Primer wrote:
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Every year when the team surprised me and entered the playoffs, I kept saying -- this is still basically the same roster that I expected to win 20 games 2 years ago. Instead we won 48 and 49. After we traded Gay, I said trade DeRozan next, and then trade Lowry. I hate that I've grown attached to these guys over the past two years. They're both terribly flawed players that no fundamentally wired basketball fan should want on their team, and yet I love those guys. Lowry's heart and bull-headedness. DeRozan's crazy desire and work ethic.
Anyway..
You said you want to see good coaching, which you defined as competent offensive and defensive systems. By that description I assume you mean to say Casey doesn't have that, and therefore a coach who does have that should be considered a success.
You also said winning doesn't matter, but I say winning does matter, but I digress.
I guess the issue I have with judging a system is how far or at what point can you say this is the coach's doing versus this is a bunch of players who aren't playing the way the coach wants them to play?
Let's take one simple example of boxing out. There is no coach on this planet that is telling his players not to box out. Not to protect the paint. If I think back on the Dallas Mavericks they did it. They did it fairly well, limiting Bosh's ability to cut to the hoop and also prevent Wade from cutting and getting easy baskets. I'm fairly certain the whole reason for hiring Casey was because of Dallas' stellar defensive system.
So now we look at the Raptors, and you're saying this system is crap. But I saw a system that really worked so the conclusion I drew was that the players weren't doing what the coach asked them to do, but that wouldn't be a grounds to getting fired. What would be grounds to getting fired is NOT telling his players to box out. Not to protect the paint. If a coach were doing that, then yes please fire that guy. Let's say it would greatly surprise me that Casey would have decided to do the opposite of what won a championship, yet what we saw on the floor was precisely how to lose games.
But you said winning doesn't matter. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
How about a timeframe for deciding when the new coach has succeeded in implementing these systems? The reason I brought this up is because there weren't a lot of people asking for Casey's head at the end of last season. Things were looking.. decent. And then things fell apart. The main point for me here is that I feel that if we do hire a coach, and the team continue to be made up as it is with heavily flawed players, that maybe after one year things will look decent and then things will fall apart again, because that sort of happens when you have not-so-great players.
So yea.. at what point would you deem that the new coach's system is a success. Since winning doesn't matter to you, I'm not sure there is really a way to measure that.
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