Interesting listen from TrueHoop’s David Thorpe about why he thinks NBA coaching has never been worse. Also gets into the Draymond Green stuff and Wembanyama, if that’s of interest.
[https://open.spotify.com/episode/24Q68C9sq8F3H1YIdPKkvd?si=LfdwYYH\_RSSHyMM4FICydA](https://open.spotify.com/episode/24Q68C9sq8F3H1YIdPKkvd?si=LfdwYYH_RSSHyMM4FICydA)
by Sikatanan
14 Comments
Does he mean like delegation of their duties to assistants, turning blind eyes to star players’ behavior, or just providing no coaching at all in key areas?
cough cough “Steve Nash” cough cough
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I honestly believe if you replaced Spo with any of the other 29 coaches in the league right now, we don’t have nearly the same success we’ve had the past 3ish years.
Not gonna lie, I don’t have a clue as to who David Thorpe is but I assume he has never coached in the NBA, and if he did he absolutely sucked at it. He has no right to talk about something he has never experienced. His comment just made him look like a fool.
There’s more coaching today than anytime period in the NBA.
Just look at the complexity of the offenses and defenses in the league now. There’s no way players are doing these schemes without being coached.
To me this comes off as Thorpe being the smartest man in the room.
This is also very different in the NBA and Euroleague. Thats why they often say that top coaches in Europe wouldn’t necessarily be as impactful in the NBA, cause they are used to having more power and players adjusting after them instead of the opposite. In the NBA its more about player relations.
With the Warriors at least, Kerr does little coaching in the sense of “helping a player get better”. It’s all game focused. That’s why it was so important to build a really strong staff of assistants around the head coach. Warriors are very quick, for example, to credit Dejan Milojevic for the bit improvements Looney made last year. And Ron Adams is often cited as one of the most important guys in the whole org. The lack of growth in the young players is a big reason they turned over the coaching staff the year before.
It just sounds like a whole load of horseshit. To make it more simple just name the bad coaches in the NBA because arguably they’re more competent ones than bad.
I always thought coaches were just glorified babysitters. That’s all they’re really there for.
Somebody’s gotta keep these millionaires in check or else they’ll just be going to clubs all the time, not practicing, showing up late, etc.
When you have guys who are just barely able to buy alcohol signing close to 200M deals, it is difficult to coach them. They have the leverage in the relationship and that’s part of how the NBA is compared to say the NFL. Players have way more power and the coaches kinda just have to deal with it if they want to keep their jobs. Older coaches like Popovich or Spoelstra have the experience and wins where they demand the respect from players and the line between coach and player is very clear. The other coaches have to play nice and acquiesce more to players, even players that haven’t done a damn thing but are “superstars”.
Interesting I think coaching has gotten better now compared to 20 years ago. Also 15 years ago I had to learn the Princeton offense by fucking scratch. Nowadays there’s tons of resources out there. Coaching at college and nba has def gotten better in the last 20 years. NOW AAU ON THE OTHER HAND… it’s gotten worse and worse as the $ keeps pilin it
Of course they are. The league panders to the players. What do you expect?
havent listened yet but Thorpe is always a great pod listen, really down to earth dude