Q12543 wrote:I think there were a few of us coveting Covington (see what I did there?) this past offseason, but Philly had that cheap option on him. Damn, he would look great as our 3rd wing!!!
I agree with Abe. What Stevens did at Butler and now with Boston is incredible. He has to be considered an elite coach at this point. I know he has Al Horford, who I love, but there is no way most other NBA coaches could take that roster and make it elite defensively.
Yeah, I"m a huge Stevens guy...and I'm also migrating to a stronger position that coaching may have more to do with success in the NBA than players. Never thought I would say that, but the evidence is strong. Look at what Stevens and Pop do with their teams even after key players go down...they don't miss a beat. Van Gundy has a Pistons roster that I think lags the Wolves significantly in terms of talent at 10-3, second in the conference.
Further, I continue to note that the East is now three games ahead of the West. I still see more talent in the West, so I attribute the East's superiority to more creative and successful coaching.
Well, if anything Van Gundy offers some hope. He's had the same dual role as Thibs does, but he's been doing it for a few more years. Up until this season, Detroit has been kind of mired in mediocrity and a little stagnant. Now it looks like things are coming together for them.
Q12543 wrote:I think there were a few of us coveting Covington (see what I did there?) this past offseason, but Philly had that cheap option on him. Damn, he would look great as our 3rd wing!!!
I agree with Abe. What Stevens did at Butler and now with Boston is incredible. He has to be considered an elite coach at this point. I know he has Al Horford, who I love, but there is no way most other NBA coaches could take that roster and make it elite defensively.
Yeah, I"m a huge Stevens guy...and I'm also migrating to a stronger position that coaching may have more to do with success in the NBA than players. Never thought I would say that, but the evidence is strong. Look at what Stevens and Pop do with their teams even after key players go down...they don't miss a beat. Van Gundy has a Pistons roster that I think lags the Wolves significantly in terms of talent at 10-3, second in the conference.
Further, I continue to note that the East is now three games ahead of the West. I still see more talent in the West, so I attribute the East's superiority to more creative and successful coaching.
WHOA... hold on there.
More important? No. I will NEVER agree to this one, even if I'm willing to acknowledge that the very best organizations (coaching + GM + ownership + scouting + culture) have more to do with winning than I previously gave them credit for.
Tyronn Lue has an NBA title ONLY because he has LeBron James on his team. Mike Brown made an NBA Finals ONLY because he had Mike James on his team. And as much as I dig Steve Kerr, he's not making the NBA Finals or even the playoffs starting Tyus Jones and Anthony Tolliver.
I would stop watching the moment coaching became more important in the NBA than the players.
Q12543 wrote:I think there were a few of us coveting Covington (see what I did there?) this past offseason, but Philly had that cheap option on him. Damn, he would look great as our 3rd wing!!!
I agree with Abe. What Stevens did at Butler and now with Boston is incredible. He has to be considered an elite coach at this point. I know he has Al Horford, who I love, but there is no way most other NBA coaches could take that roster and make it elite defensively.
Yeah, I"m a huge Stevens guy...and I'm also migrating to a stronger position that coaching may have more to do with success in the NBA than players. Never thought I would say that, but the evidence is strong. Look at what Stevens and Pop do with their teams even after key players go down...they don't miss a beat. Van Gundy has a Pistons roster that I think lags the Wolves significantly in terms of talent at 10-3, second in the conference.
Further, I continue to note that the East is now three games ahead of the West. I still see more talent in the West, so I attribute the East's superiority to more creative and successful coaching.
WHOA... hold on there.
More important? No. I will NEVER agree to this one, even if I'm willing to acknowledge that the very best organizations (coaching + GM + ownership + scouting + culture) have more to do with winning than I previously gave them credit for.
Tyronn Lue has an NBA title ONLY because he has LeBron James on his team. Mike Brown made an NBA Finals ONLY because he had Mike James on his team. And as much as I dig Steve Kerr, he's not making the NBA Finals or even the playoffs starting Tyus Jones and Anthony Tolliver.
I would stop watching the moment coaching became more important in the NBA than the players.
Yeah, I thought that statement might offend some here. But the evidence of the importance of coaching is mounting. This week Stevens coached a lineup of Horford, Tatum, Baynes, Smart and Brown to a victory over a pretty good Toronto team. How many here would trade our starting five for those guys? And yet coaching allows Boston to win despite an apparent talent disparity. Sure, there are players like LeBron who will transcend the impact of coaching, but my opinion on this one is still directionally moving towards the importance of coaching.
