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

wemvp said:
Actually I feel the opposite. Bringing in a Malone or someone with a lot of HC experience probably would mean a coach that had his system and his ways. That might have not worked with the completely new unknown talent that is Wembanyama. As long as Mitch is flexible in how to use Wemby and is able to manage the egos and personalities in the locker room he'll do well. The worst thing for this young talented team is a coach that will be too rigid and try to make them something they are not. With Mitch they get a coach that can grow, adapt, and overcome with them.
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Wasn't Mitch the assistant coach with the responsibility to warm Victor up before games and practices from his first year in the league?

Didn't he keep that role last year after assuming the interim head coach position?

He might well have the most influential personal relationship for working with Victor in the Spurs hierarchy now. Why risk that?
 
This is now 2 turds (entirely winnable games that were turned into L's) that i put a significant part on Mitchs bad strategy.
Fox needing to be pulled could be seen by Mr. Hensworth the 7th grade maintenance man and part time bb coach.

Say something to corrupt POS Scott Foster and his two buddies. It's not going to change their corruption but FFS say something.
Watching Curry get his vag massaged and Victor getting bumped around was pure BS.
 
PanameSpur said:
I thought Mike Brown would've been a smarter gamble.

He knows the house
He's a defensive-minded coach (key to win)
He knows and has good relation with Fox
He was available

He made a lot of sense and even if he failed it would've been "acceptable"

Micth has too many red flags to me. I don't know him personally, hence the "I hope I'm wrong", he could very well be an exception .... that confirms the rule (^^), in the end
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Mike Brown :ROFLMAO: the guy that was switching every pick & roll when trying to defend Wemby. Hell no
 
wemvp said:
Actually I feel the opposite. Bringing in a Malone or someone with a lot of HC experience probably would mean a coach that had his system and his ways. That might have not worked with the completely new unknown talent that is Wembanyama. As long as Mitch is flexible in how to use Wemby and is able to manage the egos and personalities in the locker room he'll do well. The worst thing for this young talented team is a coach that will be too rigid and try to make them something they are not. With Mitch they get a coach that can grow, adapt, and overcome with them.
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Malone clashed with the Nuggets GM. Spurs wouldn't want a coach that doesn't want the players Brian Wright brings him. I think that plays a big part. The FO and the coaching staff have to be on the same page.
 
I don’t know how complicit Malone was in jokic losing his toys from the Championship run and replacing them with shitty parts.

If he was…yeah I don’t want him.

If he wasn’t…he’s the most recent coach to win a chip with a gifted point center and experienced prolonged success for years leading up to the title. I like that better than “observed an old man ruining multiple seasons”
 
Shmurs said:
I don’t know how complicit Malone was in jokic losing his toys from the Championship run and replacing them with shitty parts.

If he was…yeah I don’t want him.

If he wasn’t…he’s the most recent coach to win a chip with a gifted point center and experienced prolonged success for years leading up to the title. I like that better than “observed an old man ruining multiple seasons”
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Malone didn't play any of Denver's draft picks. He should've tried to develop role players during the season. Kinda like Pop did back then with Jonathon Simmons and Kyle Anderson, where one got rotation minutes as the 10th man. Instead Malone parked them on the bench and never played them. That's on him.
 
brazil said:
yes exactly.. Spurs allow 34 3s per game (4th best in the league) and opponents convert near 39,7% (worst in the league)... OKC in comparaison allow 40 3s per game and opponents convert 37,3%
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I think the circumstances are different. I think against OKC, teams are trying to catch back up/not get blown out, and they're shooting those threes under more pressure. Against the Spurs, I think the 3s are a more quality shot, and teams are happy to shoot threes as it's a better shot for them than trying to challenge Victor inside. When Victor isn't on the court, then they can drive the lane and score inside, or if that is cut off, kick out for some open 3s.

RC_Drunkford said:
Malone didn't play any of Denver's draft picks. He should've tried to develop role players during the season. Kinda like Pop did back then with Jonathon Simmons and Kyle Anderson, where one got rotation minutes as the 10th man. Instead Malone parked them on the bench and never played them. That's on him.
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Malone was my first choice until all the stuff I heard about him. Squabbling with the GM (thinking stuff like the shooting coach was a spy for the GM), not playing the youth and developing them, he dropped right off my list after that stuff started coming out. I really liked his attitude and aggression, but it seems he was creating a bad environment for his players and team.

