Socnorb11 wrote:33anda3rd wrote:Good proof that the coach matters.
Can you elaborate on this?
I definitely agree that good coaching matters in the NBA. Big-time. I don't see Chicago as an example of that though. They sucked under Hoiberg, and they'll suck under Boylen.
The players filed a grievance with their union over Boylen scheduling a practice after back-to-back games. This is unheard of. It's a no-no. If you play NBA2K on the GM mode and you make your players practice after b2b's they come to your office to complain. You don't do it. Boylen does do it. He's, as thrill said, pulling red ass HS coach stuff. "You guys got blown out, everybody is running wind sprints." He held two 2.5 hour practices in his first week, with wind sprints and military-style pushups. These guys keep themselves in great shape, they're pros. You don't punish guys who stay in elite shape with conditioning drills. He subbed the whole starting lineup out TWICE in one game, and doing that just once in a game is a thing that almost never happens and is the coach publicly saying to the players "you five suck, and subs are not for rest at this point but for punishment." It's a public shaming. When he did it early in the second half the half had just started and they had been outscored 5-3. I was at that game. The crowd laughed. Like, WTF? But if you're a player you probably think they're laughing at you. None of this is normal, or ok behavior for a coach. Coach is leader, mentor, cheerleader along with being taskmaster, but Boylen's style so far is 100% stern taskmaster.
Under Boylen they've played 3 games and been outscored by 73 points in those 3 games. In the 7-game losing streak before that, which led to Hoiberg's firing, they were outscored by 67 points. Small sample size under Boylen but a horrible start.
The big problem is how young they are. I forget that Jabari is only 23, seems like he's been in the league longer, but at 23 he's one of the elders. Guys like Carter and Lauri and the other young dudes are going to get discouraged, they're going to talk to other players on other teams who tell them "It's not like that where I'm playing" and they're gong to want to leave.