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[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I think Carlisle coaches to win

I've been thinking about this idea a lot this season.  I felt (much like you but correct me if I'm wrong) that Rick was our second most valuable asset behind Luka.  

Even as much as I joke about Roddy, I think that situation may be the perfect example.  Rick wanted to bring Roddy along but it was more important to him to win while doing it so he trusted folks like JJB over Roddy in that 2010 season and while that may have been something the board disagreed with because they felt Roddy gave the team a chance to win, Rick saw something different and was eventually validated with JJB's play to a championship the next season.  The other thing that is interesting is that Rick was actually starting Roddy the next season as well but everything got derailed by injuries.  He was never trying to sabotage the Roddy's development but his first priority was to not sabotage the success of the team.

Now on the other end of the spectrum we have Kidd who seems to coach to...prove a point?  Both coaches (and all coaches really) use this early part of the season to mess with rotations.  With Rick, it always felt like he was trying to find a winning combination for THAT SPECIFIC GAME, not just the whole season, with Kidd...it almost feels like he's trying to show the world what DOESN'T work so that he can say that he was right about something that the media and the fans are wrong about.  His post game pressers seem to feel that way at least, just feels like head games at times instead of simply trying to win games.