Next would have been Jenkins as I thought he was an up and coming coach, and then maybe Mike Brown was also someone I would have been OK with. A lot of people talk shit about Brown, but he's taken teams deep in the playoffs, coached one of them with a young superstar (Lebron) so he has an idea of what that is like, and has been an assistant on championship teams (Spurs, Warriors).
 
RC_Drunkford said:
Malone clashed with the Nuggets GM. Spurs wouldn't want a coach that doesn't want the players Brian Wright brings him. I think that plays a big part. The FO and the coaching staff have to be on the same page.
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Malone's beef was that the Nuggets had championship talent and aspirations but ownership didn't want to pay to keep them together. They bled out critical role players and just figured Jokic would make up for it, and they were almost right, but the front office continued to give Malone significantly lesser players than they were replacing. It wasn't simply that he didn't like the players the front office was giving him. I'd be pissed too.
 
Wemby a response on reffing in the post presser.
(I didn't hear one peep out of Mitch.)

Media asked Vic about a hypothetical whereupon no one but he between Curry up top and the rim:

Victor: "I’d stop the three-point shot no matter what, because he’s someone I can easily catch up to at the rim, and that’s exactly what I did during this game. They called a foul on me, but I don’t think there was one. Also, I’d make sure to deny the step-back to the left."
 
Yeah, that happened too. They kept losing key pieces/players and replacing them with worse ones. I can see how he'd be upset about that.
 
I get we're undermanned and he has to try some things, but tonight's game was really poor.

1. Why weren't Fox and DJG staggered? DJG wasn't good, but he's better on the ball and certainly can't be worse than point Sochan.
2. Why was point Socan/Olynyk a thing? Just because a big can make a pass here and there doesn't mean they should get the Sabonis role right away.
3. Keldon played well, the ball was taken away from him, didn't initiate anything.
4. Why is everyone, and I mean everyone, allowed to make low-percentage, mostly bounce passes into the paint? If I counted correctly, 5 turnovers came from bad passes into the paint.
5. Why are our first possessions and out of time out plays so damn horrible. You can't tell me Sochan pounding the ball for 10 seconds is the intended play.

Maybe I'm reaching, but it feels like he's going too much into the free-flowing, everyone does everything direction. Can work when all of our guards are available, but when most of the rotation are role players who are good at just one or two things, we need to play to their strenghts.
I'd rather have Champ take a highly contested 3pt than drive into 3 defenders, if you get my point.
 
To add to this… what happened to Lindy Waters? Is he strictly an and/or with DJG? We were cold as hell tonight, would have liked to seen him in an attempt to generate some shooting
 
LeBowen said:
I get we're undermanned and he has to try some things, but tonight's game was really poor.

1. Why weren't Fox and DJG staggered? DJG wasn't good, but he's better on the ball and certainly can't be worse than point Sochan.
2. Why was point Socan/Olynyk a thing? Just because a big can make a pass here and there doesn't mean they should get the Sabonis role right away.
3. Keldon played well, the ball was taken away from him, didn't initiate anything.
4. Why is everyone, and I mean everyone, allowed to make low-percentage, mostly bounce passes into the paint? If I counted correctly, 5 turnovers came from bad passes into the paint.
5. Why are our first possessions and out of time out plays so damn horrible. You can't tell me Sochan pounding the ball for 10 seconds is the intended play.

Maybe I'm reaching, but it feels like he's going too much into the free-flowing, everyone does everything direction. Can work when all of our guards are available, but when most of the rotation are role players who are good at just one or two things, we need to play to their strenghts.
I'd rather have Champ take a highly contested 3pt than drive into 3 defenders, if you get my point.
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Sadly this is the choice the front office made for "Spurs Family" reasons and we will just have to be patient and wait for him to develop the type of coaching skills that a team with hopes to contend in the near future needs.

