a) Peja looks a lot like Glen Rice, who Phil had absolutely no use for;
b) Phil hasn't turned bad defensive players into good ones anymore than Rick has. Michael, Scottie, Rodman, Grant were great defenders with or without Phil. As, I warrant, would Kobe have turned out to be. Phil got Shaq to get in shape for a year or two, but that has a lot more to do with Shaq and his unprofessional conditioning than it does with Phil.
c) the triangle. Its Phil's offense. His crutch, even though contrary to popular belief he neither designed it nor is its guru. To win a championship with it requires major league stars which we do not have.
d) There is not room for Phil's ego and a GM. He clashed badly with Krause over the years, and was more or less fired over it. He then chased Jerrry West out of L.A. Don't even want to mess with that happening to Geoff.
e) basic structure -- think about it. Phil Jackson won 9 championships. And EVERY one of the 9 looked virtually identical as far as players and roles:
1) Batman and Robin -- two great HOF talents. At least one of whom has to be a strong post player (actually both must be able to play in there if needed), both of whom defend.
2) Defensive roleplaying PFs
3) PGs who's duties were bring the ball up, hand it off, then go stand at the three point line and spot up. On the other end, defend.
4) A 5th low minute starter who's job is to be a 3rd gun if needed, which isn't too often, provide a little defense, and stay out of the way. Most flexible positon Years 1-3 = Cartwright. Years 4-6= Longley. Year 7=Rice. Years 8-9=Fox.
5) Everybody else = roleplayers who shoot only when open, play defense, hustle.
6) The Kukoc years showed that there was room for a 6th man in the system, even one who does not play defense. But Phil was never terribly comfortable with it, and it may well have been an aberration as there was no equivalent before or after.
In short, we might be the last team ont he planet with the necessary pieces to run Phil's stuff. His Cs post up (nope) his PGs spot up and defend (nope) his PFs defend (nope) and its all keyed around two incomparable talents drawing double teams and creating space, without which the system would likely collapse. You have to squint really hard to see our pieces fit that system. And so you say, maybe for the first time in his 15 years of coaching Phil does something new. Tries a new structure. But that's not what you're paying $10mil for. You have no idea whether Phil can win it all with a different structure, even if he was willing to try it.
I am a Cowboys fan; I think JJ learned his lesson considering we had the best draft of all the teams this year (well at least on paper.)
