Hey everyone. It’s great to be writing from New York. Queens to be exact. I haven’t been to the city in a few years, and I miss it. When we landed in JFK I caught the end of the Knicks game, something I was not able to do much of on the west coast, unfortunately. Jalen Brunson is nasty, and the airport was a glorious shit show. Props to my family for letting me finish watching the game on my phone while we rushed through the taxi line Home-Alone style.
Let’s get into it.
Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights
Does coaching matter?
Probably not?
Maybe?
As the NBA playoffs are now in full swing, and teams are officially being eliminated, the NBA’s favorite past time comes into full focus: the scapegoating of NBA coaches.
In the next week or so we should be hearing news on the firings of Darvin Ham (sic that already happened), and Frank Vogel, two coaches who have been ousted from the first round of the playoffs, and did not deliver on expectations. (sad face)
In the case of Darvin Ham, I appreciate the leadership he provided, and the way he was able to save the Lakers from the brink of collapse during the whole Russell Westbrook saga. He took a once anemic team to a Western Conference championship series, he made being a fan fun in Los Angeles, Jack Nicholson showed up! but from a strategic standpoint, and by strategic I mean Xs and Os, the type of shit that a pro coach should be good at, ie: running plays, doodling on a white board, game feel, he wasn’t up to par.
On the other hand he is an exceptional leader. We all have short memory spans, but Ham motivated the Lakers, a mildly comatose team, into some pretty amazing shit over the last few years.
That’s like motivating a bulldog to run the Boston Marathon.
There’s not many coaches who could’ve done that, especially after the Westbrook trade, and it’s all the more impressive that he did it in his first year on the sideline.
Then again, his penchant for questionable play calling and terrible feel for the rhythm of a game, dumb-ass shit that even basketball idiots like myself understand, was criminal.
There were numerous occasions in the Denver/Lakers series (this year) where I practically yelled at the TV, wondering why in the world he was not calling time-out!!
Coach Ham often had the look on his face of a hipster who was way too high to be at the party, like the room was spinning, and you had to wonder if he was even at the right party because it didn’t seem like he knew anyone there.
The fact that the Lakers led for 70% of the Denver series, aka had more points than Denver for all that time, and still lost — 4 games to 1, twice on game winners by Jamal Murray, says all you need to know about their coaching situation.
Unfortunately it’s not going to be easy to replace a coach who can lead like Ham.
As for Frank Vogel, the coach of the Suns, it’s the exact opposite situation, as in he has the Xs and Os down cold but probably could not lead a child to the playground.
There’s simply no universe where a team with that much money invested into it can continue to employ a coach whose players laugh at him during a team meeting in the locker room, which was reported here. Talk about lacking control of a team.
I feel kinda bad saying this but from an outsider’s perspective it doesn’t seem like Coach Vogel has the ability to connect with his players. He looks like a guy who listens to Singin’ in the Rain and goes for corn dogs, lost at sea coaching a team of multi-millionaire pop stars.
Weird idea: What if after he’s fired Frank Vogel becomes a character actor? He would make an excellent camp counselor in an upcoming Wes Anderson film.
But one thing I can’t do is imagine Frank Vogel 👆🏻👆🏻 walking into the locker room and recognizing a single thing his players are listening to on their headphones. There just seems to be a culture gap, one that makes it impossible for him to galvanize a locker room in the NBA of 2024.
It’s not an age thing either. There are examples of old geezers coaching the hell out of their players, but Vogel just ain’t that dude.
So, then, back to the original question. What then to make of coaching in 2-0-2-4?
A decade ago at a friend’s bachelor party in Peru, as we sat around a table of wine and ceviche, one of my old ass friends claimed that it didn’t matter, as in coaching made no difference to winning in the NBA, and I’ve been coming back to that ceviche ever since.
I believe coaching matters greatly, my friend.
Is coaching going to take a bullshit team like the Detroit Pistons and make them a champion? I mean, we saw the Monty Williams train wreck play out earlier this year with the Pistons, who hired an average coach, and not only was the team bad (read: humiliating), but it was revealed early on just how average their coach was. Even Monty Williams’ legendary “leadership abilities” failed miserably in a situation where from day one it was clear he had no clue what the fuck he was doing.
No shade on Monty, but at least Darvin Ham cared.
Point being, every year now we’re seeing how much coaching matters in the NBA. It’s possible the Lakers might still be in the playoffs with better coaching.
That’s real talk.
The Heat without Coach Spoelstra would be BBQ chicken.
Where would the Clippers be without Tyrone Lue?
In an NBA landscape that has gotten this competitive, where games are over-analyzed by computers and sexless MBAs, a coach who isn’t both a leader and a brilliant basketball mind just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
There are always exceptions, with Luka or Steph you can get away with a lot. But we’ve come to a point where, generally speaking, coaches kinda have to be everything: leaders of teams, psychologists, and tacticians all in one. They have to be inspiring communicators and Machiavellian strategists, especially because players, for the most part, aren’t looking for that responsibility.
Most players are too busy these days: podcasting, investing in cannabis, acting whatever else, in most situations their lives outside of basketball have trumped the desire to lead on the court. They’re also young.
Twenty-four year old multi-millionaires who were raised on Internet, and coddled, aren’t primed for the psychological warfare of an NBA locker room. Leadership, in particular, requires IRL experience. You can’t lead a revolution from X and you can’t inspire a basketball team when your time goes into curating your social feed and running your coffee business.
It is what it is. More power to the players. But because of that coaches need to pick up the slack.
The firings of Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel show us that.
It’s not enough to be a good leader or tactician anymore. If you’re gonna coach in the NBA, to keep your job, sorry, you have to eat albacore sashimi at Nobu, know the lyrics to the new SZA song, and be the smartest guy in the arena all at the same time.
Thanks for reading y’all. Here’s a few Qs to spur some dialogue.
Questions
(*You don’t have to know about basketball to answer these. Just take a stab. Make something up. Have fun! )🤩
Do you think coaching matters?
Dick?
🤮
😭
Is “culture,” aka the ability to connect with your employees a necessary aspect of leadership in the real world?
Has the NBA player empowerment movement led to this state of affairs? ie: are most players too coddled to be leaders?
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