Minnesota Sports Forum

Is it as valuable in basketball as it is in football.

No it is not. It is valuable, but not as much as football. Basketball is a players game. You can overcome bad coaching with good players in NBA. You can't really do that in NFL because there are just to many parts and coordination that has to be done.

Bleed, I honestly can't tell where you land on this question....

It's actually a good question and one I haven't really spent time thinking about. It would seem to me that coaching matters more in the NFL than the NBA simply because of the sheer level of preparation required to cover all facets of the game - offense, defense, and special teams - with 30-40 players being rotated in and out of the game. Also, so much more is on the line with every game that you can't take a second off. You can get away sleep walking through a few games in the NBA.

This is interesting.

It's been said numerous times by a variety of media types that in the NFL you need a coach and a QB if you don't have that you are screwed. I would say that's pretty true. If you have a coach and a super elite defense you may be able to get by with a non elite QB. I do think in the NFL coaching is a bigger deal like Q said because there are so many more players and phases of the game however...

Name a crappy or even average NBA head coach that's won a championship. The NBA is a star driven league and obviously you need talent all around like any sport but you need a good coach too. Coaching in the playoffs seems as important as ever.

I look at how Orlando is play and say "damn, Skiles is making an impact!"

Is Sam as important to Wolves success/failure as Zimmer is to Vikes? I'd say yes. They are the tone setters. They input a program, set expectations.

The Golden State Warriors took off after Steve Kerr took over. I would like to see what the Wolves would look like with Rick Carlisle coaching, or Stotts. Or hey, Dwayne Casey or Randy Whitman.