Q12543 wrote:WildWolf2813 wrote:If this team goes down in flames again, I almost don't want them to draft another young guy to be put in this mess. Losing is gonna keep eating away at these guys until they wonder why they're still here.
I'd argue that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole right now.....by a lot.The bad news is that it's a pretty damning indictment of the coach. He's under-performing Sam Mitchell right now!
The good news is that, wearing his POBO hat, he has a lot of valuable pieces, another lottery pick on the way (most likely), and lots of money. My guess is that he and Layden will look to re-make the roster pretty dramatically if this season turns to shit.
Q - That's not good news. Flip left this organization with a great opportunity to build something special with this core. If we end up blowing up the core because it's not precisely what Thibs likes (i.e., robots who do exactly what he wants), then that's a failure. And I have no confidence in the ability of the Thibs/Layden tandem to remake the roster into a championship contender better than the one we have now. Thibs has never even been part of an NBA front office and Layden's one experience as the head guy (the Knicks) was a complete failure. Thibs came here because, in his own words, this was the best young roster in the NBA. If he fails to build a contender without dramatically remaking that roster then it's on him as a failed coach and it's on Glen Taylor for once against making the wrong decision.
I'm not prepared yet to declare Thibs a failure. There's still time for him to pull this thing together and I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt. But I do agree that he's misusing Ricky by stubbornly forcing an offensive system that doesn't run through Ricky. And I agree he is, thus far, underperforming Sam Mitchell. Personally, I thought Thibs was the wrong hire for this team. I didn't think he fit with a young, highly talented group like these guys. They don't play freely or instinctively under him and they look like they're not having fun. Very different from what we see watching the Lakers play under Walton -- a young modern coach who fits today's type of player. Again, I'm not giving up on Thibs, but I'm not holding my breath either. Let's see where we're at mid-December. If we're not playing any better by then I'll declare the Thibs hire a failure, but I'm giving it another month.
