#coach kidd

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[bucksforest]

On Phil Talking Shit About Players

Today ESPN published Part 4 of Charley Rosen’s series on Phil Jackson’s first season with the Knicks.  I recommend that you read it.

The most titillating part of the piece is the same thing that was most titillating as Phil’s days coaching the Lakers: Phil talking shit.  What used to be running down the city of Sacramento or Mike D’Antoni’s coaching philosophy has turned into criticism of JR Smith or Andrea Bargnani.  

Unlike when Phil was coaching the Lakers, he’s an easy target nowadays.  The Knicks sucked last season, Phil is forcing his coach and team to use a “system” that nobody else uses and all of the team’s major free agent targets chose to sign elsewhere.  It’s easy to take shots at the old man today.

The only problem is that the shots people are taking at Phil are dumb.  

The criticism du jour is that Phil’s shit-talking at JR Smith’s gloomy attitude, Iman Shumpert’s annoying personality, Sam Dalembert’s sleepiness (literally) and Andrea Bargnani’s general ineffectiveness is harmful to Phil and the Knicks.  Agents, so the theory goes, have the power to direct players towards or away from NBA teams, and agents are going to use that power against the Knicks because Jackson’s shit-talking has the potential to de-value the agents’ clients.

While it is true that unfair and/or excessive shit-talking by coaches and executives gets punished, criticism that is both fair and obvious does not.  Sacramento was a cow town back when Phil criticized it and pick-n-roll heavy offenses did (and do) flame out in the Playoffs against good defenses (which was Phil’s primary criticism of D’Antoni).  In the same way, JR obviously does have a bad attitude when his team is losing, Bargnani is considered worthless by most NBA observers and it’s not altogether surprising that Iman Shumpert can get on people’s nerves (though admittedly that’s probably part and parcel to being a defensive specialist, and the Knicks may have done well to make a few more attempts at managing that).  The Lakers weren’t any worse off for Phil taking his shots back then and the Knicks won’t be any worse off from Phil taking his shots now.

Part of what I like about Phil’s comments (aside from their openness and honesty) is that I think that Jason Kidd has a little bit of Phil Jackson in him.  Kidd may not be the committed Triangle devotee that Phil is, but he does seem committed to his way of doing things and he’s not afraid to ruffle feathers.  Kidd wants a point guard with passing skills and vision, so he traded Brandon Knight.  Kidd thought that Giannis was getting too big a head, so he benched him for a game.  

I would enjoy seeing Kidd get even more confident and brash.  One area where Phil and Kidd differ is in how they value the public’s approval: Kidd cares greatly while Phil seems to see it as a low priority.  I would like to see Kidd take a few more risks.  I think it might help him get the very best out of the 2016 Bucks.

[bucksforest]

Three Bad Things

1. The Bucks lost to the Cavs.  They were actually up ten after the first half, at which time my brother (who was at the game) texted me, “[betting on the] Cavs 2nd half might be the lock of the century!!”  He was correct.  The Cavs took over in the second half, thus making it clear that a 2/7 or 3/6 first round matchup against them would be non-competitive.

2. OJ Mayo and Jared Dudley appear to be on bad terms with Coach Kidd.  Officially, both players are injured.  If, however, you have followed the NBA for a long time, then you know that a headline where the coach says there is “no timetable” for a player’s return is trouble.  Either that player has an injury that is more serious than first thought (possible, but unlikely in this case) or that player and the coach have agreed to disagree on whether that player should be playing professional basketball.  Neither Mayo nor Dudley has played particularly well since the Trade, and the timing of two veterans being sent home the day of a game in a city like New Orleans screams “coach’s discipline”.  These guys were a huge part of the Bucks playing like a contender before the Trade and ideally they will be a big part of a Bucks’ resurgence in 2016.  It’s not good to see signs of a conflict with a coach who will surely be back next season.

3. Arena momentum has ground to a halt.  One promising/disturbing difference between the new Bucks owners’ push for a new arena and a typical sports team’s push for an arena has been the lack of threats.  The pessimist’s view (which, admittedly, more closely mirrors my own in this case) was that the new owners wanted to keep their powder dry before lobbing a blitz of threats in advance of a move out of Milwaukee.  The optimist’s view was that the new owners really do have no intention at all of moving the team, and that they are supremely confident that they’ll receive a package of tax money or kickbacks as part of the arena project.  Well, the optimist’s view appears to be going the way of the Bucks’ postseason chances.  Don Walker of the Journal-Sentinel summed things up pretty well the other day: The new owners want to play in an arena that costs around $35 million/year (including payments on constructions bonds, operating expenses and the like), but they want to pay around $10 million/year (the approximate 30-year value of a $150 million contribution towards an arena).  The missing $25 million/year needs to come from somewhere, but the city, state and county all (justifiably, I might add) each don’t want to be stuck carrying too much of the load.  

These three things are all bad news, but none of them are cause for panic.  The Bucks punted on the 2015 season the moment they traded Brandon Knight, so a loss to the Cavs is to be expected.  Mayo (and Dudley, to a lesser extent) may just be injured, and the “no timetable” talk may not be a sign of a conflict with Coach Kidd.  And on the arena, it was always unlikely that anything would happen before the Atlanta Hawks are sold (which will probably happen this summer).  If the Hawks command close to $1 billion, then the NBA and the new owners will have leverage to put Milwaukee in their rear view mirrors.  If the Hawks sell for a disappointing price (as I expect that they will), then the local governments have leverage.  There is no guarantee that these three bad things will turn into major problems.

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You win New York Daily News, you win!

[passittowill]

With no timeouts left Coach Kidd "accidentally" spills his drink to get an improvised timeout.