Player The Methodical Meritocracy of Maestro Mitch Johnson and his Many Minions

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Bring Tiago Home
 
Handing the most coveted job in NBA without opening a search to a bonafide mediocrity whose boring soundbites and uninspiring interviews give an inkling about his middling basketball mind and unassertive character is a choice the franchise will come to regret..Will Hardy was there for the taking if they put a call to Utah.
 
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spursistan said:
Handing the most coveted job in NBA without opening a search to a bonafide mediocrity whose boring soundbites and uninispiring interviews give an inkling about his middling basketball mind and unassertive character is a choice the franchise will come to regret..Will Hardy was there for the taking if they put a call to Utah.
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I'm not sure you are aware of this, but, Will Hardy uses profanity and holds his players to a higher level of accountability. That's not who we are. Except for Pop. But he doesn't count because he coined the term that's not who we are.
 
spursistan said:
Handing the most coveted job in NBA without opening a search to a bonafide mediocrity whose boring soundbites and uninispiring interviews give an inkling about his middling basketball mind and unassertive character is a choice the franchise will come to regret..Will Hardy was there for the taking if they put a call to Utah.
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Mike Malone, Jenkins.





They didnt even hold interviews to anyone. Assuming this given the timeline of how early Mitch was announced.
 
I think the Meritocracy from thread title needs to go, tbh.
 
Anyone know Mitch's contract is for how long and the amount?

I don't recall seeing any numbers on Mitch's contract.

I did a search on google and there was no disclosure. Number of years and amount....totally undisclosed.
 
So did we overachieve the first 25 games due to Mitch or in spite of him? I can imagine arguments for both.
 
In terms of coaching, Mitch has clearly a ceiling, and he's hit it. Unfortunately it's not high enough to get us where we need.
 
dn0774 said:
So did we overachieve the first 25 games due to Mitch or in spite of him? I can imagine arguments for both.
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It's the usual case of an unknown quantity surprising everyone until they adjust.
Since they adjusted, he's been lost and unable to produce anything other than this basic drive and kick offense with a ton of settling for low quality 3s and isolation shots.

The effort and physicality excuse gets boring. Put your players in better position and they'll have an easier time executing.

Then even when he stumbles upon a good lineup or turns the momentum around, he's still a pussy and switches right back to the starters no matter how bad they were.
What kind of a message does that send to players waiting for their opportunity and putting in an effort to improve?

I don't think most are aware how awful Harper situation is.
Not only that he averages the least minutes out of any regular rotation member, but his minutes are mostly in suboptimal roles where he doesn't have the ball or is playing with bench lineups that have terrible spacing.
He's just killing this kid.
At the expense of trying to shoehorn Castle into the point guard role he's obviously not ready for.

It's like they made a strategy before the season started and will continue pounding the rock on it even if it just can't work.
 
LeBowen said:
It's the usual case of an unknown quantity surprising everyone until they adjust.
Since they adjusted, he's been lost and unable to produce anything other than this basic drive and kick offense with a ton of settling for low quality 3s and isolation shots.

The effort and physicality excuse gets boring. Put your players in better position and they'll have an easier time executing.

Then even when he stumbles upon a good lineup or turns the momentum around, he's still a pussy and switches right back to the starters no matter how bad they were.
What kind of a message does that send to players waiting for their opportunity and putting in an effort to improve?

I don't think most are aware how awful Harper situation is.
Not only that he averages the least minutes out of any regular rotation member, but his minutes are mostly in suboptimal roles where he doesn't have the ball or is playing with bench lineups that have terrible spacing.
He's just killing this kid.
At the expense of trying to shoehorn Castle into the point guard role he's obviously not ready for.

It's like they made a strategy before the season started and will continue pounding the rock on it even if it just can't work.
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the same bullshit comes out of his stupid mouth every game. it's getting exhausting. everything good in this season has been in spite of mitch. does nothing particularly well. wish we had a leader of men type like ime, mazulla, hardy, malone etc.
 
LeBowen said:
It's the usual case of an unknown quantity surprising everyone until they adjust.
Since they adjusted, he's been lost and unable to produce anything other than this basic drive and kick offense with a ton of settling for low quality 3s and isolation shots.

The effort and physicality excuse gets boring. Put your players in better position and they'll have an easier time executing.

Then even when he stumbles upon a good lineup or turns the momentum around, he's still a pussy and switches right back to the starters no matter how bad they were.
What kind of a message does that send to players waiting for their opportunity and putting in an effort to improve?

I don't think most are aware how awful Harper situation is.
Not only that he averages the least minutes out of any regular rotation member, but his minutes are mostly in suboptimal roles where he doesn't have the ball or is playing with bench lineups that have terrible spacing.
He's just killing this kid.
At the expense of trying to shoehorn Castle into the point guard role he's obviously not ready for.

It's like they made a strategy before the season started and will continue pounding the rock on it even if it just can't work.
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good to see you coming around
 
Mitch has been using the lack of physicality excuse since last season. It's one thing if it was a recent stretch, but pull up any postgame interview from last season where we caught an L and he said the same shit. I'm talking since 2024.
 
Raven_ said:
good to see you coming around
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Even before the last season ended, it was obvious he'd get the job.
I just said that he needs to be given a fair chance because without Wemby/Fox we had I think 6th best ORTG in March and April.
He obviously knows a thing or two about developing an offense, it's just that he basically lucked into Pop's retirement at the perfect moment, after all the good assistants left.

And what's even more concerning is that his gameplan looked better without Wemby.
Does that mean our role players are better without Wemby? No, it's just that Mitch can't find optimal roles for an offense that doesn't include a traditional big setting screens and constantly rolling to the basket.

