Comments on: Play-it-safe Lawrence Frank faces risky – and appealing – starting lineup options

By: T Casey

T Casey — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:11:34 +0000

That’s an interesting take. I’m def no fan of Lawrence Franks. I don’t hate him. His philosophy is sound, but I just don’t think he’s got that fire, intensity, or even fine coaching skills to get it done as a head coach. Anyway, I think you hit the nail on the head. You can’t be afraid to put your best players out there. I think, at some, level you’ve got to trust that your young guys will figure it out themselves and with the help of their team instead of being afraid that thay’ll have some traumatic experience ont he court and begin to wilt. Especially if the guy(s) is already playing like a starter.

By: T Casey

T Casey — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:39:26 +0000

That strategy has killed me for so long. Let them get out there and flourish. I’m of the mindset that if a player is going to be great, he will be. So why bring him along on the slow track to protect his confidence or ego? lol If a players is that fickle mentally, he’s not meant to be great anyway so why coddle these grown men? If they’re playing well. Play them and they’ll figure it out. If not, they weren’t likely going to be impact players anyway.

By: T Casey

T Casey — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:32:04 +0000

Yeah, he is. But that isn’t saying much with the coaching we’ve had over the past few years.

By: jerrific

jerrific — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:28:36 +0000

whether or not he’s a good coach or not is debatable. But he’s definitely an upgrade over our last couple coaches.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 04:28:08 +0000

No he didn’t, Byron Scott coached both Nets finals teams. Best Frank did was second round. And Jason Kidd’s not walking through that door here. I don’t think he’s an irredeemably bad coach, but I’ve been unimpressed so far.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 02:13:13 +0000

Gambling for steals is smart… sometimes. Both too often and too seldom are negatives. And better defensive players will succeed a higher percentage of the time on their gambles for steals. That is why SPG will correlate with strong defense. Obviously, it is not a hard and fast relationship though.

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:18:21 +0000

Frank did make the nba finals coaching the nets, didn’t he? I keep clinging to that, and the fact the team did improve during the season last year, to give me hope he’s a good coach. i just hope he tires of Tayshaun and his buffoonery. Maxy can start for a while, as long as Dre gets 20 mpg. Tayshaun I’d love to see taken out of the starting lineup, have him blow up, and then told to stay home until they can trade him.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:46:22 +0000

Franks so conservative its as if he spent all summer devising this plan with Maxiell starting and Drummond coming the bench, but did not plan for Drummond emerging as a better player so soon. And now his extreme conservativeness is preventing him from adjusting and being fluid, like he keeps saying. If he were really fluid, he would recognzie Drummond is the better player AND better fit, and just put his plan aside and go with the flow. He’s proving incapable of doing that. And its likely signs of whats to come, if we ever get in the playoffs, where you need a fluid coach that can make adjustments game by game. If we go in the playoffs with Frank he will probably decide a gameplan, and even if we get blown out the first 2 games he will just stay with it until we get swept, before even considering changing it.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:20:23 +0000

Its to bad we really didnt have a better look at Drummond during the preseason (even tho thats when we should have, go figure) to see how much of a rim protector difference make we have. 10 minutes here and there showed us flashes… I still believe frank will do what needs to be done… I think..

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:00:26 +0000

That’s true, but the value of steals is the fact that they often lead to good offense — transition opportunities and open looks. So more steals/risk-taking for the Pistons, a team that sometimes really struggles to get quality shots in the halfcourt and has players who are pretty good in transition, does make some sense, especially if Drummond plays a lot early and is the rim-protector everyone hopes he is.