Almost all of the coaches in the league are 'player's coaches' though. Steve Kerr, Mike Malone, Ty Lue, et cetera have all been called players coaches at various times in their careers and have coached their teams to success. Most of the hardass 'coach's coaches' have gotten fired for doing dumb stuff like pissing off their stars or treating their players like high schoolers or adhering to their system so steadfastly that they can't adjust to anything else.
The successful coaches are all probably a happy medium between the two.
(Rick Adelman was considered a 'player's coach' by the way)
While I agree with you in some ways. players that coach a system that fits their team is what is key in the end. Walton is not good at adjustments. Kerr, Malone, Lue are actually pretty good coaches first before being a players coach.
the many dubs fans friends I have. Kerr coaches up players pretty well. Not all players have enough bball IQ to learn but can’t win em all.
Malone- built a nice system with Boogie and Gay then got fired cause of PDA. Got a good thing going with Jokic and team
Lue- came up with the defense to stop the dubs from bombing threes and forcing them to make 2 pt buckets instead.
walton- runs horn offense when pick and roll is clearly better for our personnel. Zero player developement. Sigh just get rid of this guy