The biggest concern is that Spurs are still all about pounding the rock and that we're pretty much stuck with Mitch for a couple more years at the very least.
Overacheving record wise might just be the worst thing that has happened to this roster.

RC_Drunkford said:
Mitch has been using the lack of physicality excuse since last season. It's one thing if it was a recent stretch, but pull up any postgame interview from last season where we caught an L and he said the same shit. I'm talking since 2024.
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When there's no actual reporters to ask relevant questions, coaches just descend into generic answers because why bother? Then you look at some of the questions that are asked in big markets, it's a completely different universe.

As I said after the game, will anyone ever ask about when it stops being about effort/physicality and when it starts being about poor offensive gameplan.
Of course we'll get outmuscled by a team that has more size in almost every position, but that should mean we have a pace/spacing tradeoff to compensate.
 
I wonder how thunder fans felt about Mark daigneault in his first couple of seasons...
 
BigTimeBum said:
I wonder how thunder fans felt about Mark daigneault in his first couple of seasons...
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At least he put his franchise player in winning positions even when the Thunder were still bad.
The same can't be said about Mitch.
 
I think once Mitch gets 4-5 HOF players on the floor at the same time he'll be competitive.
 
I don't think Mitch is as bad a coach as some of the bandwagoners here believe. The fact that the team has over achieved relative to expectations will keep him the HC this season and beyond in the medium term. The Spurs managed to hide/ fix their shooting weaknesses early this season because of stellar guard play by Fox, Castle and Harper plus Wemby being Wemby.

But teams have adjusted and the weaknesses of the three are now more pronounced. I love Harper ..he is Manu Ginobili's next coming for me. But he is shooting 24.2% on 3. And yes. He should play more. But Castle is the better defender and Fox is the more reliable scorer. And so he gets fewer minutes. I don't agree but I understand why. It's an adjustment that Mitch has got to make.

As for the physicality/ effort issue ..it's a problem when Wemby is overwhelmed by it. He has built his strength and is sturdier this year but it's a long season and there will be nights when Wemby will flounder against physical play. That's where the forward / wing duo have to pick the slack and keep the scoreline humming with solid 3 p shooting. While Champs and Keldon have done well here...Barnes has been a disaster after a strong start.

So Mitch and co should read the signs and perhaps start Vassell over Barnes and use Champs as the 4. And also work hard in the trade window to get a shooting forward. Because Barnes, Sochan, Olynyk are giving nothing now while Bryant is too raw.
 
spursfanfromafar said:
But teams have adjusted and the weaknesses of the three are now more pronounced.
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The weakness is that the team doesn't respect the game of basketball or their opponents.
And the coaches can't keep them engaged.

Just look at this sequence.
8-2, easy opponent, not even 3 minutes in they feel like the game is won.
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What's this shit? Shooting a stepback 3 over fatass Queen instead of just going at him and either having an easy layup over Zion, an easy lob to Wemby or Champ wide open in the corner if Herb is the one helping on the drive.
And look where is Castle standing, fucking Curry range as if that's going to keep Murphy further away from Fox.

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Gambling on a steal off the most dangerous shooter, Barnes has to close down Murphy and Bey is wide open in the corner.

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10 seconds of Wemby iso and another stepback over Queen.

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Then Fox decides to foul Bey even though Wemby easily had that shot and kicking it out to Zion would be useless.

That right there is two wasted possessions with nothing but lazy effort and two even worse defensive possessions with nothing but low IQ.
How the fuck can you be so casual about being ready for the game after you had 3 days of rest?

Do I need to go on and on, you can find these 7-10 point swing sequences in every single game of ours.

He should play more. But Castle is the better defender and Fox is the more reliable scorer. And so he gets fewer minutes. I don't agree but I understand why. It's an adjustment that Mitch has got to make.
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He doesn't need to play if he's doing badly, but last night Castle was horrible, Harper sparked a run whenever he entered the game, played great defense and was our best non-big rebounder.
Still not even 20 minutes. Just award players on merit instead of rigid rotations with no room for adjustment.

As for the physicality/ effort issue ..it's a problem when Wemby is overwhelmed by it. He has built his strength and is sturdier this year but it's a long season and there will be nights when Wemby will flounder against physical play. That's where the forward / wing duo have to pick the slack and keep the scoreline humming with solid 3 p shooting. While Champs and Keldon have done well here...Barnes has been a disaster after a strong start.
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Noone is blaming Mitch for getting overwhelmed, we're blaming him that he's making the physicality excuse while trotting out lineups that have no chance in that regard.
It's fine if we give up some rebounds or paint points against bigger teams, but then make it count on the other end.
Instead we keep settling for stepback 3s by players that aren't even good at them.
 
Im all for the pounding the roc philosophy, but only when you know you are pounding the right rock with the right tools.

The spurs right now should be at a discovery phase to see what they can do, while also stretching the limits of what is possible. So there will (and should) be times where the team will do things that are curious to an outside observer.

That said, there should also be an overall roadmap of where we want to go, and if that roadmap is to have castle dominate the ball while fox is related to an off ball role and Harper is a spot minutes guy, with wemby shooting turnaround three pointers to bail us out of a shot clock then there is an issue with the plan. It would be hammering a plain ole roc instead of one that has diamonds inside.

Also, by relegating an up and comer like Harper to a bit role is also the wrong way to go about it. It’s basically hammering the rock with a screwdriver. Get the bloody hammer and hammer it the right way.

To hammer the rock, MATFO must be sure that their plan is sound and their methods are proper. To an outsider like me it seems neither is the case.
 
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