Chris McCosky
The Detroit News
Category: Pistons
Posted by Chris McCosky (The Detroit News) on Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 2:14 PMPlayers win, coaches lose
The Pistons lost a game, and as per usual, my email box is jammed with Fire Flip rants. My Lord, it's so tiresome.
OK, let me get this straight. Flip Saunders has coached like garbage 19 times this year. Thank goodness his players bailed him out on those 49 other games that the Pistons managed to win. That's just so wrong-minded. It's hard to believe Flip would coach his guys to miss nine layups like that. I am sure he got them in the huddle and said, "Look, they aren't guarding Antonio McDyess, so I don't want you guys looking for him. We don't want to get him too many open shots." I am sure he coached them to keep the ball on one side of the floor and shoot contested jumpers all night. Right. And all the hustle plays the Pistons didn't make -- is that on Flip, too? You know, Larry Brown The Infallible used to always say, coaches don't coach effort. Effort comes from within each player.
Of course, about half the letters pointed out the same tired refrain. "If Flip would have played the bench more, they would have had a chance to win." Were you watching the game? The bench outscored the Cavs 7-5 to start the second quarter, then LeBron James came back in. A couple of minutes later, the game was tied. The bench was 6 for 17, one assist, four turnovers. The bench was just as bad as the first unit.
Listen, the Pistons played a bad game and the Cavaliers played a very good game. They were at home, they were rested and they are fighting to find their identity with four new players. The Pistons, conversely, were playing their third game in four nights and just didn't have it. There doesn't have to be anything more to it than that at this time of the season.
Why does every loss have to be an indictment of Flip Saunders? Listen, I am more than willing to give most of the credit to the players for the team's success (so is Flip, by the way). But I feel equally compelled to hold them at least partially responsible for the losses, as well. Some of you ought to try that, you might find it refreshing to have something different to complain about.
Comments
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its undeniable...
Guys, I would caution against judging any of the newer players based on this year, including the youngsters.
The reason, and I don't want to be accused of Flip bashing, but if they aren't used properly, it's hard to fault them. If you put players in a position to fail, you'll see failure. Sadly, this IS a coaching problem.
its undeniable...
4-5 baskets?
not even. i saw 2 baskets.
the reason that he did not get his typical rebound and blocked shot numbers is that he was mostly on the perimeter guarding jamison, one on one.
i thought he was the most effective big man the pistons put out there.
sheed was horrible.
dice rebounded well, but he could not guard anyone. he gave up more buckets than anyone. he also put his other front line teammates in jeapardy because he constantly got caught away from the basket on pick and rolls and back door cuts, and teammates had to cover for him. jamison walked around him every time he was isolated on him. he didn't even need a pick to get free of dice.
max did ok, but it was not a good matchup day for him. there is no one on the court who is a natural matchup for him. washington relies so much on their movement and back door cuts that he often, like dice, got caught away from the basket, while his man was scooting, back door, to the basket.
ratliff was just okay, but he really seems out of rythm because of his inconsistent playing time.
he really didn't make an impression.
the only big guy who actually had an impact was amir, and he kept jamison from getting off.
actually, i was wrong on a couple of points. i just checked the play by play at nba.com.
jamison had only 3 points when amir guarded him. one bucket and 1 free throw.
the goaltending call i thought was on jamison was actually on stevenson. so he was actually helping out teammate's man.
anyway you look at it, you have to acknowledge that amir did the best job on jamison.
it was not a coincidence that jamison started scoring and eventually scored 24 points after amir went to the bench. he scored 3 points - three points on amir!!!- amir was the only guy quick and long enough to guard a unique player like jamison.
the fact that flip did not go back to his best defender on the oppositions's leading scorer is just typical of his coaching.
its undeniable...
