抛砖引玉 - What is a good NBA coach?

这是我在06年化了不少功夫写的一篇东西，自己觉得勉强算是雄文了:) 好不容易把它找出来了，就保留在博客里吧。

We have been talking about coaches for quite long. Scratch that, fans have been talking about coaches forever, in every single sport. Somehow, this board has turned into a NBA board recently (I also share my fair fault). So I am going to discuss about NBA coaches mainly. I have been thinking about this for a while, and I feel the urge to put it down and discuss it with fellow basketball fans.

Before we dive into the competition about who is better, maybe we ought to set the rules first, which begs the question: what is a good coach, and what does a NBA coach do? If we can’t set a common standard, we will always argue in different terms. On the end, we are all correct, and all wrong, in some sense, at the same time.

Let’s see what the available attributes are, from a statistic point of view. The reason I am choosing statistic, is simply because it’s more objective, than my personally views. Winning games (regular and post seasons), winning percentages (regular and post seasons), and rings are the obvious ones coming into mind.

Let’s look at the rings first. PJ, Auerbach, Pop, Brown, Rudy, Wilkens and bunch of old guys all have won championships. Auerbach is a legend, and the coach of the year award is called Auerbach award, guess we don’t need to argue about that. PJ has 9 rings and the highest winning percentage both in regular season and playoffs. Although he always have two super stars and bunch of very good role players, never developed any young players on his own, as some always argued, I see him as a great coach, just as others. Records don’t lie. Pop wins with Duncan, obviously he can win. He also developed Manu and Parker, made them all-stars. But one can argue that he only had records with the Spurs, the first tanking season, and the rest winning seasons with TD. To me, he’s still very good, but I can’t put him at the same level with PJ. Rudy is a player’s coach, won 2 rings with Hakeem. If you count rings, he has more than Brown (1), and Carsile, Adelman, Saunders, Sloan, and JVG (0). But I won’t put him above those coaches. Wilkens won most games, also has ring, he also led expansion teams like Raptors into playoffs two years in a row. You can argue he had VC, but PJ had MJ, Pippen, Shaq and Kobe. Wilkens is one of the only two persons in NBA history who are both HOF players and HOF coaches. Impressive? Yes. But I would still put him below the long list I just gave. In conclusion, rings alone cannot be a deciding factor of which coach is better. By the same token, games won cannot be the deciding factor either.

Let’s look at winning percentage now. First, we have to set a minimum number of games. Otherwise, a new coach after winning the first game in NBA would be the top coach for his 100% record, and Yao Ming would be the top 3 pointer shooter for his lonely attempt. By consensus, 500 games behind the bench as the head coach is the benchmark. Among current active coaches, PJ is first in winning percentage. Pop, Railey, Adelman, Sloan, Karl, JVG, Saunders, and Brown are the leaders in regular seasons and playoffs. I would like to add Rick Carlisle into the mix as well, because he is just good, very good, despite the fact he only coached Pacers less than 400 games. D’Antoni is good this and last year, but that’s all he has on his resume. He was head coach of Denver for half season in 1998, then was fired on spot after a .280 pathetic record. Therefore, I am not going to put him on the very good coach list. I think if you are in the business long enough, winning percentage is pretty telling, about how you are. Although Carsile, Adelman, Sloan, Saunders never won a ring, Brown just got one, they are all very good coaches to me. I am going to, as you may predict, add JVG to that list as well. Because his winning percentage is in the mix of those guys, he led his team to conference finals and finals. His Knicks was the only team went to Final with an 8th seed. He never had a losing season before this one, for his 600+ games. That’s pretty impressive to me.

Now, let’s talk about some inactive coaches. First come to mind is Hubie Brown and Don Nelson. They both never won the big thing. But they both are incredible coaches for their philosophies. Nelson is the first coach to start the shooting festival. Hubie is just an incredible savvy fundamental mentor. Listening to Hubie’s commentator is a joy, because you not only know what is happening, but also know why it’s happening, and the whole background of that. You learn so much about the game, just by listening to him. Therefore, I consider those two as good coaches as well.

Blaming coaches are the easiest way to do. That’s happening everyday in every sport. Trappatoni was a pretty good coach with very good record, but he was let go later on in Milan and Munich after crashing with players like Marlio Barsler. Was he bad? Of course not. But Bayern Munchen did win the next year with Otmar Hitzfield on the bench. Was Otmar better than Trappatoni? Then why Borussia Dortmund let him go after they won the Champions League, and Munchen let him go after a couple of seasons? Coaches need their moments and combination of right team, players, and management. To me, if a coach has a firm philosophy, if he can mark his team with his signature, if he can keep winning percentage with that philosophy, he’s a good coach, with or without rings.

There is only one PJ, and one Pop, which means other 29 teams have to pick an active coach without winning championship. What do you suggest? To get a coach who are in the top group of winning percentage, loyal to his players, loved by his ex-players, with relative success, or you are going to wait for PJ or Pop to get free?

We’ve been talking about JVG for quite a while. The scene that he hung on Mourning’s leg on the court was played over and over and over again. Mourning thought it was funny, so are the national media. New York players don’t think so, and they love him. JVG is a no-nonsense guy, who delivers tough love. He criticizes his players, including Yao Ming, a lot, if not more. But he defended him furiously as well. Remember that $100,000 fine he paid? Remember how he defended Yao Ming this season in the media furiously? JVG looks miserable, but he takes his job seriously. He prepares you so well, that he tells you to attack this player from the left, and dare that player to shoot the jumper, or ignore that player’s pump fake. I always have utter respect to people with dedication to what they do. Talent just gives you an opportunity, but dedication makes you good in your field.

