Long post, but worth a read.
Every strategy should be on the table given the matchup or even lineup.
For example, it was painfully obvious that Al Horford was unguardable in the post vs the small-ball GSW lineup. Every time they ran it, it was an easy shot for someone due to the size difference.
I'm sorry, but at a championship level, just running the same handful of plays every time isn't going to cut it. Ime is an excellent people leader... but he was thoroughly outclassed by Steve Kerr and every other coach he faced on the X's and O's. We were a Butler heave away from losing to the Heat and they're not on our level at all. We have a team with 2 DPOY candidates, 1 MVP dark horse, along with a likely annual top 20 / allstar. It was embarrassing.
Each team had a big weakness that was shown to Ime multiple times throughout the series and he didn't capitalize on it. The GSW one was particularly painful because it's so obvious. You don't roll out 2 big men with mobility issues (Rob Williams' injury & Horford's Age) against mobile shooters if you are not going to pound them in the paint on the other end.
If your opponents are going to run around and chuck 40+ 3 pointers a game, you slow the game down and backup Horford into Curry. One of 3 things will almost always happen:
1) Horford is going to draw a foul on an elite scorer.
2) Horford is going to get a high quality <8ft shot or dunk.
3) Horford is going to draw a double team for a chance to find an open 3 or worst case run THEM around for a bit.
Either way, you limit the time that the ball is in their hands, limit transition points because close to rim misses are harder to run than long ranged misses; You just have more space that you have to cover, less momentum, and less time to plan/react. And then you just throw it in to Horford, have him back Curry up for the full 5 seconds he legally can while waiting for a mistake.. if not just make a play himself.
Instead, we did more of the same. Solo penetration into a box in the paint. Every team gave us the Giannis wall, and we kept contently running into the wall... and we still made it to the finals. Let that digest.
I am almost positive that we would have scored more points on average if instead of those handful of plays, Tatum just takes a high screen (near half court) onto a subpar defender (they had a lot), does a quick 1 on 1 move against the new defender, and just takes whatever 3 he gets or kicks it to someone else on a double. I really don't see why we had to overcomplicate it past that. We were shooting 40% from 3.
What every team leadership (and any leadership structure really) needs are at minimum two people: First, a person who can gain the respect of the team in one way or another... someone that they trust and can inspire them to perform well. That is the people leader. The other is the brains. That's the one that sees the game like the matrix. Put him anywhere in the org, but listen carefully. Sometimes you're fortunate enough to have that one person capable of doing both... Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra are recent examples off the top of my head. Brad was a brains guy but he didn't command the respect of the team and there wasn't anyone else who could fill that role.
I'm a bit concerned that Ime kept getting dunked on by opposing coaches and it didn't get fixed. It feels like he isn't listening to the good advice that he should be by someone somewhere. Like how can anyone explain him seeing the Horford low post on Curry being hugely successful once each game, and then never running it again that game. I think that analysts and oddsmakers are counting on either Ime showing growth here next year, or someone else taking over the strategic decisions next year.... because that was humiliating for everyone. From my estimation, we played about 3-4 additional games that we shouldn't have had to due to his coaching. Maybe Brad should hire a few people to offload some of his work and spend some more time injecting the strategy into the team. Knowing him, he probably decided against it to avoid friction