Lon's rotations kill the Hawks against quality tea

[Diesel]

ms.

Tonight there was no 9 man injured raptor team in the building. It was a minnesota team that has adapted a zone defense (Look Walter, a zone!). But the main problem as I see it is that Lon doesn't understand how to rotate and when. The players would never say it outright but Lon's coaching sucks.

My Shortlist.

Greg Hill

Brian Hill**

Chuck Daily**

Eddie Jordan

Danny Ainge

Allan Bristow

Larry Bird ?

Terry Stotts

Clyde Drexler

[JTFan31]

Kruger did a [censored] poor job in coaching last night vs the Wolves. Dont they have automatic adjustments when the opposing team plays zone defense, one thinking that they should right? Well wrong, they didnt, first of Lon starts the 2nd quarter with bench players then when he realize that he needs some of his starters back in there he couldnt adjust to the zone.....what kind of BS of coaching is that. I'm sorry but I am officially on the "bashing kruger" bandwagon. But it didn't end there, after our team got the lead down to 12 to enter the 4th, he starts the 4th with all bench players except for Reef.......Big Dog was hot, JT was doing his thing and they start the 4th on the bench, another [censored] poor decision by Kruger. He lost the game for us last night, KG had a mediocre game and the Wolves score 103 pts on us, thats BS.

Kruger must be let go now, I'm tired of him losing games for us with his terrible coaching techniques.

[Sage11]

Welcome to the light brother!

[Diesel]

It's not that I don't like Lon, it's that he's not capable of being a winning coach against good teams. Flip Saunders is an excellent coach, however, Lon was not in the same building with him last night. I don't think he will ever be. Therefore we will always have wasted talent. I have 4 names from my short list with Explaination.

1. Chuck Daily. I like him because he was able to prosper with a balanced team. It wasn't because Isiah or Mark Aguire, or Dumars, or A.D. was ever too much of a star and overshawdowed the rest. It was that Daily ran the team in a way where everyone could shine. ALSO, Daily was a master of exploiting matchups. He is the creator of the Jordan Rules... Which really worked until Pippen got his head out of his a**. The other thing is that Daily knew how to use his bench. The Second team was better than the first team sometimes and Daily knew how to exploit that.

2. Brian Hill. I like this guy. He was Shaq's first teacher. Mainly I like him because he understood how to work with versatile players. He had Penny, Nick Anderson, D. Scott, and he was able to do great things with THEM... NOt to mention Shaq. He'd work really well with what we have now in Ira, Big Dog, and Shareef.

3. Mike Fratello. The Czar would be a step into Hawks past. IN Atlanta, he'd have probably the most talented team he's ever coached... (talented on both sides of the ball that is). Yes, he had Nique, Moses, Willis, and Theus... But no defense. Now, he can come here with all this defense and offense and really make some noise. He can really work with talent and he's very good at exploiting and motivating.

4. Mike Dunleavy. I don't like Dunleavy as a defensive minded Coach, but I do appreciate the fact that he knows how to work with Talented players and he understands how to rotate.

[Traceman]

I think he has done some good things with the team and I like him but if I see one more lineup like the one that started the 2nd quarter last night (Theo, Hendu, Ham, Glover & Davis), I won't defend him anymore. How in the [censored] can Phil Jackson manage to keep either Shaq or Kobe in the game at all times and Jim O'Brien can keep either Pierce or Walker in the game at all times and yet Lon can't seem to figure out how to keep 2 of the 3 of Reef, Dog and JT on the floor at all times? Even worse, how can all 3 of them EVER be sitting at the same time unless its a blow out situation? We lost last night's game with that horrible lineup that started the 2nd quarter. If that wasn't bad enough, he sat Dog to start the 4th after he got hot late in the 3rd. You NEVER do that! If Dog was asking for a blow, that's one thing but otherwise, let him play! Save him? We were still down a dozen when the 4th began. It would have been much better to let him keep playing and try to get back in the game asap while we had them reeling rather than taking the pressure off of them by pulling the hot man out. Even if Dog had run out of gas with 6 minutes left, we probably would have been back in the game and we could have let Theo, Reef, Ira, Glove and JT try to bring it home. ARRRRRRRGHHHHHH!

[Diesel]

No way to defend that bad coaching.

If you remember what I posted before the game. I said that Big Dog would have to come up Big and that SAR would have to draw fouls and not go out and shoot from outside. The last thing is that Lon can't kill us with his bad lineups. What happened?? Did Lon see the ZOne and have college flashbacks? Rule #2, you always attack a zone. Namely by ball rotation and player movement. Depending on which zone they play, you overcrowd a side and attack the middle. I know Lon knows this. But [censored], Memphis played Minn. much stronger than we did.

[Guest]

Lon is a guy you want to root for because he is

a nice guy...But sometimes nice guys finish last.

No wonder Deke laughed at Lon a few years ago.

Lon is the other coaches favorite guy to go againest

because he is a clueless good loser.

[Traceman]

attacked the zone in the 2nd half but its hard to attack ANY kind of defense with Theo, Hendu, Ham, Glove and Davis on the floor. In the 2nd half, we DID rotate the ball and we got some good looks, the shots just weren't falling. JT won't always be that cold and Big Dog was very effective finding holes in the zone.

As for Reef, his stats were good but he was having a difficult time getting the ball in a position to score against the zone. He did an EXCELLENT job of passing out of the post and he could have had a triple double if JT hadn't been so cold.

