Comments on: Just to reiterate, it’s OK to not play hard before or after the All-Star Break apparently

By: MrHappyMushroom

MrHappyMushroom — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:18:35 +0000

Frank *could* be interpreted as trying to deflect criticism from his team.
Stuckey’s comments didn’t seem inappropriate at all.
For Tay to even *joke* about playing like he’s still on vacation makes me want to find a really big guy to pick up Joe D. and pummel Tay with him.
The nail in the coffin of my respect for Tayshaun Prince was in place after last all-star game’s comments, which were along the line of, “Well, we’re three or four games back and have a week schedule, but I don’t see how this team gets into the playoffs.”
Indefensible.

By: D_S_V

D_S_V — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:12:44 +0000

I don’t understand how you dispute a Player “naturally” getting better when we just saw stuckey and Monroe get better despite coaching changes. The Philly players you cite may actually just plain be more talented than daye and took a year or two to get better.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:37:10 +0000

That sounds like buffoonery to me. Do you all know what that means?

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:52:11 +0000

For what it’s worth, I am in agreement about the hopes that Frank plays those two guys more. But I also don’t know all that he does and I trust that he knows his job better than I do. Or than you do. And we don’t know what Doug Collins would do in this situation, because as many comparisons as you may wish to draw, it is not the same situation as his.

That said, I’m not sure that I trust Dumars to do his job better than I would. For some reason, most GMs seem to make such boneheaded moves. I don’t get it. They are payed millions of dollars to make smart decisions. How can they so often make ones that everyone can instantly and correctly recognize as total flops.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:21:09 +0000

daye and macklin. those aren’t the only beefs, but the main ones.
and those are really the only two positions where he is facing real choices.
the other positions have already been sort of penciled in, even knight. the injuries to stuckey and gordon basically opened things up for knight, in the same way that tay’s injury a couple of years ago opened it up for JJ to come in and play. and because knight is the team’s lottery pick, well, it’s a given he is going to play.
so on the only two places in the rotation where he really has to make a tough choices, he goes with the old guys over the young players.
and in doing so, he has simply failed to move the team in any new direction.
the young rebuilding teams simply aren’t giving minutes to guys like wilkins and wallace, except in emergencies. philly is a perfect example.
nocioni and battie could easily be playing instead of meeks and lavoy allen.
when meeks had his – or has his – slumps, and after the hawes injury, collins could have easily moved either nocioni or battie into the rotation. he didn’t. he stayed with his young guys, which has proven to be a good move in both the long and short term.
frank has done the exact opposite and he’s hurt both the short term and the long range prospects of the team.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:45:27 +0000

It sounds like you are blaming Frank for the lack of development in players before he arrived here. Realistically, he's only been working with these guys less than three months. Greg Monroe is significantly better this season than last. Brandon Knight is getting all kinds of minutes to prove he can be the starting PG of the future. Stuckey has already supplanted a veteran (Gordon) as the starting SG. Jerebko is getting good minutes off the bench.

Even veteran players, Maxiell and Gordon, are a bit better under Frank than they were last year.

Really, your only beef is with him not playing Daye as much as you'd like him too. I just think that's nit-picky.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:36:23 +0000

a coach like frank earns around 2 million per.
what is his responsibility?
if he is not responsible for players developing? if that just happens “naturally”…
if he isn’t responsible for getting his players to play hard? if their failure to do so, just …happens…
if he doesn’t really decide playing time, as that is “earned” in a kind of computer-like fashion where players compete and at the end of the “competition” one player has clearly beaten out the other player and so the coach simply and mechanically places the successful candidate into a predestined rotation spot?
if he really isn’t responsible for wins and losses because that just…happens as a result of the sum of players’ talents. teams with “x” numbers of good/great players win 45 games, teams with “x” number of good/great players with 50+ games, and on and on and on…
so what does any nba coach do to earn the millions of dollars that they are typically paid?
and if their presence means so little, why bother paying a coach all that money. why not let the players sort it out themselves, game by game?
i am very serious….what does the coach do, and what does he do to earn his millions?

By: apa8ren9

apa8ren9 — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:17:04 +0000

I dont believe for a second that last night’s effort could be blamed on the coach. I saw him take the timeouts when Philly was on a run. When they were throwing alley-oops on the break and we werent getting back on defense. That was a total mail in job. They quit and played horribly. But the problem I had is that at no time as they were getting their asses kicked did they say enough and fight back. Not once. To Philly no less. This is one of the teams we have to leapfrog in the upcoming years. I may be a bit emotional after this one game and going a bit overboard but this one really pissed me off. Maybe because I didnt have my basketball fix for 5 days. I dont watch any of the all-star crap. So I was ready for some competitive basketball. They just tanked and that is unacceptable. I know this year is a throw-away but the off-season CANNOT here fast enough so that they can blow some of these dudes outta here. This has got to end. I can take losses just give me effort. TRY.

By: neutes

neutes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:27:16 +0000

He’s funny?

I’ll agree on that point. Frank isn’t anything special, as most coaches aren’t. You need talent to succeed as a coach. If I can say one thing about Collins, and any coach for that matter, it’s about how they are perceived, and a lifetime of lifting mediocre teams to the playoffs doesn’t give off this perception that the coach is ready to coach a championship team. So Collins will never get a look by a team that’s really good, and maybe he has the ability to take a good team and make it great, but all he’s ever been given the opportunity to do is take a mediocre team and make it good.

Being good is only acceptable for so long in the NBA, at some point you want more, and you blame the coach. You saw all this improvement and you as a GM thought hey, were going places, but in reality you can only get so far with limited talent. The GM sees this improvement and sits back thinking its going to keep going so he doesn’t think he has to go out and improve the team himself. What Collins provides is a double-edged sword of sorts.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:16:05 +0000

i don’t disagree. he is definitely more of a short-term fix who wears out fairly quickly. very much like larry brown.
but if he is to be criticized because of that fact, what recommends frank to be a head coach anywhere?
what is his schtick?