Coaches put players in the right opportunity to execute. The Wolves have been in games going back to last year. As far as I'm concerned Thibs has been a great coach, we were in the overwhelming majority of games we've played for the last 2 years. This year we're winning with the majority of our games on the road. I don't care that he's shifted the emphasis from D to offense to do that, whatever works in the meantime while this team is figuring it out.
Q12543 wrote:I think there were a few of us coveting Covington (see what I did there?) this past offseason, but Philly had that cheap option on him. Damn, he would look great as our 3rd wing!!!
I agree with Abe. What Stevens did at Butler and now with Boston is incredible. He has to be considered an elite coach at this point. I know he has Al Horford, who I love, but there is no way most other NBA coaches could take that roster and make it elite defensively.
Yeah, I"m a huge Stevens guy...and I'm also migrating to a stronger position that coaching may have more to do with success in the NBA than players. Never thought I would say that, but the evidence is strong. Look at what Stevens and Pop do with their teams even after key players go down...they don't miss a beat. Van Gundy has a Pistons roster that I think lags the Wolves significantly in terms of talent at 10-3, second in the conference.
Further, I continue to note that the East is now three games ahead of the West. I still see more talent in the West, so I attribute the East's superiority to more creative and successful coaching.
WHOA... hold on there.
More important? No. I will NEVER agree to this one, even if I'm willing to acknowledge that the very best organizations (coaching + GM + ownership + scouting + culture) have more to do with winning than I previously gave them credit for.
Tyronn Lue has an NBA title ONLY because he has LeBron James on his team. Mike Brown made an NBA Finals ONLY because he had Mike James on his team. And as much as I dig Steve Kerr, he's not making the NBA Finals or even the playoffs starting Tyus Jones and Anthony Tolliver.
I would stop watching the moment coaching became more important in the NBA than the players.
Yeah, I thought that statement might offend some here. But the evidence of the importance of coaching is mounting. This week Stevens coached a lineup of Horford, Tatum, Baynes, Smart and Brown to a victory over a pretty good Toronto team. How many here would trade our starting five for those guys? And yet coaching allows Boston to win despite an apparent talent disparity. Sure, there are players like LeBron who will transcend the impact of coaching, but my opinion on this one is still directionally moving towards the importance of coaching.
It's one game though for the Celtics to beat the Raptors. Super small sample size. Coaching can help but let's not say coaching is more important.
So was thibs a great coach and then a bad coach with the wolves. Was Dantoni a great coach with the suns. Forgot how to coach the Knicks and the Lakers and now he remembers how to coach with the Rockets.
SVG didn't know how to coach his 1st 3 years with the Pistons and now he does.
Our last 4 coaches Adelman, flip, sam Mitchell and Thibs all haven't won with the wolves but all have had success elsewhere in their careers so when they entered minnesota they didn't know how to coach any more
Philly definitely considers Covington part of its core... they just signed him to a 4-year, $62M deal. Compared to other guys on the market from TJ Warren ($50M) to Gary Harris ($84M) to Otto Porter ($107M) to Andrew Wiggins ($146M)... it's not a bad deal at all.
Covington was a plus player on a bad team because of his incredible length, defensive ability and reasonable, if inconsistent, three point shooting. Now that he's actually hitting those shots --- watch out.
Here is in action... blocks shot at the rim... first one down the court for the alley oop:
AbeVigodaLive wrote:Philly definitely considers Covington part of its core... they just signed him to a 4-year, $62M deal. Compared to other guys on the market from TJ Warren ($50M) to Gary Harris ($84M) to Otto Porter ($107M) to Andrew Wiggins ($146M)... it's not a bad deal at all.
Covington was a plus player on a bad team because of his incredible length, defensive ability and reasonable, if inconsistent, three point shooting. Now that he's actually hitting those shots --- watch out.
Here is in action... blocks shot at the rim... first one down the court for the alley oop:
I picked the Wizards core, the reason is because I believe Wall is one of the elite PG in the game, Bradley Beal is probably a top 5 SG and Porter is a very good core role player and all are still young. Also the only team on the list that has won (could be more) playoff series as a core and that means a lot to me.
kekgeek1 wrote:I picked the Wizards core, the reason is because I believe Wall is one of the elite PG in the game, Bradley Beal is probably a top 5 SG and Porter is a very good core role player and all are still young. Also the only team on the list that has won (could be more) playoff series as a core and that means a lot to me.
