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

[Raven_]

there is something to him as a coach, but anything above the absolute basic seems to be a pipe dream

 

[LeBowen]

Mitch is out of his depth and doesn't know how what to do with the guard rotation.

Castle has to play unless he's really stinking it up because he's our best perimeter defender.
Playing Castle and Harper together creates spacing issues because Fox will always close games out and going from one of Champ/Vassell/Barnes to Harper is a big 3pt shooting downgrade.

Not having Harper our there would be excusable if Fox was in his primary role, but he's not.

Since Christmas
Fox: 568 minutes, 241 FGA, 49 FTA, 102 assists, 38 turnovers.
Castle: 574 minutes, 219 FGA, 104 FTA, 128 assists, 55 turnovers.

Castle has a lot of potential, but him having higher usage than Fox in his sophmore season is wrong. Especially since he's at 37% FG during this stretch. And has ball security issues.
As I said like a week ago, we basically hired Fox to be the CEO, gave him CEO salary and then told him to stack boxes in the warehouse while keeping that CEO salary.
It's not his fault we took the ball away from him, it's obviously by design and it's not like Fox is passive and doesn't do anything when he has it.

With Harper being this good and Mitch being unable to incorporate him in enough lineups, it's only going to get worse.

I don't think Mitch has it in him to figure this out in a reasonable timeframe and if we flame out in the playoffs the general consensus will be that Fox should get moved.
Which would be dumb because there are way more inexperienced coaches out there than all-star level NBA players.

 

[LeBowen]

A lot of Wemby's issues are on him, but Mitch also has to take some of the blame.
Let's not pretend Wemby wouldn't like to get 10 easy points in the paint per game instead of isoing on the perimeter.

Last season Mitch has shown he can create an offense after Wemby and Fox went down, we had 6th ORTG in March and April.
This season we looked fluid while Wemby was out. Not better, but certainly more fluid. With a traditional screen and roll big.

Some coaches just don't know what to do with bigs that aren't traditional rim runners.

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Mitch is out of his depth and doesn't know how what to do with the guard rotation.

Castle has to play unless he's really stinking it up because he's our best perimeter defender.
Playing Castle and Harper together creates spacing issues because Fox will always close games out and going from one of Champ/Vassell/Barnes to Harper is a big 3pt shooting downgrade.

Not having Harper our there would be excusable if Fox was in his primary role, but he's not.

Since Christmas
Fox: 568 minutes, 241 FGA, 49 FTA, 102 assists, 38 turnovers.
Castle: 574 minutes, 219 FGA, 104 FTA, 128 assists, 55 turnovers.

Castle has a lot of potential, but him having higher usage than Fox in his sophmore season is wrong. Especially since he's at 37% FG during this stretch. And has ball security issues.
As I said like a week ago, we basically hired Fox to be the CEO, gave him CEO salary and then told him to stack boxes in the warehouse while keeping that CEO salary.
It's not his fault we took the ball away from him, it's obviously by design and it's not like Fox is passive and doesn't do anything when he has it.

With Harper being this good and Mitch being unable to incorporate him in enough lineups, it's only going to get worse.

I don't think Mitch has it in him to figure this out in a reasonable timeframe and if we flame out in the playoffs the general consensus will be that Fox should get moved.
Which would be dumb because there are way more inexperienced coaches out there than all-star level NBA players.

aka retarted

 

[Sparco41]

There’s really not a way that I can see to assess the relative impact of good coaching after controlling for the impact of good players—statistical interactions get in the way. There are good coaches who don’t win a lot because of weak players, and weak coaches who win a lot because of good players. There are also good coaches with good players and bad coaches with bad players. To what extent was Popovich successful because he was a good coach or because he had Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and later Kawhi? I really don’t know. I think it was former Texas Longhorn football coach, Mack Brown, known for his effective recruiting, who told a reporter something like “I’ve had good players and bad players and I find it is a lot easier to win with good players.” Mitch Johnson clearly has good players, though they are not as mature and dependable as the big-3 were when playing the “beautiful game.” As others here in this forum have written, as good as he is, Wemby makes more careless mistakes than Duncan did. Castle, Harper, and Vassell also make more mistakes than Parker and Ginobili did. Maybe Mitch should be more controlling, or maybe the big-3 were smarter and more mature than current Spurs. I have never been a coach, but I found it much easier as a supervisor to manage smart and mature employees.

