Agree with Who. I think this is a player problem.
- Hayward took forever to get mediocre
- Brown took until early December before accepting his role and playing better more consistent ball.
-Injuries to the bigs left us with almost none for 4-6 games.
- Rozier being Rozier and being bad as a bench player but good as a starter.
- Tatum not really taking any developmental steps forward.
That's all player issues, not coaching or front office issues.
I agree that it's mostly on the players. But would you not agree that Stevens deserves at least
some criticism? He's a great coach and I honestly want him here for many years to come. This season however he's done an underwhelming job IMHO.
1) Our bench unit by itself would make for a decent starting NBA roster: Baynes (or Williams), Theis, Hayward, Brown, Rozier. On paper anyway. Brad has not yet been able to get the most out of the immense talent that is spread across our roster. Our bench play overall is very inconsistent and stagnant offensively. Haven't figured it out yet.
2) He is incredibly stubborn at times when it comes to in game adjustments. For instance, sticking with his usual "switch everything" pick and roll coverage against Houston and letting Harden dismantle us did not seem ideal. Not sure why you'd want to use a typical strategy against a player that is anything but typical, especially when it was clear that it was not working as the game progressed.
3) Trying too keep to many people happy by spreading minutes around. Please Brad, just cut Terry Rozier's minutes and split most of them between Smart and Brown. Especially Smart. If that makes Terry unhappy then too bad. He's done little this season to prove that he deserves the minutes he gets off the bench. In many games his selfish play hurts our team. Brad needs to recognize that and rein him in.
4) ATO plays don't seem as sharp as in years prior. That's definitely on the players as well, but he needs to get them to execute.
5) Not calling time outs fast enough to stop the other team's momentum when they're on a run. Now I know that this is debatable, and he seems to subscribe to the Phil Jackson, Popovich kind of philosophy where it's up to the players to "figure it out". I'd normally have no issue with this, but we're still overall a young team that has not developed adequate chemistry to do this game by game. I'd prefer Stevens call TO when he notices things going south, i.e when the other team has scored 3 buckets in a row while our offense looks ragged.
6) The points you've made about our players are spot on. I don't disagree with any of that. I'd argue that Tatum has regressed from last season. That's on Tatum, but also on Brad and the rest of our coaches too. Recall how Brad had a short leash on Tatum early in the season when he'd go into hero ball mode. We're not seeing that as much anymore, and Tatum looks more and more like Carmelo Anthony with each passing game.
7) Inconsistency. Primarily a player issue. But the lack of effort that is observable at times is frustrating to watch. They say that the team takes on the characteristics of the coach. I don't think that this is true with Stevens, but is he still getting through to everyone in the locker room?
Shared blame. That's how I see it. I think that these are fair criticisms from a neutral perspective. Again, I want Brad here. We could do far, far worse.
Long term outlook - it's hard to be pessimistic. Even if we don't do well this year, we're still set up incredibly well. Ainge has done an incredible job. I'm also still relatively optimistic about this year. In recent years we've played great basketball after the All Star Break. I think things will round into form and this will be the case again. I've said and will continue to say that none of the teams in the East want to play us in a 7 game series, especially in round 1.
Topic: Who is to blame more for disappointing season thus far. Ainge or Stevens? (Read 4245 times)