Minnesota Sports Forum

KAT is now 3rd on the MVP rankings. Amazing what playing for a big market team can do for your accolades as an NBA player.

The drastic Towns narrative arc is pretty insufferable.

He was nowhere close to as bad as so many people railed on and on and on about for years, piling on top of each other to do so.

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2025 2:45 pm The drastic Towns narrative arc is pretty insufferable.

He was nowhere close to as bad as so many people railed on and on and on about for years, piling on top of each other to do so.

You nailed it, Abe. I suppose a lot of fans wanted him to be Jokic; I know I did. Unfortunately, he’s not Jokic but that doesn’t mean he isn’t great. His career numbers speak for themselves in multiple categories - scoring, efficiency, rebounding. His scoring is particularly impressive because he can score at an elite level in so many different ways - three-point shots, mid-range, post-ups, driving the lane. I’ll add that KAT has been a very good defender for the past four seasons. He’s also a good passer although I get the frustration with his dumb turnovers and fouls. Last season he was ranked 7th defensively in the League. He repeatedly adapted himself to different situations imposed by the front office - from playing center with Vanderbilt and others to playing PF with Rudy Gobert.

Just going to leave this here:

Sacramento is now 4-1 after firing Mike Brown.

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:03 pm Just going to leave this here:

Sacramento is now 4-1 after firing Mike Brown.

Yeah, 8-2 actually and 8 of their last 9, and against a lot of good teams. I never understood their struggles this year...way too much talent. Maybe coaching does mean something after all...

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:10 pm

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:03 pm Just going to leave this here:

Sacramento is now 4-1 after firing Mike Brown.

Yeah, 8-2 actually and 8 of their last 9, and against a lot of good teams. I never understood their struggles this year...way too much talent. Maybe coaching does mean something after all...

Or more accurately... players deciding which coaches they will or will not listen to...

I doubt the Kings have changed THAT much with schemes and everything else with only one change on its 10+ person coaching staff.

Even with coaches, it's a players' league through and through.

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:10 pm

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:03 pm Just going to leave this here:

Sacramento is now 4-1 after firing Mike Brown.

Yeah, 8-2 actually and 8 of their last 9, and against a lot of good teams. I never understood their struggles this year...way too much talent. Maybe coaching does mean something after all...

I think one unearthed area of analytics - and it's probably largely unearthed because of the difficulties in predicting group dynamics - is coaching fit. On the one hand, talent and health tower above all else in determining a team's ceiling. But man, finding the right coach for a particular group of players at a particular point in time can make a big difference. Exhibit A is Kenny Atkinson in Cleveland. Exhibit B is Doug Christie in Sacramento.

The reason I say particular point in time is because Coach A could be a good fit with Player Set A in Year 1, but three years later may no longer be the right fit with mostly the same set of players. That could be Finch perhaps? Don't know.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:56 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:10 pm

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:03 pm Just going to leave this here:

Sacramento is now 4-1 after firing Mike Brown.

Yeah, 8-2 actually and 8 of their last 9, and against a lot of good teams. I never understood their struggles this year...way too much talent. Maybe coaching does mean something after all...

I think one unearthed area of analytics - and it's probably largely unearthed because of the difficulties in predicting group dynamics - is coaching fit. On the one hand, talent and health tower above all else in determining a team's ceiling. But man, finding the right coach for a particular group of players at a particular point in time can make a big difference. Exhibit A is Kenny Atkinson in Cleveland. Exhibit B is Doug Christie in Sacramento.

The reason I say particular point in time is because Coach A could be a good fit with Player Set A in Year 1, but three years later may no longer be the right fit with mostly the same set of players. That could be Finch perhaps? Don't know.

Yes. I like that you added "particular point in time."

The league, especially recently, is full of highly acclaimed coaches who found themselves out of a job quite quickly after a lot of fawning over how great they were. These are only the COY winners, otherwise the list of once-good coaches that were soon bad coaches would be much longer... with Chris Finch quite possibly soon-to-be among them.

Mike Brown (23) ... fired 2024
Monty Williams (22) ... considered one of the league's WORST coaches (24)
Nick Nurse (20) ... fired 2023
Mike Budenholzer (19) ... fired 2023
Dwayne Casey (18) ... fired 2018

Did they change all that much? All of them? It's highly doubtful.

The Duncd on guys talked about this very topic recently. It's quite common for teams to have a burst of wins after a coaching change. We will have to wait and see how much staying power this has. Hopefully for the Wolves benefit, it won't.

Haven't paid much attention to KAT this year. I'm curious how his FT numbers per 36 compare to his Wolves tenure.