Has there ever been a coach in NBA history who has so many Blow a lead?

i say we fire sudoku and get the real pro, doctor rivers.

 

The pelicans and the grizzllies lead the league in blown 4th quarter leads. Last year, Eric Spoelstra led the league.

So yes, there are.

 

Though Pelicans and Grizzlies don’t have the ambitions we have, and Spoelstra has two rings to back himself up (and a weaker roster in these couple of seasons). Udoka has less excuses. And Fred’s absence is not a valid excuse anymore - it was a legit excuse last season when he occasionally injured and set several games. But for an entire season, it’s Udoka responsibility to figure out how we can keep running the ball even though we don’t have natural pg.

 

It's actually not anyone's responsibility to do something that there's no evidence can work ever in NBA history.

It's not his responsibility to prove that you can win difficult/playoff games without having a single person on the floor with an elite handle and vision. No one can do that.

What is his responsibility is to not entertain dumb experiments like these for more than 10-20 games. What is his responsibility is going to the front office and saying this is not possible without acquiring a PG. What is his responsibility is putting more ball handlers on the court and generating more movement so that we decentralize our offense (rather than stupidly go iso).

On the Spo point, he's one of the best in the NBA so it can happen to him it means that it can happen to any elite coach. That is to say, blowing 4th quarter lead is not necessarily a sign a coach is not elite. It's more symptomatic of what rotation you can/do put on the floor.

 

Our bench sucks, literally one of the worst in the league, so our starters have to play a lot. And they simply don’t have the stamina needed collectively to meet the bar Udoka wants to see on defense. That in turn has a domino effect on offense - guys just get tired and gassed and start playing dumb, stagnant basketball.

 

That’s a great question - did Ime actually raise the flag about our need for a pg replacement (he probably didn’t before Fred’s injury), or does he wait for Fred and had given up for this season. If it’s the first - Stone obviously bears mist of the responsibility for this situation. I actually prefer knowing that the two of them are not getting along and one party tries to sc*** the other on the expense of our team success, than knowing both of them believe they’re fine with the way our roster is.

 

Udoka hasn't solved the mystery of how to win with this deeply flawed roster. Doesn't excuse him from the results, because his rotations are suspect, but there's plenty of blame to throw around.

 

He’s gotten very defensive about drawing up plays lately, my sense is this is not just coming from the press, the players and Stone must be pushing him on this too, and it’s totally normal for young guys to need more direction and structure. The problem here is Udoka needs an elite PG to run a read&react scheme like that and we don’t have that. We didn’t have that in Fred either. And the fact that they seem pretty content with not only keeping a post-ACL tear Fred around, but tying their championship hopes to him doesn’t bode well at all for this team.

 

Your observation on the surface looks accurate, but I think it's Ime's lineups and rotations that suck more so than our bench.

Ime appears to love to start and play 5 forwards as much as possible. Sengun is a C/F type, but starting KD, Bari. Tari and Amen weakens our bench.

Personally, I'd start Reed at PG and Okogie in the backcourt. Move Amen to SF and then rotate Tari and Bari in for Josh and Alpi at the 6 min point. That would dramatically shift the bench dynamic and give us more scoring punch. I'd also let JD get some minutes as Reed's backup so that we have a PG-type on the court most of the game. Finally, I'd give Uncle Jeff some minutes. He's solid screener, decent defender, good passer, can hit a three, and is a smart player.

There's no way that DFS should be playing so much. I mean I like the guy and think he tries hard, but he's still trying to come back and should at best be doing 8-12 mins a game. We're also putting too many minutes on KD and Amen. We've been lucky so far, but that can change in an instant.

 

Last year Udoka was the toast of the town but this year he's toast. I still think he's a good coach. Despite injuries to FVV and Steven Adams, despite the KD Files...we're still 4th best in a competitive western conference.

My main issue is with Rafael Stone. It's a shame that no one among the young core is emerging as our franchise cornerstone. We shouldn't have to rely on KD this much. Someone from among the young core should be taking the lead.

 

When I followed the Pelicans a few years ago, because of Zion, the Pelicans routinely lost double digits leads in the 4th.. Most of those they were up 20+ in the 3rd.. SVG was horrible with his lineups as well

 

We know now from Ben Dubose that they see Fred as the most valuable player on a 2nd seeded team in the West so they probably think 90% of PG's wouldn't make a dent in his place.

People don't realize how big a deal it is that the see Fred this way. It's why they punted on the season. It's why they think it's not our year before we've even thrown a punch. It's why they didn't acquire a PG. It's why they traded Brooks, Maluach and Green thinking they've not sacrificed anything for KD (thus not caring that we're pissing a season away). It's what shields Ime and Stone from criticism and lowers Tilman's expectations. It's what makes Ime act like we're a desperate team that can only survive with tons of offensive rebounds. It's why FVV got $25m without testing the market while they're going to make Amen prove his worth by testing the market.

Short version: he didn't go to the front office.

 

Worst 4th quarter of the season. It’s on the players and the head coach. It’s an alarming sign. Can any of the assistant coaches do a better job than Ime?