screw winning records. what coach gets the most out of his team night in, night out? where does Don Nelson rank with these two?

i say don's average. he doesnt get the most out of his players night in and night out because he doesnt give them a chance to. and as far as the guys he does give chances to (the vets), not all of them are giving 100% effort because theyre probably not worried about coming out of the game. he gets effort out of effort players like biedrins, turiaf, and morrow. but not cuz he drives it out of them.

i would say one of the better coaches who gets a good effort from his guys every night is larry brown. this season's bobcats have suprised me at how willing they are to work with a new coach. theyre learning a new system and it seems to me that coach brown is coaching to his team's strengths. of course he had a hand in creating their new identity (being a defensive oriented coach), but he saw that a good portion of what he had to work with were good defenders.

even gerald wallace, whose attitude has gotten him in trouble a little bit in his own right, is adapting to the new coaching staff...taking better, smarter shot attempts like the coaching staff said to. gwall is taking the ball to the rim more and slashing more this season. he also is taking less 3 point attempts than he did last season. and that has a lot to do with the coaching.

E-Man wrote:i would say one of the better coaches who gets a good effort from his guys every night is larry brown. this season's bobcats have suprised me at how willing they are to work with a new coach. theyre learning a new system and it seems to me that coach brown is coaching to his team's strengths. of course he had a hand in creating their new identity (being a defensive oriented coach), but he saw that a good portion of what he had to work with were good defenders.

Brown is a great coach, no doubt, but he always needs to change lots of things in his teams to start winning big. I mean, he knows how to win, of course, but only according to a pattern that starts on the defensive side. If his roster is composed of players that are not good defenders, Larry won't win much with them.

A coach I really respect and consider among the best (if not the best) of the league (even tho I can't stand the team) is Sloan. Might be boring, sure, but he has a definite style that involves both defense and offense, and always finds a way to make his players overachieve.

Other coaches I like, although not as much as Sloan, are Pops, McMillan, D'Antoni, George Karl and, for obvious reasons, Phil Jackson. After that group, there's a huge breach to the next group (a group that includes Skiles or Byron Scott, but not much else. I really think there aren't too many bright coaches in the NBA nowadays).



As for Nellie, I just think he's having a dreadful season. If we go with this season alone, he's below average. We're watching the worst traits of Nellie this year, and none of the successful. If we go by his career, instead, he's clearly among the best.

i think we're really now seeing just how good D'Antoni really is. With Phoenix faltering and NY well, climbing, I don't think Kerr really had any idea just what he was letting walk

TMC wrote:Other coaches I like, although not as much as Sloan, are Pops, McMillan, D'Antoni, George Karl and, for obvious reasons, Phil Jackson.

You just named some of the alltime greats. I don't like Phil Jackson too much but his success can't be denied.

Sloan is simply amazing with how long his had success and, as you said, how he's gotten so much out of his players, many which didn't have much talent either

Do you guys think that Scottie Pippen would make a good coach? He was a great defender and a hard worker. I think given his talent, which was not superstar level, he made himself one hell of a player and could be the type of coach that could get guys to rally around him like Nate McMillan.

"Always" Next wrote:Do you guys think that Scottie Pippen would make a good coach? He was a great defender and a hard worker. I think given his talent, which was not superstar level, he made himself one hell of a player and could be the type of coach that could get guys to rally around him like Nate McMillan.

i think scottie would make a hell of an assistant coach. not sure about a head coaching job. i see him in sort of a keith smart role where he is sort of a defensive coordinator. his bball IQ is way up there and can offer players some good specialty training if a coach is trying to turn a player into a pippen type player...but as far as coaching...id say an assistant is as far as he can go (at least for a few years)

TMC wrote:Brown is a great coach, no doubt, but he always needs to change lots of things in his teams to start winning big. I mean, he knows how to win, of course, but only according to a pattern that starts on the defensive side. If his roster is composed of players that are not good defenders, Larry won't win much with them.

oh yeah, of course...but the topic is "right now"...and i think right now larry brown is one of the better coaches in the league. im not saying better or on the level of a jerry sloan, pop, or jackson...but definitely at least on the level of the other 3 you mentioned. i definitely think better than skiles and scott (whose success this year should be more attibuted to the talent on their respective teams rather than their actual coaching).

I'd say best is a toss up between pops and sloan. I think phil Jackson is a good coach, because he can manage stars well, but he isn't great.

some of the worst?
- Vinny of the Black - Chicago
- Jay Triano - Toronto
- Nelson - Golden state!
- Jim O'Brien - Pacers
- Mavs - Carlisle

the most talent, but the worst record - Detroit's Michael Curry. maybe you can blame that on iverson, but they still have a very talented core.