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I posted this in the Warriors/Spurs thread, mainly just to say I liked Mark Jackson, but it turned into something else as I was typing and I think it could make a good discussion. So here's the post:
I like Mark Jackson. He's a horrendous x's & o's coach. Outside of Keith Smart in Sacramento, he's probably the worst x's & o's coach in the league.
I've watched roughly 50 Warriors games plus all of the playoff games, and there is no team in the league that does a worse job out of timeouts or on final possessions. They almost never get a good look. And that's on the coach.
With that said, he makes it up in other ways. He's a players coach. He believes in his guys and doesn't give up on them. He doesn't bench or bury people for mistakes. He rides the horses that got him there. That goes a long way, when players know they can play their game with no fear and do what they're paid to do.
I don't know if he's ultimately the guy to take this (very) young team to a title, but he's definitely been the guy to get them in the mix as a contender. There is a theory in baseball, that you should always replace a player's manager with a totalitarian manager once his style gets stale - and also the opposite. I'm not sure that would work in the NBA, where the players drive the cart far more than the players do in baseball, a sport where the manager is still firmly in charge and the players almost never call the shots and largely "just play".
Can tyranny still work in the NBA? It works when the coach is an established winner. Can young coaches adopt this style, or has the culture of the league changed too much?
I like Mark Jackson. He's a horrendous x's & o's coach. Outside of Keith Smart in Sacramento, he's probably the worst x's & o's coach in the league.
I've watched roughly 50 Warriors games plus all of the playoff games, and there is no team in the league that does a worse job out of timeouts or on final possessions. They almost never get a good look. And that's on the coach.
With that said, he makes it up in other ways. He's a players coach. He believes in his guys and doesn't give up on them. He doesn't bench or bury people for mistakes. He rides the horses that got him there. That goes a long way, when players know they can play their game with no fear and do what they're paid to do.
I don't know if he's ultimately the guy to take this (very) young team to a title, but he's definitely been the guy to get them in the mix as a contender. There is a theory in baseball, that you should always replace a player's manager with a totalitarian manager once his style gets stale - and also the opposite. I'm not sure that would work in the NBA, where the players drive the cart far more than the players do in baseball, a sport where the manager is still firmly in charge and the players almost never call the shots and largely "just play".
Can tyranny still work in the NBA? It works when the coach is an established winner. Can young coaches adopt this style, or has the culture of the league changed too much?
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