Coaching Advantage

[Who]

I saw some Mavs fans before the T'Wolves series saying Kidd has a habit of losing the first game of the series and then making good adjustments that help swing the series Dallas' way.

Kidd lost the first game in all 3 series on their run to the WCF two years ago. He lost the first game in the first round against the Clippers and second round against OKC. Beating Minnesota in the last round was the first time Kidd won Gm 1 in 6 attempts with Dallas.

[hpantazo]

I think when you consider the broader coaching staff, the Celtics have a clear advantage. Mazzulla likely has the advantage over Kidd, and with our assistant coaches who are all being poached for head coaching jobs, we have a clear advantage, at least for this year.

[smicker16]

Kidd is a more experienced coach who has been well regarded by his former players.  He just coached the Mavs as the road team to 3 straight series wins. He isn't Spo, but there is more evidence of competence with him than Joe.

I also think there is more evidence of incompetence with Kidds coaching too. Basically think both coaches are great examples of how it’s the players and talent that drive success.

[SCeltic34]

You have to give Kidd credit for putting together the run they've made after making important trades this season.  PJ Washington and  Gafford were great moves the GM, but Kidd integrated them well.

I'd say it's a wash.  Joe has been good (hard to argue with 12-2 record), but still has some headscratching decisions in games IMO.

[green_bballers13]

I'm going to give Kidd credit for some of Luka's development. Two years ago, Kidd said this about Luka: “It’s no secret, they’re going to put him in every pick-and-roll. Opponents did the same thing with Dirk Nowitzki until he participated and stuck up for himself”. He said the right thing then and Luka is now playing better defense. It's the key to the Mavs winning a championship and Luka becoming the best player. He needs to step up his game defensively and the Celtics are going to attack him.

I think a key is going to be to tire out Luka every game by switching onto him then driving/pulling up. Jaylen and Tatum can run right past him, which should lead to great scoring opportunities. Joe and his coaches must be excited about the possibilities to attack this potentially vulnerable perimeter defense.

[tenn_smoothie]

I'm just glad we aren't playing a well-respected former championship coach for a change. It seems we often have a coaching disadvantage and that doesn't seem to be the case this time around.

There does seem to be more of an established system in Boston, whereas DAL relies more on Luka to run the show

The problem being the established system in Boston (offensively) is vulnerable to becoming stagnant with too much iso dribbling and fall-away 3's and teammates standing around watching instead of moving and screening away from the ball. Would it hurt to try some of that ?

[SparzWizard]

I saw some Mavs fans before the T'Wolves series saying Kidd has a habit of losing the first game of the series and then making good adjustments that help swing the series Dallas' way.

Kidd lost the first game in all 3 series on their run to the WCF two years ago. He lost the first game in the first round against the Clippers and second round against OKC. Beating Minnesota in the last round was the first time Kidd won Gm 1 in 6 attempts with Dallas.

So the usual "Game 2 adjustments" which Boston falls under the trap of. I can see Boston dropping Game 2 if that's the case.

But that means the C's need to win Games 1, 3 and possibly 4 (if their road record is of any indication to their success)

[tenn_smoothie]

Unless there's a really questionable decision regarding rotations, or a fantastic ATO play that decides the series, it's probably gonna come down to which team executes better on the court, and not what the coaches do.

That is the worry - Execution of an effective offensive scheme is half coaching / half players.
Coach creates the schemes, players execute it.
Joe's offensive scheme is very limited and often results in bad shot selection.
Tatum and Brown tend to dominate the ball in late 4th quarter possessions and they often panic and go iso into a bad shot or turnover.

Let White or Holiday run the point and put Tatum and Brown into off-ball movement so they can catch & shoot or catch & drive, not hold the ball, then go into their dribbling iso bag-of-tricks. Maybe Van Gundy can implement some movement - I like his basketball sensibilities.

[cman88]

Unless there's a really questionable decision regarding rotations, or a fantastic ATO play that decides the series, it's probably gonna come down to which team executes better on the court, and not what the coaches do.

That is the worry - Execution of an effective offensive scheme is half coaching / half players.
Coach creates the schemes, players execute it.
Joe's offensive scheme is very limited and often results in bad shot selection.
Tatum and Brown tend to dominate the ball in late 4th quarter possessions and they often panic and go iso into a bad shot or turnover.

Let White or Holiday run the point and put Tatum and Brown into off-ball movement so they can catch & shoot or catch & drive, not hold the ball, then go into their dribbling iso bag-of-tricks. Maybe Van Gundy can implement some movement - I like his basketball sensibilities.

Have you watched the mavs play? its kyrie/luka taking turns playing Iso and maybe a pick and roll?

[ozgod]

This is an interesting and question @mobilija. I feel like there are 2 parts to being an NBA coach (as we all know from playing NBA2k 

Strategic (the stuff we don't see) - determine what the team's identity will be in order to be successful, based on the abilities of the players available; coordinate a coaching staff that is responsible for developing the players; develop the schemes that the team will use and get them ingrained into the team via practices and other events so that the team's identity can be achieved; manage the players/egos in the team to get buy-in and to get them all pulling in the same direction in order to synthesize them into a whole greater than the sum of the parts

Tactical (the stuff we see) - support the players during game day by ensuring they are prepared for the game; influence the outcome of the game by means of motivation, playcalling, timeouts and substitutions

I feel like most of the flaws about Joe that get pointed out are from people just judging him on the tactical side of things, because that's the side that we see when we tune in to watch the game for 2 hours. When the game is finished we don't think about all the other stuff that he is doing, or how he has influenced the team. Because while the tactical stuff influences individual games, the strategic stuff is what influences the team's performance over the season, and in that I feel Joe has had a clear advantage over Kidd. He has six stars buying in to his vision and prepared to sacrifice their own individual performances to be successful. This is a team that is clearly prepared well, they are drilled well, they hold each other accountable which speaks to the culture that Joe has instilled, that they all support.

In the tactical stuff I think they're about the same. The things people tend to complain about with Joe, like "he should have called timeout then" or "why didn't he sub in Queta (@liam  )" or something like that. I really don't know if any of those are game changing - to me the biggest coaching impact on a game is an inability to adapt to something different that the other team does, like maybe they start playing zone and the coach doesn't ensure the players make the appropriate adjustments. That to me is a definite coaching fail. He had a lot more of those last year, as well as some fails on the strategic side, where it looked like players like Smart weren't fully bought in and were trying to be the one in charge. This year tactically he's been better.

That said, he's still going to be fired right after fulltime of  the last game of the Finals...don't let him get his grubby hands on that trophy 

[green_bballers13]

JJ Reddick thinks that both Kidd and Joe Mazz are good coaches. Felger thought neither were. Are we going with Felger or Reddick here?

[mr. dee]

Kidd is a good developmental coach. Though not sure if he's a championship level coach. Giannis' development was thanks to him. But we also have this kind of antics.

[scaryjerry]

Going into the series I don’t see an advantage either way. Of course after the finals whatever coach wins will be praised for whatever game plan worked out and people will claim there was an advantage.

[Roy H.]

Both coaches have their team motivated and prepared.  That's 3/4 of the battle.

I've noted Joe's faults regarding game management.  That said, I haven't watched Kidd enough to know how he does in similar situations.