Well from what you just described Amir gave up 4-5 baskets on his own man and help defense and he only played six minutes. No stops, quality fouls, blocks, or rebounds.(although he did have one steal and basket off that turnover). Im a big fan of Amir alot but think he was put in a little too early yesterday, Maxiell would have been more effective.
its undeniable...
hate to disagree, but i think you're incorrect about amir getting burned by haywood.
when amir was in the game, he guarded jamison and did an excellent job. i only recall jamison getting two baskets on amir, and one was on a goaltend.
amir did get caught guarding haywood a couple of times, but each time it was because he rotated back on haywood because dice was too slow to get back to haywood, after haywood had set a screen out near the three point line. i definitely recall two haywood dunks with amir right behind him, but ii think he was covering for dice each time.
washington was specifically getting dice out in the open court to take advantage of his inability to recover and get back to defend near the basket.
it worked very well, as the entire front line for washington had good games and dice was out of position all game.
its undeniable...
Thanks, Takes a long time to write. And, to be so right.
its undeniable...
Flip made some curious rotation moves yesterday and in the loss against Cleveland. Yesterday, Im not sure why he brought in Amir that early in the first quarter after Sheed got into foul trouble. Perhaps he wanted to experiment a little bit but it didnt work out that well. Haywood had his way with him. Also when we had some scoring lulls in the game against Washington and Cleveland, Rip sat on the bench for long stretches. This was even more apparent yesterday when Rip was the only one with the hot hand. Dixon could have contributed some yesterday as well. Also why arent we drawing up plays for Hayes. He's been on fire and this is just him creating offense for himself. Guys in his face and he is knocking down threes. Imagine if we drew up plays for him and he was more open.
its undeniable...
yeah, its true that the boys deserve some credit for their lackluster performances in their losses. but i think there are some good things to consider:
1) Flip has always been poor at in-game management, which is one of the most important responsibilites of a coach, and how a coach contributes to a win or a loss. Rick Carlisle may have been one of the best at this in recent history. He not only had a very discerning eye (which is essential, esp cuz the coach is not on the court), but he was never afraid to take a gamble after using his awesome basketball brain. i doubt flip has the brains, eyes, or balls to coach like the past two.
2) The season is very long, and sometimes a coach needs to get his players locked in and focused. i know as professionals that the players should get themselves like this for every game, but when it doesn't happen the coach needs to be the doing i. look at other "great" coaches like riley and jackson, who coach via managing their team properly. it would be more simple to just trade away the un-locked in players, but our team is talented, experienced, has good chemistry, and very close to the championship yet again-- so flip would have to be the first casualty if our boys don't get going. anyways, despite your larry brown comment on effort coming from within, i think you and i both know that's just brown's infamous way of dodging blame for anything. a lot of times a coach can motivate you to do just about anything.
3) in general it just doesn't seem like flip's philosophies and the pistons players match all that well. as a team, someone has to buy into the larger dream. in most cases, it should be the players buying into the coach's ideas, but previous systems were ingrained into our consciousness. and while the players play with flip's system whenever the sailing is easy, whenever times get tough, they often self-destruct. anyways, who's ever heard of a jump-shooting team winning it all anymore? if the pistons weren't so damn good, this would be a recipie for disaster! i mean take it to the fcking rack for god sakes!!!!
4) in relation to the coach and players not buying into each other, i think flip values being right himself over doing the right thing. this is something rick and larry would be hard pressed to admit, but you could see it in them. however, flip wants so much to dodge any blame, that he often does the wrong thing. i can't tell you how many times our players have gotten in an argument with the ref and flip just watched them argue. i don't care who you are as a leader, sometimes you have to stick up for your boys; EVEN IF YOU KNOW THEY'RE WRONG!
ok, this list could go on and on and i know you're a busy dude. so let me sum this up. yeah, flip may have contributed to the 49 wins, but he often fails to do many of the things the public sees that most good coaches would do. i'm not sure that our loss total would be less (but i do feel that way) if flip could over come some of his deficeincies, or we got another coach. i am sure, however, that our players are beasts, and that whatever you ask of them, they generally will do! how else could we explain the 67 win season, or the multiple number 1 defensive rankings?
finally, i do believe these kind of deficiencies are fine, if they are overcome over time. however, it seems that we have been watching flip bumble through this same shiet for the past couple of years. i do believe THIS is why everyone always directs their ire towards flip!
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