Alvin Gentry next to coach Kings

kb02 said:
Defense wins.
Click to expand...

This is completely right, BUT we need more context on where this team is today and where we are going

1- our personnel on defense are BAD. Starts with Fox as your superstar who can’t play a lick of defense, Buddy right there as well. For years we haven’t added any good defenders it feels like
2- the current regime HAS made adding defense a priority. The Davion pick, adding Christie, hiring another assistant known for defense, attempting to trade Bogi for Divencenzo - that’s all about beefing the defense
3- the offense DOES have firepower to blow the doors off any opponent and was being grossly mismanaged by Walton. If Alvin can implement and explosive offense, and put in a system that’s more technical beyond just run a million miles per hour, that’s a good thing
4- building a long term contender requires defense, but that’s not happening this year. Our personnel just aren’t there to make a good defensive team, but I have faith in this FO that they understand that as well (see 2). If Alvin brings us from puke to popcorn I’ll be happy. The next step comes in the next offseason
 
captain bill said:
This is completely right, BUT we need more context on where this team is today and where we are going

1- our personnel on defense are BAD. Starts with Fox as your superstar who can’t play a lick of defense, Buddy right there as well. For years we haven’t added any good defenders it feels like
2- the current regime HAS made adding defense a priority. The Davion pick, adding Christie, hiring another assistant known for defense, attempting to trade Bogi for Divencenzo - that’s all about beefing the defense
3- the offense DOES have firepower to blow the doors off any opponent and was being grossly mismanaged by Walton. If Alvin can implement and explosive offense, and put in a system that’s more technical beyond just run a million miles per hour, that’s a good thing
4- building a long term contender requires defense, but that’s not happening this year. Our personnel just aren’t there to make a good defensive team, but I have faith in this FO that they understand that as well (see 2). If Alvin brings us from puke to popcorn I’ll be happy. The next step comes in the next offseason
Click to expand...

Nah, he can play a lick and showed he can be a game changer when used right last year. He can play a certain style of defense, pressure defense. Same with Davion who people consider this teams best defender already but apparently aren't watching what happens when a big seals him off on a screen and thrusts him equally as poorly into oblivion. Yet, on ball, he's great. Just like you would expect a guard to be. A style that lets Fox use his hands and ability to cut of ball handlers is probably the best bet to get the best defensive abilities out of him. As a team defender you're only as good as your back line and the Kings simply don't have the size to do that with a team full of guards and a 6'8" center. Nor is it smart to rely on size at center any more with the way the game is played anyway. With Fox it's a tough road on defense due to a lack of talent elsewhere. If he plays "defense" and fouls, then you probably become a lock to lose most nights because you can't compete talent wise. That's Monte and the new coaches problem. So far, not committing and waffling between playing big and small, and running a half court offense that takes up clock hasn't worked.
 
Livinthedream said:
The issue with this is if Alvin Gentry doesn't become permanent, can you expect Rico to go back to his old role, or will he be gone too?
Click to expand...

Rico's been in the organization since 2015 and is still the director of player dev. Considering all the videos of practices generally showed him being more involved than Luke, I'm not sure he's going to see any added responsibilities beyond sitting court-side instead of back behind the Gatorade jugs.

If anything, I'm just shocked another team hasn't tried to poach him by now.
 
I hope the offense changes & the team plays more pick & roll basketball ... And not talking about half-speed pick & rolls, I mean I want to see Fox and the guards attack the hoop relentlessly & the bigs to go with them to the basket. Too often it seems the guards are content playing perimeter based in my opinion. For example, check out this connection from Westbrook to Len last season - How often have we seen Fox use a Holmes/Len pick to blast to the basket AND for the roller to follow aggressively too. It should happen every other player but the Kings rarely use effective pick & roll basketball:

 
Jones2006 said:
I hope the offense changes & the team plays more pick & roll basketball ... And not talking about half-speed pick & rolls, I mean I want to see Fox and the guards attack the hoop relentlessly & the bigs to go with them to the basket. Too often it seems the guards are content playing perimeter based in my opinion. For example, check out this connection from Westbrook to Len last season - How often have we seen Fox use a Holmes/Len pick to blast to the basket AND for the roller to follow aggressively too. It should happen every other player but the Kings rarely use effective pick & roll basketball:

Click to expand...

If there's anything to expect from Gentry offenses, it's full-throttle pick and roll action. His Suns and Pels teams featured dives pretty heavily (aside from the time he ran Boogie into the ground when AD was injured).

The Suns got to the WCF in Gentry's first full season coaching them on the back of the Nash/Stoudemire pick and roll only for Robert Sarver to work his magic and chase Amar'e out of town, forcing him to use Channing Frye and Marcin Gortat as his starting centers for the next couple of seasons, which met middling success because (a) Frye was a much better spot up shooter than pick and roll threat, (b) Gortat was a solid screener but not the greatest pick and roll player ever, and (c) Steve Nash was sorta getting old.

With the Pelicans, the basis of Gentry's entire offense for most of his time there was the AD/Jrue two man game (By the point he'd arrived, Tyreke's knees were already starting to fall off) but they didn't really find much success because their defense was pretty much guaranteed to turn to crap the second teams actually started trying to play (which is weird when your entire team is built around two elite defenders like AD and Jrue). None of those defenses were as bad as the Kings under Walton though. The Zion-led Pels actually got worse on both sides of the ball after getting rid of Gentry though (trading Jrue may have also played a big role here).