 

[2Trill]

Is this the official Mitch sniffer thread? As a proud sniffer, its been hard excusing the rookie coaching wall Mitch has hit.

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2018191025735413896

 

[spursparker9]

So 1 coach from west and east.

Who is the 3rd coach?

 

[Em-City]

I guess it will change back to mundane mediocracy or wherever it was if the last 10 games record drops to 5-5 or worse

 

[Ice009]

I guess it will change back to mundane mediocracy or wherever it was if the last 10 games record drops to 5-5 or worse

This is a mercurial bunch. The good news is, so was the 2003 Spurs team.

@O_V said it best in the game thread, the Spurs are mercurial.

The Spurs just gotta get on a run and get their confidence back up and try and be more consistent throughout the game. I hope they can come good like that 2003 team (they went on a huge run in the second half of the season).

 

[RC_Drunkford]

some good analysis from Tim Legler. They are breaking down film of some sets that we like to run.

 

[ginobilized]

some good analysis from Tim Legler. They are breaking down film of some sets that we like to run.

Good analysis, but, quite contrary to the general consensus here. Interesting points about having so many ball handlers that can attack and on ball defenders. Will make the trade deadline all the more telling about the type of team they are building.

 

[O_V]

@O_V said it best in the game thread, the Spurs are mercurial.

The Spurs just gotta get on a run and get their confidence back up and try and be more consistent throughout the game. I hope they can come good like that 2003 team (they went on a huge run in the second half of the season).

I'm pretty excited that this team has slipped into contender status ahead of schedule.

The goal now is the same as it was for the Duncan teams: be healthy and playing good basketball by tournament time. We all know when they're supposed to peak.

 

[Ice009]

I'm pretty excited that this team has slipped into contender status ahead of schedule.

The goal now is the same as it was for the Duncan teams: be healthy and playing good basketball by tournament time. We all know when they're supposed to peak.

Yeah, them slipping into contender status (even if it's a very slight chance) is why I'm tough on them as I believe they can make run in the playoffs. If they can get some consistency and go on a bit of a winning streak/run (just for their own confidence), they have the potential to cause some real damage in the playoffs.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

Good analysis, but, quite contrary to the general consensus here. Interesting points about having so many ball handlers that can attack and on ball defenders. Will make the trade deadline all the more telling about the type of team they are building.

Spurs FO has been preaching this since we started tanking. Even before we got Wemby. It's what they meant when they were talking about positionless basketball. Everybody can handle the ball and attack closeouts, resulting to more drive and kick plays. No one dimensional players. So if we trade for anybody, he has to be able to somewhat have a decent handle.

 

[Sugus]

God damn. After an off-season spent wondering whether the Spurs would even be good enough to finally reach the playoffs after a 6-year drought, we are now sending our rookie HC to coach the All-Star Game -- and it's not a handpick nomination, but instead a direct result of the Spurs holding on to the 3nd best record in the entire league.

It's been an insane turn around, and we'd do well to appreciate these moments and take it in, before the inevitable frustration comes along. Mitch & Co have their flaws, but I don't think even the most optimists here could've foreseen this. Amazing work done, and it's been the most fun season to watch in IDK how many years...

 

[LeBowen]

we'd do well to appreciate these moments and take it in

 

[poopbox]

God damn. After an off-season spent wondering whether the Spurs would even be good enough to finally reach the playoffs after a 6-year drought, we are now sending our rookie HC to coach the All-Star Game -- and it's not a handpick nomination, but instead a direct result of the Spurs holding on to the 3nd best record in the entire league.

It's been an insane turn around, and we'd do well to appreciate these moments and take it in, before the inevitable frustration comes along. Mitch & Co have their flaws, but I don't think even the most optimists here could've foreseen this. Amazing work done, and it's been the most fun season to watch in IDK how many years...

No. I want my championship and I want it now.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

"We want the world, and we want it ... NOW!"

 

[O_V]

Yeah, them slipping into contender status (even if it's a very slight chance) is why I'm tough on them as I believe they can make run in the playoffs. If they can get some consistency and go on a bit of a winning streak/run (just for their own confidence), they have the potential to cause some real damage in the playoffs.

Home court through much of the playoffs and a young team means they're playing with house money. If they play loose they could do some damage.

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

No Spurs Lead, a 19,20,30+ point lead, is safe from a Mitch Coached Spurs Team.

