(06-19-2021, 06:00 PM)Kammrath Wrote: I have looked and seen nothing. But with the report that there was "simmering tension" between the two it doesn't surprise me.
RC in his farewell statement named all the star players he had coached in Dallas EXCEPT Luka. I noted that IMMEDIATELY when RC resigned, but I am not sure many saw it in all the chaos. RC purposely did NOT mention Luka in his goodbye....I bet Luka is incredibly happy and excited he will be getting a new coach.
Well noted Kammrath. There seems something in this for sure. I think also based on this, that Luka was happy with Nelson for drafting him. But not happy with RC. We have seen it in games that he questioned the decision making of RC. There is probably a lot going behind the scenes we do not know relating to Xs and Os. To me it more related to tactics the way he questions RC than to something else, they seem personally as good friends on the court and in the way RC was speaking of him before and the other way around.
I think to me that paints another picture than most on this forum that "RC is great tactician, but not good enough a players coach". I see this as 180 degrees opposite... To me based on all I have seen, the offense becoming Luka-centric, that RC was not able to develop anything tactically better than Luka getting the ball and improvising. I think even Luka has become tired of that, and questions the decision making of RC.
And I think RC hates that, because Luka in some ways is better tactician than him. Lukas offense worked better than anything RC could come up with. Put it this way, I believe Luka challenged much more Rick in tactics than the other way around.
I think he holds high opinion of Nelson for drafting him which would never change, even if he kept making every wrong decision, as he did after drafting Luka and Brunson. But Luka must be annoyed to some level not being surrounded by quality playoff caliber players such as Gallinari, Capela, Bogdanovic, Collins and new good draft picks: Hunter etc.
Based on all these thoughts, the HC position I am the least worried with. Because RC became Luka-centric, and as everyone will able to do that, as the very minimum, we should only be able to stay the same or become better going forward. The most important and difficult thing would be to get a great GM that can assemble the right players around Luka. But since Nelson didnt do well the last 3 years. Well, I am also not afraid of this change.
All in all, at a minimum we should stay equally competitive IMO.
On offense, we need a HC that can challenge Luka and earn his respect with Xs and Os. Something that i think RC was really bad in, is developing tactics to mitigate the double teams on Luka. You would hope and wish your opponent double team you, so you can easy exploit that, its free points almost. Our schemes were awful exploiting that and it worked too many times and it is like RC didnt learn how to combat that and adapt. Another thing I hated is that Luka runs too much with the ball. His stamina was/is not world class, and the best tactician would have thought of that and tried to minimise this particular impact. In fact, stamina of Luka decided the series against Clippers, so this was a huge thing not just a little detail. Luka was so tired and ineffective towards of the end of each game. Why not let someone else than Luka get the basketball up the court and pass it to Luka in the post, from where he can be the focal point and start the show? He spend so much energy running with the basketball very far away from the paint, getting double teamed and pressured etc. giving the ball away, and then running so much again to positions where he could get the ball again. At these deep lying positions, double teams are also way more effective. If his initial contact with the basketball instead was first in the final third, or in the post, he would have much more energy for a full game, and double teams would be much more risky here. Look at how Denver get the basketball to Jokic. He doesnt dribble for a minute from one end of the court to another each and single posession. This not only would save Lukas stamina, and also make double teams less effective, but also involve other players more to get the ball up the court and exploit matchups alone, without Luka, if available and good.