Obviously, the reason JVG is so low in some fans’ eyes is because Rockets are losing. We didn’t hear that much noise last year. But comparing to last year, Sura went down, who used to give Rockets a tough mental edge; Tmac went down, who was the number one on the team. Barry went down, Wesley had knee surgery. All of a sudden, Rockets don’t have any shooters. Is that his fault? I guess not.

What does a coach, a NBA head coach do? He designs a system for the team, he preaches his philosophy to the players, and he prepares players for the game. He doesn’t teach you shooting; he doesn’t monitor your fitness training; he doesn’t teach you to work hard. If the players are injured, he can’t help. If your 3/5 starting lineups are NBA journey man or NBDLers, he can’t suit up and play for you. If you are shooting 28%, he can’t sit you and play a guy shoots 14%. There are fine difference between great coaches and very good ones. But we are not talking about winning game 7 in the Final. We are just talking about a playoff run. JVG is far sufficient enough for a deep playoff run, and his records says so with an exclamation mark! Can he win a championship? I don’t know, and I hope so. Nobody can tell, until they get there. Nobody can tell that before PJ got there, before Pop got there, before Brown got there. Before you get there, do you suck? I don’t think so, otherwise, Adelman, Carsile, Sloan, JVG, Nelson, Saunders, and Hubie all suck? No, their records don’t say so, other coaches don’t say so, and NBA experts don’t say so.

Is it possible that JVG is not the right coach for Yao? Possible, but not likely, because we are seeing Yao Ming evolves greatly in front of our eyes. Did we foresee Yao would be so comfortable down low? Did we foresee him master so many post moves? Did we foresee him score 30 points with ease? I don’t think so. Now, we are spoiled by his progress, and we are all convinced he will get even better. Can he achieve all that without JVG insisting his post plays? Absolutely not, as Yao Ming admitted himself. So many people accusing JVG utilized Yao Ming wrong, and had him lost his long range shots. So what? Why does Yao need that? If you have shotgun, machine gun, and even rocket launchers, why do you insist to use that pocket knife, even if it’s Swiss-made good quality? More moves are not for the sake of numbers, but rather to have high percentage shots. Shaq only has 3 moves, but he runs that to the perfection, that’s good enough for him. Yao is very efficient under the basket, but he still has so much more to learn. For instance, he could use the drop step much more. Why are we so obsessed with that long range shooting?

Persistent people will prevail on the end. Flip-flopping gets you nothing. Good teams don’t adjust, but let others adjust to them. You have to run your system into a perfection to get there. Malone and Stockton ran that Pick n’ Roll into perfection. Shaq and Kobe played that triangle perfectly, with shooters lined up outside. Championship teams play every game the same way. Spurs plays lock down defense, have Manu and Parker driving and shot/dish, TD’s post play, and 3 pointers from Bowen, Barry and Horry. It is simple. Lakers was even simpler, you dump the ball to Shaq, he either dunks or kicks out, Kobe ISO or kicks out, shooters lined up to shoot. In Rockets old days, you dump the ball to Dream, let him decide to beat or to dish out, Clyde slashes and drives, shooters lined up to shoot. Pistons plays lock down defense every single position, Hamilton runs like crazy to get an open shot, Rasheed’s post play, and some slashes and 3 points. Is the immortal 72 win Bulls offensive schema complicated? No, lock down defense, MJ and Pippen, and shooters. I mean, what’s new or surprising? Keep it simple, and keep it disciplined, if you are familiar with your system, you will win. People say JVG’s system is complicated, how so? You just need to play hard, open your mouth to communicate, and rotate well. Why they can’t play that way? Well, they did that last year. This year, with all the injuries, all the new players, underachiever, journey men, they can’t. It’s not the system, it’s the players, as simple as that.

You need tough defense, you need super star, you need role players who know their roles, can defend and shoot, and an above average coach, you can win. That’s the winning receipt, as simple as that. People are accusing JVG can’t adjust. Adjusting from what? How? Let’s take last night’s game. Howard can’t defend Dirk. If you play Swift, he cannot defend either, but his jump shooting is much worse. If you play Bowen, well, you know what happens, opponent just leave him open 24x7. If you play Hayes, he hustles, but too short, and fouls too much. What can JVG adjust? He can only play those 4 in turn. Head didn’t shoot well, Bogans was 2-11, and Alston’s shooting was off. But who else can you play? How can you adjust? Force them to get every ball into Yao’s hands? You can’t play 1-5, they did that in the first quarter, and it failed. If you are not going to win that way, instead of just padding Yao Ming’s stats, are you going to make role players at least trying to step up? The answer is definitely yes. People were asking where that famour defensive coach’s defense is. Well, if the players can’t rotate to their men, what can he do? Am I saying that JVG is flawless and perfect? Of course not, but it’s just so insignificant at this point, that those losses have nothing to do with coaching at all. They lost on talent. If they are throwing 3 people on Yao Ming, no Rockets player can make a prayer; if every one of their guards and forwards can post up Rockets players, there is nothing you can do.

Do Rockets have problem? Yes, tons of. But the center position and coach are the least to worry about, for now. If you ask me whether JVG is a good coach, despite the record of this season, I am still going to say YES, he is.

Damn, I didn’t realize it becomes so long before I finished. As always, bricks are welcomed.