Watching the NBA and the spurs for 40 years, I've never seen this happen to a coach over and over again.
This Mitch Johnson

 

[O_V]

No Spurs Lead, a 19,20,30+ point lead, is safe from a Mitch Coached Spurs Team.

Watching the NBA and the spurs for 40 years, I've never seen this happen to a coach over and over again.
This Mitch Johnson

The 2003 Spurs team did this over and over. They did it in the playoffs. They did it in the finals.

 

[Sugus]

So, after another "we won, but what a terrible sight" chapter last night, seeing the (valid) critiques on coaching, and in the interest of bringing some perspective to many Spurs fans who consistently slobber over any opposing coach that comes into town - but especially the fabled Ime Udoka, whose "tough style" and "gritty coaching" and "wits" place him as a top nighttime fantasy for many.......

Here's some thoughts from Rockettes fans (those barbarians! So reactive! Never as composed as the stoic Spursfan!) after last night's pathetic loss to Boston, with a full rested team and against a depleted Celtics without JBrown etc etc;

Ime needs to go -- "Total trash tonight."

Ime is EMBARRASSING

Ime and Sengun should be ashamed

Here's the link to the Reddit Postgame Thread, and also the Clutchfans Postgame Thread, for ease of access and tear tasting. Delicious today!

Apparently "tight ship Ime" is leaving sticky marks of his personality all over their locker room, and their stars are soaking it up:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019277081805471924

The timing to blurt that out when your own team's broadcast is celebrating the National Girls & Women in Sports Day.....

E - this quote was too good not to share;

Ime's spending 99% of the time pointing fingers in his postgame. Barely slipped in a "the coaching staff should be embarrassed" but then ripped off a list of players and problems that had nothing to do with him.

Effort is partly on him. Execution is largely on him. Rotations are entirely on him.

It's crazy for him to sit there and list all the things going wrong as if he's not the captain of this sinking ship. He's got some kind of ego. For a guy that emphasizes accountability, start by looking in the mirror for crying out loud.

He is somehow able to believe he isn't doing anything wrong and that's the core problem. If you can't even recognize the source of the problems, how do you fix them? He has no self check mechanism. That means the GM has to step in and put him in place.

 

[Fabbs]

Not justifying Senchuen at all.

However it does look like a very shitty call.
He needs to grow up but i think it was a knee jerk reaction by him.

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

Contrarian Commentors, aka Toppers lol.

Commentor logic is that this team is the exact same as th 2003 team is peak Spurs Fan BB commenter commenting.
the following is Parody

Look, I'm just going to say it because nobody else has the stones: this current Spurs team is basically the 2003 squad reincarnated, only with worse haircuts and more TikTok. Yeah, I said it. Blow the leads? That's not choking, that's character building, same as when Timmy and the boys were down 14 to the Nets in Game 6 before casually flipping the script like it was a Tuesday practice drill. You think those 2003 Spurs weren't blowing leads left and right in the regular season? They were! They just didn't have Twitter warriors screenshotting every third-quarter collapse and turning it into a referendum on the entire franchise's manhood.
The contrarian truth — and yes, I'm wearing my tinfoil hat proudly here — is that these blown leads are exactly what Pop (or whoever's pulling the strings now, let's call him Mitch for anonymity's sake) wants. It's the classic Spurs Jedi mind trick: lull the league into thinking you're vulnerable, let the advanced-stats nerds crank out their doomsday pi charts about "negative point differential in clutch minutes," then BAM — playoff mode activates and suddenly it's 2003 all over again with the zone D, the ball movement prettier than a Wes Anderson tracking shot, and the other team wondering why their 25-point lead evaporated faster than a Coors Light at a Texas barbecue.
People screaming "the sky is falling" are the same dopes who would've benched Duncan after a 2-for-12 night in '03 and demanded we tank for Darko. Meanwhile, Mitch sits there like the unflappable Ace Rothstein inCasino, knowing the house always wins long-term. Protect Mitch? Damn right. The guy's basically the basketball version of Keyser Söze — you think he's losing the plot? Nah, he's three steps ahead, letting these "lost leads" happen so the eventual comeback feels even sweeter. It's not bias, it's pattern recognition. 2003 vibes are real; the rest is just noise from people who peaked in middle school fantasy leagues.
If I'm wrong, I'll eat my 2007 Finals DVD collection. But I'm not wrong. Spurs in six. Always have been, always will be.

End Scene