As you mention though, it is fairly damning that they can't come out of a lot of timeouts with a competent play. The return of Wemby, Castle and Harper will mask some deficiencies but there has been a lack of noticable in-game and game to game adjustments that are required for sustainable success.
 
scott said:
To add to this… what happened to Lindy Waters? Is he strictly an and/or with DJG? We were cold as hell tonight, would have liked to seen him in an attempt to generate some shooting
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Players need to see the ball go in the basket or they get gun shy and end up over passing into turnovers or someone ends up taking a suboptimal shot. The coaches have to figure out how to put their shooters into position for a high quality shot by calling a plays that do that. We have a lot of hot and cold guys and even a layup can possibly help get them going. Sure, the players have to execute properly but a good coach should have one or two of these plays, per player, in their bag.
 
NotoriousHOP said:
Sadly this is the choice the front office made for "Spurs Family" reasons and we will just have to be patient and wait for him to develop the type of coaching skills that a team with hopes to contend in the near future needs.

As you mention though, it is fairly damning that they can't come out of a lot of timeouts with a competent play. The return of Wemby, Castle and Harper will mask some deficiencies but there has been a lack of noticable in-game and game to game adjustments that are required for sustainable success.
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For me coaching job has two most important aspects. Being good at one doesn't mean anything for the other.

The first one being system building and the second one being mid-game lineup/gameplan adjustments.
I think Mitch has proven that he's a solid offensive mind and that he's capable of creating a solid system with everyone getting involved.

But when we're lacking key personnel, he can't just put way worse players into similar roles and expect the system to still work.
He can't just blindly go with his pre-determined rotations and hope to win the game. He can't sub out Fox early in the third quarter while we're sinking without a trace and losing the game in those very moments.

Out of timeout playes to get Jeremy the ball are...I don't even know what to say.

Dribbling stats for Suns game aren't out yet, but we don't need those to realize Olynyk and Sochan pounded the ball way too much and had 2 assists total in their combined 34 minutes.
Olynyk had 4 turnovers and 1 assist. Just because he can make a pass here and there it doesn't mean he'll be Diaw 2.0.
 
It is time for Vassell's leash to be shortened. Would've loved to have seen Lindy Waters take some of those mins last night. When Harper and Castle return, Vassell needs to be pulled earlier and more often when he is playing poorly. It seems like he's getting coddled a bit by the coaches. I also am not understanding pulling Fox out so early in the quarters. He was subbed out with Wemby at the 6 min mark and lately has been subbed out at 8 mins. Vassell needs to be subbed out at 8 mins instead.

Mitch has got to make some tough decisions and has got to get better at drawing up plays out of timeouts. Lots of regression to the Power of Friendship days against the Suns. I think the team might be more of a work in progress than their record reflects. As others have stated, I see a record of .500 or above as a solid success for this season.
 
What seed where you guys thinking is realistic for the Spurs a couple of weeks ago and has your opinion changed? Before these injuries, I thought the team is good enough for a top 6 seed and outright making the playoffs, now, I don't know.
 
Ice009 said:
What seed where you guys thinking is realistic for the Spurs a couple of weeks ago and has your opinion changed? Before these injuries, I thought the team is good enough for a top 6 seed and outright making the playoffs, now, I don't know.
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Pelicans, Kings, Mavs, Clippers, Grizzlies and Jazz are shit tier, they're not getting anywhere this season.
That's 6 teams already.
We're obviously more talented than the Suns and Blazers when everyone is healthy. That's 8 teams.

Warriors did beat us, but they're old and can't sustain over 82 games. We should finish above them if there are no more serious injuries after everyone comes back.
I'd say we're also more talented and deeper than Timberwolves when everyone is healthy.

If we had top level coaching we'd be able to contend for 2nd/3rd seed, but I don't think we can get top4 with Mitch.
I'm not saying he can't/won't become a top level coach within a few years, but there will be a lot of growing pains until then.
That's why we must make the playoffs and suffer some ugly defeats because those are the only way for young players and coaches to learn and improve.
 
He’s been doing great. Some are so quick to hate on him when he makes a coaching decision they don’t agree with but no coach is perfect. Maybe it’s because Pop was so checked out since Kawhi sabotaged us but it’s nice to have a passionate coach again.
 
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