. He doesn't regard consistency? When has he said that? Show me.
No one is above reproach but acting like you know anything about his "system" or his "will for consistency" is silly. It's been HALF OF ONE season with literally the worst roster (proven) in the history of the NBA. 50 games in and we haven't won a championship doesn't mean he doesn't have a winning system.
Stephen Silas may have a hand in the development of the guards, but its under Dunlap.
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