I have no probs with Stevens and really feel that the whole "Stevens can't coach superstars" line is a load of nothing. The guy had IT playing like a superstar and the team thrived. Last year, after Hayward got hurt, the team with Kyrie, a superstar, was 46-22 when Kyrie went down for the year. Obviously another example of a superstar thriving under Stevens.
I think the IT and Kyrie comparisons are off-base, as they're two completely different players and characters. IT is a chip-on-his-shoulder, self-motivated type of star who overcame significant obstacles to get where he was, which is a lot easier to coach than an established star like Kyrie. IT also had natural leadership abilities that Kyrie clearly does not. Both of those things are something I greatly underappreciated with IT in his time here.
As for the comparison with last year's team, I see that as also off-base, as it was a completely different context with Hayward's injury. There were no expectations of the team last year, and nobody realized until later in the year the level of talent that we had with our young guys. That's a lot easier to coach than a team with a known high level of talent and high expectations.
I just don't see how anyone can be confident that Brad could manage the egos and talent that we would have with AD and Kyrie together after his complete failure to manage the talent and chemistry with this year's team, which is the primary source of this year's team's dysfunction.
Superstars come in all shapes and sizes and with all types of different attitudes, egos and personalities. Stevens had success with two different superstars over 4 years and those superstars and teams thrived for 3 of those years.
This year Stevens was given a lot more than a problem with one superstar, and let's be perfectly clear, he had only one superstar on this team. He had a couple of youngsters who thought they were superstars weren't and became problems. He had a guy the team thought we be a superstar but was a mediocre, at best role, player. Handling that became a problem. He had Baynes injured half the year. That became a problem.
And we aren't even discussing how the whole Jabari Bird situation affected the team early, how the team's asst. coach got caught up in a college admissions cheating scandal and how that may have affected the team, and dealing with the whole Klutch Sports/Anthony Davis trade/Kyrie pending free agency and what it did to hurt this team.
Stevens had a lot more problems than dealing with a superstar that caused what happened to this team this year. I am not sure how much better a coach who is known for handling superstars could have done any better when you look at the entire situation.
This year where Stevens struggled is in dealing with the myriad of crap he was dealt. The results sucked. Not sure many could have done better. Chalk it up to a learning experience for a very young coach and move on.
Ball is in Danny's court now to give Stevens more than one superstar and a team hierarchy that won't cause problems. Weed out the problem players and let's go for 18 in 2020.
Topic: If we pair AD/Kyrie, do we really want Stevens as coach given this past year? (Read 6981 times)