The bottom in is that it wasn't Lon's strategy in attacking the zone that cost us the game, it was the HORRIBLE lineup he was trying to attack the zone with at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th quarters.

[Guest Walter]

Gill & Garnett are both good defenders with Garnett being one of the league's best. Hmm? I haven't ever seen Minnesota get out of the first round either. Zone only - or without defenders simply capable of shutting down the opponent's top offensive players - wins you nothing of importance.

Even your poster child for offense in Dallas starts often and plays even more the following:

1) Najera,

2) a CBA level offensive player in Griffin (#1 in SP48Mins...averages more than half as many steals as points and has started all but one game he's played),

3) Bradley,

4) and even Nowitski is averaging 1 BPG and 1.64 SPG,

5) Nash, who has TRIPLED his SPG average (1.65) from last year so far this year.

Of course, you insist that Raef and Van Exel would do us just as good as Ira and Theo. The point isn't whether they would or wouldn't, really, although I don't think they wouldn't. The point is THEY COST MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH! Defense is at least equally as important, is statistically more important in the playoffs, and funny thing is it costs less. Hmm? What's in your wallet?

Also, after every single loss (even after 3 consecutive wins, 1 agains tthe NBA champions away) must we hear your list of 75 year old, 4 year retired, 10 year washed up coaches? I agree that the second half starting lineup was ugly but have you seen anything more ugly than Chuck Daily? Not likely. Not lately.

W

[Nurlman]

Let's see. The team is 6-5, on the way to something like 48-34. That means your post-loss "Lon sucks - here are eight mediocre out-of-work coaches that would be better" thread will appear about 29 more times this season.

The team lost. Not Lon. None of that other crap matter when you shoot 15%.

[Traceman]

part of the responsibility for that loss. The team did shoot 15% in the 2nd quarter but look who Lon put in a position to take the shots. Just how high of a percentage do you expect a lineup of Theo, Hendu, Ham, Glover and Davis to shoot, particularly against a zone? That "other crap" DOES matter!

I agree with you that the team lost but Lon lost too because he is a part of the team. His poor substitutions last night contributed to that loss every bit as much as JT's tough shooting night did, if not more so. JT HAD to take all those 3's because we were so far behind and a big part of the reason we were so far behind is because of Lon's poor substitutions.

[Nurlman]

You're right, he needs to be a little less wholesale about his subs. It's his biggest flaw, and it matters a lot.

I just get tired of people blasting him out of the water when he does a lot of things very well.

[Diesel]

KG is a very good defender... but Gill hasn't been a good defender since he left Seattle. Ask Riley.

Secondly, you don't need players who solely play defense if you are going to play Zone. All you need is players who are athletic enough to rotate and not foul.

Have you ever watched a DUKE game. One on one, only Battier/Brand were a good defenders. That whole Bobby Hurley Slap the floor crap didn't work in the pros. His a** got ate up by Mookie Blaylock slapping the floor. Most Duke players cannot defend on ball. Christian Laettner? Grant Hill? Danny Ferry? All of them came to the pros and were supposed to be great defensive players. However, all of them were found to be lacking.

But when Duke played a Zone, it made everyone look better. That's what you have in Dallas. Because in a Zone, you are responsible for gaurding a position on the floor and not a player.

[Diesel]

Lack back when we first got Lon or when we picked up Big Dog.

I have been saying for a long time that Lon is just a transition coach. He would get us no further than development. I noticed from the beginning I noted that Lon couldn't rotate worth a [censored]. The beginning was 3 yrs ago. When Lon sat JT in order to play MM and when Lon sat Dj and DD to play Erob, I said we need to get rid of this College Coach.

Instead of trying to label something you don't know about you need to go back a little further. This isn't a new bandwagon... And the only purpose of this bandwagon is to make sure that our Hawks team is the best it can be... And I really don't think that you can HONESTLY say that Lon is the best coach we can get right now. If you believe that you must be related to him.

[Traceman]

does something well and he has a lot of good qualities. I really hope he does make the transition from college to NBA coach because he is a class guy. The only thing that I get frustrated with him about are his sub patterns. The haters have been complaining about the offense but actually, we've been scoring well and shooting a high percentage. If he can improve his rotations, I think he could take this team a long way because its clear that the players like and respect him.

[Guest Walter]

Theo can stretch defenses with a mid range J or provide team energizing dunks. Ira is a perfect offensive complement to our "big three" offensive players as he is so efficient at scoring what he does that he gets his points without hardly needing the ball in his hands. Exactly how many basketballs do you think a team plays with?

Of course, it was you who insisted we resign Deke (even though we shouldn't and couldn't) or "[censored]" him and the team despite HIM being a defender ONLY.

Also, Laettner and Ferry came out of cllege known as great defenders? I didn't even think Hill did but if you say so. It isn't a real zone, anyhow, as you can't camp in the lane remember. That was your excuse for Deke not becoming more dominant. Well, if a zone was supposed to be what made Deke more dominant and Deke is now far less dominant, how much of a true zone is being allowed?

Remember, no "zone" playing team has won ANYTHING and no team other than a Phil Jackson coached team has ever ranked as a better offensive FG% team than defensive FG% team. Unless you are coached by Phil Jackson (and/or have MJ/Pippen or Shaq/Kobe perhaps) you better play better defense than offense, PERIOD!

W