Tag: Coaching

A coach with no choice but to tolerate …

A coach with no choice but to tolerate the messes made by a roster heavy on youth and thinned by a slew of injuries. “We’ve had anywhere from eight to 10 guys available each night,” Kerr said before a 120-94 loss to the Lakers at Staples Center. “There are nights where I would love to take someone out based on a mistake they made. But I can’t take them out. “We don’t have that hammer, as a coaching staff, to be able to reward guys with playing time or penalize them by taking playing time away.”

“Defensively, we never really had any …

“Defensively, we never really had any traction,” Kerr said afterward. “We had some spells where we made some good things happen offensively, maybe got a stop or two. But every time it felt like we were right there, we just couldn’t get a stop. “It’s almost impossible to win in this league when you can’t count on getting three stops in a row at some point.”

“[Jenkins] has the overall knowledge of …

“[Jenkins] has the overall knowledge of everything that it takes to be a head coach. It always starts with a high basketball acumen […] but you also need an understanding of what’s happening in the [NBA] landscape,” Budenholzer said. “How are you building culture, how are you building your team, can you work with a front office, can you collaborate—things like that. [That’s the] next step of being a head coach. There’s just a lot more that comes with it.”

Morant, the team’s young focal point, …

Morant, the team’s young focal point, is taking only 1.8 3s per game. What Jenkins has done is speed up the tempo to take advantage of the quickness and playmaking ability of his rookie point guard and allow him to play in space. The days of Grit and Grind are over: The Grizzlies have gone from dead last in the NBA in pace last season to no. 6. “It’s brother-brother, son-father, player-coach,” Morant said about his relationship with Jenkins. “He’s very open with all the players, especially me. It’s just an honor to get the freedom to go out and play. Coach Jenkins allows me to play freely and trusts me enough to make plays. And that’s what every point guard wants.”

David Fizdale done in New York?

One step: Mills and general manager Scott Perry addressing the media after Sunday’s loss to the Cavaliers while Fizdale was still in the locker room. Mills and Perry stressed that the team wasn’t meeting expectations, seemingly a veiled shot at the coach. Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN: The dismissal of David Fizdale is inevitable, and there was, I think, a bond broken between management and their head coach with how they handled things after that loss Sunday night.

“Honestly I think they want to do so …

“Honestly I think they want to do so well for the fanbase I think they get tight. I really do,” he said. “I’ve looked at all of the different things that have happened and I just feel like sometimes — they really want to do well for the city. “With everything that’s happened over the course of the last year, these guys want to play hard for the city, they want to win for the city. I just think sometimes when it starts to go the other way, they play not to lose instead of playing to win.”