"We will have the bigger and better available roster tonight, a roster that will outrebound, outdrive and outsize the Blazers if simply given the chance. A failure to take advantage of our size will be an abject failure of coaching."
combined minutes for Biedrins/Turiaf/Randolph: 54
rebounding totals: POR 43, GSW 36
final score: POR 105, GSW 89
This is not, inherently, an anti-Nellie site. Nellie has given this sad-sack franchise color, swagger, and occasional glimpses of legitimacy over the last two decades; he has overseen most of the all-too-rare Warrior highlights of both Doug's and my lifetimes. When we criticize Nellie, it is with a heavy heart; when we advocate for his dismissal, it is only after long and anguished consideration. We would love to see the guy change his ways, coach decently and lead us back towards playoff contention. All we are looking for is a Warriors team that won't embarrass us.
Tonight, Nellie denied us that. On a night when he faced a team whose injuries bore an eerie similarity to those that he'd been using as excuses all year, Nellie snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. His coaching performance tonight was not just bad. It was not just terrible. It was not just embarrassing. It was not just fireable. It was staining.
Don Nelson's coaching success has been predicated on two main pillars: astute evaluation of offensive ability and a keen eye for mismatches that earn you a net floor advantage. Tonight, he failed by both metrics so badly that it'd be funny if it wasn't sad. Nellie gave 29 minutes to a detrimental Steph Curry, 21 to an on-point Andris Biedrins and 20 to an electrically good Anthony Randolph. And tonight, Nellie faced a fearsome Blazer backcourt and a punchless Blazer frontcourt, and decided to attack... the backcourt, with a lineup that was pointlessly small.
Nate McMillan is no tactical offensive mastermind, and yet he made Nellie look like an irrelevant old fool tonight, simply by sticking to a smallball lineup that had more potential than ours. Nellie is being humiliated through the same techniques that made him famous. The gods wanted him to score a win tonight, crippling a good team so badly that even we could outsize and outmuscle them. Nellie refused that gift. It was just embarrassing to watch.
Some might say, "Look, Nellie's game plan was good -- it's not his fault we shot badly." But good coaches don't shrug and opt to lose when their guys' outside shots aren't falling. Good coaches look to see what they can do about getting some inside shots. If you can reach the rim every time up the floor, it doesn't really matter if you're feeling it from fifteen feet or not. Smart teams realize that... we don't. We faced a tiny, crippled, pitiful team and allowed them to outrebound us by seven, just because we think smallball has some magical significance that it empirically doesn't.
In the brief tenure of this website, we have engaged and argued with those who defend Nellie's coaching. It's getting hard to muster up the energy to keep doing that... the man's coaching simply doesn't pass the laugh test any longer. If you are still contending that Don Nelson is a credible basketball coach, you either
1) are on the Golden State Warriors' payroll,
2) were recently on the Golden State Warriors' payroll and hope to get back on it soon, or
3) have no idea what you're talking about.
The time for being polite is over... this is no longer a matter of opinion. We're not talking about what we think about a painting. We're talking about a math problem. Don Nelson's coaching is objectively bad. It is sad, it is stupid, it is indefensible. He is pissing on the legacy he created through decades of intelligent work. For the love of God, someone fire this man, before he unravels everything he's built.
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2 comments:
The thing that was most baffling to me was wondering why CJ and Morrow were still playing with 6 minutes left in the game. They are both good offensive players but their shots were just not falling. Why Randolph was not in is beyond me. It couldnt be because of the fouls, and his few mistakes were outweighed by his hustle, defense, size, and reboudning. I was hoping that we would go with a lineup of Ellis, Curry, Maggette, Randolph and either Turiaf or Beidrins to finsih the game. Miller was just taking it to the rim, but with Ronny and Randolph there, we could have atleast slowed him down a bit.
Very very fustrating to watch.
Exactly -- this is the most frustrating thing about Nellie's current coaching. Trying smallball for stretches is perfectly fine, but if your shooters are cold and bring nothing else to the table, pull them the hell off the floor. Don't just ride your pre-game plan through to the end if it's not actually working.
The man is just incapable of making adjustments right now. It's some of the most stubborn coaching I've ever seen.
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