Smart working with TRob

[Section 101]

The message to Thomas Robinson for the final two games of summer league is to slow down.


Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/sports/kings/archives/2012/07/keith-smart-on.html#storylink=cpy

Jason Jones Tweet

Coach Smart is spending some time after practice working with Thomas Robinson on post moves
updated over 3 hours ago

Lets see how he does tomorrow.

 

[ElRey]

Despite all the criticism of Smart's questionable substitution patterns and his love of small ball, I have to commend him for his involvement with the development of his players. Not many coaches will be doing this, and I do not remember any recent Kings' head coach working with his players individually.

 

[Kingster]

Delighted to hear that Smart is working with T-Rob on his offensive game, but I also want to hear about him working with him on his D, which has been extremely poor. If the Kings want to set a tone for next season, playing non-existent D in the summer league isn't the way to do it. I've been very unimpressed with the "coaching" of this summer league group compared to what I see from other teams.

 

[mac]

Despite all the criticism of Smart's questionable substitution patterns and his love of small ball, I have to commend him for his involvement with the development of his players. Not many coaches will be doing this, and I do not remember any recent Kings' head coach working with his players individually.

I would have to agree. One of my fears (and I am being overly paranoid here) is that the very thing that Smart is good at (which is being a player's coach, having very personal relationships with all his players) could end up being the team's downfall when those relationships get in the way of him being tight on his rotations. In a recent interview, he said something along the lines of (paraphrased) "I know players around the league like to know how many minutes they're getting a game and when they're playing, but I would like to have a team where we can have 10-12 guys playing".

There's no team in the NBA that is deep enough such that the 12th man gets regular minutes. None. Because if the team did there'd be issues of balance, too many players competing for shots and quality minutes (like we foresee with Brooks/IT/Thornton/Evans) resulting in unhappiness in the locker room. That's the way it works in the league. Would it be nice if everyone could get along and Kobe would play 15 minutes a night so that Devin Ebanks and Darius Morris get a chance to play every game? Sure! Would it be great if they could do that and still win? Sure! But it doesn't happen, and will never happen.

 

[Kingster]

I would have to agree. One of my fears (and I am being overly paranoid here) is that the very thing that Smart is good at (which is being a player's coach, having very personal relationships with all his players) could end up being the team's downfall when those relationships get in the way of him being tight on his rotations. In a recent interview, he said something along the lines of (paraphrased) "I know players around the league like to know how many minutes they're getting a game and when they're playing, but I would like to have a team where we can have 10-12 guys playing".

There's no team in the NBA that is deep enough such that the 12th man gets regular minutes. None. Because if the team did there'd be issues of balance, too many players competing for shots and quality minutes (like we foresee with Brooks/IT/Thornton/Evans) resulting in unhappiness in the locker room. That's the way it works in the league. Would it be nice if everyone could get along and Kobe would play 15 minutes a night so that Devin Ebanks and Darius Morris get a chance to play every game? Sure! Would it be great if they could do that and still win? Sure! But it doesn't happen, and will never happen.

Playing 12 guys makes no sense. I hope that was just a flippent remark. It's all on Smart for next year. This team has talent, even with it's current imbalances, and I think their D can be a heckuvalot better than last year with the proper coaching and commitment. Maybe you are right and Smart is acting mor like an assistant coach, who is usually the friend, whereas the head coach is usually the parent. It's possible, though, that he has accumulated some capital with all of his visitations of the players, and then he can use that capital during the regular season. We'll see. Personally, I'd like for him to make it clear that playing time is dictated by performance, and performance is going to weighted toward the defensive end of the floor. This team has abundant speed and rebounding, but if they don't pay attention to simple things like switching and talking on D and getting back on defense, they will have a very nice engine with no spark plug.

 

[funkykingston]

In a recent interview, he said something along the lines of (paraphrased) "I know players around the league like to know how many minutes they're getting a game and when they're playing, but I would like to have a team where we can have 10-12 guys playing".

The only way that happens realistically (and I fear may actually be the plan) is if Smart plans to be a full time run-and-gun team making utilization of the deep bench to keep the pace high.

I hope I'm wrong because that is a recipe for disaster as history has shown time and time again. It might squeak out a few more wins against tired teams but in general it doesn't work and it's a strategy the doesn't mesh well at all with the talent on this team, especially Cuz.

And guys who SHOULD be getting much more minutes than they will under that sort of system will be understandably upset. I really hope this 10-12 men playing talk is just that.

 

[Bricklayer]

You know, TRob hasn't been much more effective this game, but I think Smart's talk may have helped some -- I like the game he is playing, or at least attempting to play, this time more than his previous ones.

 

[SacKings7]

Despite all the criticism of Smart's questionable substitution patterns and his love of small ball, I have to commend him for his involvement with the development of his players. Not many coaches will be doing this, and I do not remember any recent Kings' head coach working with his players individually.

That's because any recent Kings' head coaches have been head coaches by title only. 0 of them are currently NBA head coaches, excluding Adelman of course.

 

[kingjatt]

The only way that happens realistically (and I fear may actually be the plan) is if Smart plans to be a full time run-and-gun team making utilization of the deep bench to keep the pace high.

I hope I'm wrong because that is a recipe for disaster as history has shown time and time again. It might squeak out a few more wins against tired teams but in general it doesn't work and it's a strategy the doesn't mesh well at all with the talent on this team, especially Cuz.

And guys who SHOULD be getting much more minutes than they will under that sort of system will be understandably upset. I really hope this 10-12 men playing talk is just that.

he likes to be buddy buddy with these guys and lets his feelings get in the way of his rotational decsions. i fully expect more of the 10 man rotations and random benchings next year. its just been his MO throughout his short coaching career.