new coach
rambis is making this easy
i think the big question is
...good draft pick for Toronto.
ChuckBuck wrote:...good draft pick for Toronto.
LOL
"Nice gift for Toronto" finishes the sentence well.
We were always getting a new coach.
People really buy anything the media says.
If Phil wanted to give Rambis the job for next season, he would have waited for Fisher to finish out the season and then replaced him with Rambis next season. Rambis would have a whole training camp, a whole month to insert things and identify his style of play. Coaching on the fly is no where near the same as having a training camp. Most of the team's habits have already been established. Instead he gave Rambis the job around the All-Star break, such that the team can start playing "the right way" in Phil's mind. It's to get guys like Grant, Porzingis, Williams and other young players to play the right way. We're seeing Grant play better. We're seeing Porzingis get a very tight leash and be challenged to be better, to stop settling for low percentage jumpshots and not give 100 percent on defense. No matter how much some fans hate the Triangle, when Melo does not go iso heavy, we run the Triangle much better since Rambis came on to coach. Last night when Melo sat, we ran some very good 2-way sets with Grant, Gallo, Affalo, D-Will, O'Quinn out there. That's just an example of what the offense and defense can look like if you have a legit point guard (Grant), speed/athleticism in the backcourt and perimeter and play smaller. The focus moving forward for Phil should be to try and get an athletic starting backcourt so we're not so slow as a starting 5. Kind of like Gallo/Grant, only with the skill and experience to be starters on a good team (which Gallo/Grant aren't).
I think the coaching change - the timing was about making sure the rest of the season the team ran the right kind of offense Phil wanted and also get harder on the younger players (especially KP). In the bigger picture, I've always felt Phil has had his eye on Luke Walton. I would be very surprised if we weren't the team that went hardest at Luke Walton. He and Phil had a father/son relationship in LA. Luke once said that Phil was the one that got him into coaching, that when he was injured for a long time during a season, Phil told him to come to coaching meetings and that's where the passion began for coaching.
I think the way Phil saw this was "Get Rambis in to run things the way I want them to be on offense, challenge the young guys, don't give KP unlimited unquestioned playing time and if he can get the team in the playoffs that means he's done great and should be in contention for coming back as head coach next year". I don't think for a moment Phil doesn't have his eye on Luke Walton. The major problem will arise if Luke like Kerr doesn't want to come to a less talented Knicks team over a more talented team somewhere else. In which case Phil has to go to Thibodeau in my opinion.
