How much difference does a coach make?

[senorglory]

Tyson Chandler, imo

Maybe so.

[maverick1948]

Pop is worth anywhere from 6 to 10 wins with his understanding of how things work. This season alone, he was worth close to 10 wins and responsible for 4 losses. That is what you look at. The difference is 6 wins. Most coach will get 3 or 4 wins and 3 or 4 lost games. Many other factors play into the value of a coach. Schedule, personel and front office play a role as well.

[jjktkk]

I don't know what happened to Pop the past few years, maybe he was trying to adapt the team style to our current players, but it didn't work or we didn't have the necessary players to do it.

[jjktkk]

lol 2 Pops

Thats sa210's reasoning. He/she? couldn't figure out that Pop didn't have the personnel to compete for a ring, so he/she just figured Pop has been coasting since 07 and just decided to coach again this season.

[OZWIN]

I think it helps out a team a lot when you have a coach that really knows what he is doing. Look what happened to the Lakers this past year...no Phil Jackson and things didn't work out nearly as well.

Greg Popovich is the best coach in basketball now that Jackson isn't around...and he is going to do what he does best against the Thunder...out coach the the other coach.

[coyotes_geek]

There are 2 Pop's. The one that focuses on interior D and bigs within the Spurs team, and then the Pop that sold out a few years ago and wanted to play Bonner/Finley/Blair ball.

The first Pop is who I'm rooting for, and it appears that is who we have, currently. I hope it stays this way. And yes it does matter. This Pop would would coach the Spurs to a Championship.

The first Pop had a team that could afford to spend big money on a defensive center to play next to Tim because Tim, and later Tony & Manu, were on cheap rookie contracts.

The second Pop had a team that could not afford to spend big money on a defensive center to put next to Tim because Tim, Tony and Manu were all making big bucks.

[tesseractive]

Sloan won't take the job unless he has significant say-so over the personnel. The Bobcats will get a lottery pick, and should be able to pick up a decent free agent or two. I didn't say they would contend for a le any time soon. But by the second season of being under Sloan (assuming it happened) I'd be surprised if they didn't make the post-season.

The point is, the difference in coaching is real and tangible. And the write-up was mostly for the legions of fans who don't seem to understand that.

Whoever has say over personnel, the key will be getting him the kind of players he can coach effectively. Did he have control over personnel in Utah? Or did he just have a front office that knew how to get him the right guys? Sometimes coaches who think they know what they want are terrible at getting the right guys. Larry Brown is the poster child for this.

So, yeah, this is a front office problem every bit as much as it is a coaching problem. But if they can get the right personnel, there's no question that Sloan can get the most out of them.