The most encouraging thing about Gentry for Kings fans though is that he's shown an ability to help guys after Luke Walton has spent several seasons wrecking them. Brandon Ingram became an all-star under him after bristling under Luke on the Lakers and he helped salvage Lonzo and turn him into the elite off-the-ball player he is now after Luke spent several years doing everything he could to destroy Lonzo's confidence. Josh Hart saw a similar bump/confidence boost. If De'Aaron (even if he doesn't get back up to 25/7) and the other guys see a similar boost under Gentry, I'd call the firing a success.
 
Tetsujin said:
Rico's been in the organization since 2015 and is still the director of player dev. Considering all the videos of practices generally showed him being more involved than Luke, I'm not sure he's going to see any added responsibilities beyond sitting court-side instead of back behind the Gatorade jugs.

If anything, I'm just shocked another team hasn't tried to poach him by now.
Click to expand...

This is the thing that gets me. Rico is known as a great player development coach. So what happened to Fox's development in the off-season? Did Fox consult with him? Did he check in on Fox? Who exactly was Fox relying upon in the off-season for this unmitigated disaster of a "training program"? Did Fox go solo and shrug off advice from the experts? One thing for darned sure - this is an age where there is incredible scientific knowledge of how the body works and how an athlete can get better in his sport. Fox had the best of the best training expertise in the world available to him, and yet he comes into camp like this? What garbage.
 
Kingster said:
This is the thing that gets me. Rico is known as a great player development coach. So what happened to Fox's development in the off-season? Did Fox consult with him? Did he check in on Fox? Who exactly was Fox relying upon in the off-season for this unmitigated disaster of a "training program"? Did Fox go solo and shrug off advice from the experts? One thing for darned sure - this is an age where there is incredible scientific knowledge of how the body works and how an athlete can get better in his sport. Fox had the best of the best training expertise in the world available to him, and yet he comes into camp like this? What garbage.
Click to expand...

Some people can only learn the biggest lessons from mistakes and can only believe it when they experience it. Most of us have been there, in one way or another
 
OK, so here is what I've never understood about things like this. (coaches chasing etc.) Did Gentry just sit back and try to reinforce everything Walton was putting together and had no actual influence on the play calls or offensive sets, or did he agree with what going on here?
 
macadocious said:
OK, so here is what I've never understood about things like this. (coaches chasing etc.) Did Gentry just sit back and try to reinforce everything Walton was putting together and had no actual influence on the play calls or offensive sets, or did he agree with what going on here?
Click to expand...

Think it’s like every other close working relationship. The second chair has input, but the first chair has the final say.
 
Kingster said:
This is the thing that gets me. Rico is known as a great player development coach. So what happened to Fox's development in the off-season? Did Fox consult with him? Did he check in on Fox? Who exactly was Fox relying upon in the off-season for this unmitigated disaster of a "training program"? Did Fox go solo and shrug off advice from the experts? One thing for darned sure - this is an age where there is incredible scientific knowledge of how the body works and how an athlete can get better in his sport. Fox had the best of the best training expertise in the world available to him, and yet he comes into camp like this? What garbage.
Click to expand...
You know this is a good point. I don’t follow players on social media and I don’t know Fox’s training regimens. But I did see him putting in a lot of work on deadlifts. Which was great! He was deadlifting 500 with a trap bar as I recall which is real impressive for his weight. But I wonder whether he is also putting in equivalent work on power movements like power clean, etc. that focus more on explosive movements. Deadlifts are gonna make his back and core super strong, but they don’t work the fast twitch power movements that make Fox who he is.
 
itzcoatl said:
You know this is a good point. I don’t follow players on social media and I don’t know Fox’s training regimens. But I did see him putting in a lot of work on deadlifts. Which was great! He was deadlifting 500 with a trap bar as I recall which is real impressive for his weight. But I wonder whether he is also putting in equivalent work on power movements like power clean, etc. that focus more on explosive movements. Deadlifts are gonna make his back and core super strong, but they don’t work the fast twitch power movements that make Fox who he is.
Click to expand...

Not to mention adding a lot of upper body strength at once can destroy your jump shot until you get a lot more reps up with the increased bulk. Getting stronger probably helps your range longterm but for a period of time it will feel like you're throwing up nerf balls instead of basketballs.
 
macadocious said:
OK, so here is what I've never understood about things like this. (coaches chasing etc.) Did Gentry just sit back and try to reinforce everything Walton was putting together and had no actual influence on the play calls or offensive sets, or did he agree with what going on here?
Click to expand...

IMO, the answer to your question matters, but not that much. Firing the head coach 17 games into the season is a mandate for change. Gentry's got 65 games to show he's got what it takes to forge a playoff-worthy team. Not necessarily a playoff team, given the hole they're in, but playoff-worthy. That obviously means more wins - at least a .500 record over the remaining games - with doing things differently being the obvious path to a chance at more wins.
 
The_Jamal said:
That 3rd quarter is utterly mind-boggling. Clear indication he wasn't making necessary adjustments to keep a strong 1st half going.
Click to expand...

Yup. And we should take heart in that strong first half rating. Course, adjustments are a huge part of the game, not merely incidental to winning and losing. With all he's seen, hard to imagine Gentry being worse than Walton or even equally bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

GWD
Open Letter to Coach Christie
Replies
23
Views
2K
Caccia
Caccia
QWERTYLICIOUS
  • Poll Poll
Next 10 games
2
Replies
30
Views
1K
Joshyjosh31
J
Caccia
New Stockton Kings coach: Quinton Crawford
Replies
0
Views
362
Caccia
Caccia
QWERTYLICIOUS
Enjoy Retirement (from coaching), Coach
Replies
9
Views
202
Tetsujin
Tetsujin
ockingsfan
Welcome Coach Doug Christie!
4 5 6
Replies
152
Views
8K
jphilip
J
Back
Top