Bulls-Heat game 1 really shows Doc's bad coaching

[MBunge]

My point here is: Doc HAD to play Glen the amount he did.  You can't toss away a guy who was considered one of the best bench players in the NBA after 82 games. Can't change your entire rotation after a couple of tough games.

Krstic played 23 minutes a game during the regular season for Boston.  He then went to 5.8 minutes a game against New York, didn't even play in two games against Miami and played 6, 11, and 16 minutes in the other 3.

Davis averaged 29.5 minutes during the regular season, averaged 24.8 painfully bad minutes against NY and then 18.4 minutes against Miami, and he only played that little against the Heat because Doc drastically cut back his minutes from game 3 on.

The suggestion that Doc HAD to turn his healthiest big into a bench warmer while continuing to run Big Baby out there to play some of the worst basketball of his career is totally bogus.

Yes, you don't bench a guy who's played well just because he has a bad game or two.  But if a player absolutely stinks the joint out in the first half, you are not required to play him as much in the second half.

Mike

[jgod213]

My point here is: Doc HAD to play Glen the amount he did.  You can't toss away a guy who was considered one of the best bench players in the NBA after 82 games. Can't change your entire rotation after a couple of tough games.

Krstic played 23 minutes a game during the regular season for Boston.  He then went to 5.8 minutes a game against New York, didn't even play in two games against Miami and played 6, 11, and 16 minutes in the other 3.

Davis averaged 29.5 minutes during the regular season, averaged 24.8 painfully bad minutes against NY and then 18.4 minutes against Miami, and he only played that little against the Heat because Doc drastically cut back his minutes from game 3 on.

The suggestion that Doc HAD to turn his healthiest big into a bench warmer while continuing to run Big Baby out there to play some of the worst basketball of his career is totally bogus.

Yes, you don't bench a guy who's played well just because he has a bad game or two.  But if a player absolutely stinks the joint out in the first half, you are not required to play him as much in the second half.

Mike

didn't Doc (or was it Danny?) say something about how Kristic was real banged up until that last game of the Heat series?

If he was healthy, then i would of been happier giving more of Jermaine's minutes to Nenad.  Jermaine looked like he was playing in molasses and was playing injured.  Glen was only playing 18 minutes/per game and it was imperative that Doc try to get him going.  His help defense is much better than Nenad's and unfortunately the only way to try and get Glen going was to let him work through his struggles.

Kristic wasn't healthy. You have to ride the guys that have a proven track record and got you there to begin with.

[kozlodoev]

My point here is: Doc HAD to play Glen the amount he did.  You can't toss away a guy who was considered one of the best bench players in the NBA after 82 games. Can't change your entire rotation after a couple of tough games.

Krstic played 23 minutes a game during the regular season for Boston.  He then went to 5.8 minutes a game against New York, didn't even play in two games against Miami and played 6, 11, and 16 minutes in the other 3.

Davis averaged 29.5 minutes during the regular season, averaged 24.8 painfully bad minutes against NY and then 18.4 minutes against Miami, and he only played that little against the Heat because Doc drastically cut back his minutes from game 3 on.

The suggestion that Doc HAD to turn his healthiest big into a bench warmer while continuing to run Big Baby out there to play some of the worst basketball of his career is totally bogus.

Yes, you don't bench a guy who's played well just because he has a bad game or two.  But if a player absolutely stinks the joint out in the first half, you are not required to play him as much in the second half.

Mike

Krstic wasn't exactly playing out of his mind either. And he had 2 bruised knees.

[MBunge]

My point here is: Doc HAD to play Glen the amount he did.  You can't toss away a guy who was considered one of the best bench players in the NBA after 82 games. Can't change your entire rotation after a couple of tough games.

Krstic played 23 minutes a game during the regular season for Boston.  He then went to 5.8 minutes a game against New York, didn't even play in two games against Miami and played 6, 11, and 16 minutes in the other 3.

Davis averaged 29.5 minutes during the regular season, averaged 24.8 painfully bad minutes against NY and then 18.4 minutes against Miami, and he only played that little against the Heat because Doc drastically cut back his minutes from game 3 on.

The suggestion that Doc HAD to turn his healthiest big into a bench warmer while continuing to run Big Baby out there to play some of the worst basketball of his career is totally bogus.

Yes, you don't bench a guy who's played well just because he has a bad game or two.  But if a player absolutely stinks the joint out in the first half, you are not required to play him as much in the second half.

Mike

Krstic wasn't exactly playing out of his mind either. And he had 2 bruised knees.

1.  You have to get a chance to play before you can play out of your mind.  When you're getting less than 6 minutes in the first half and then nothing in the second half, how many players could look great in that situation?

2.  Was Krstic is worse shape than Jermaine O'Neal?  Was he in worse shape than Shaq?

I really don't understand this "Doc only did what he had to do" nonsense.  Coaches make judgment calls and exercise different judgment when doing so.  Some other guy in Doc's situation could fairly have decided that the team would need Krstic's size and scoring in the second unit and at least TRIED to see what would happen.  Doc decided to not even try and just ride one of "his" guys until Baby sucked so unbelievably hard that Doc had to do something about it.

Given Rondo's injure and the struggles of Ray and KG, I'm not sure playing Krstic more and Baby less would have made all that much of a difference.  But there's nothing untoward about pointing out that Doc made a judgment call and it didn't work out.

Here are Krstic's minutes for the last 6 games of the regular season - 18, 18, 27, 12, 16, 25.

Here are Krstic's minutes for the playoffs - 5, 3, 8, 8, 6, 11, DNP, DNP, 16.

That is evidence of a coach simply deciding not to play a guy.

Mike