Ed was great for us in his role, the season before last. Last year, I don't think he looked anywhere near as good, hurt or not.
I think a healthy Ed Davis is a great backup for the price...solid defender...team player..we'll need his contract if we sign a star for big bucks.
I could provide reasoning besides coaching for what transpired last year with the bigs, but w/e. And I'm not sure if the last one was tongue in cheek or not but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one.
IMO, the quality of big men "coaching" is a lot less important than who the guys get to bang against in practice. The coaching might help tweak the final product, though.
How has Meyers Leonard done since Kim Hughes was fired? After two full years under Jim Moran, does Noah Vonleh have a single reliable offensive move? I'm not claiming Meyers was destined for stardom, but under Hughes he, at least appeared to be becoming a solid NBA role player. Meyers last season under Kim Hughes vs. Meyers after two years under Jim Moran: 2014-15 PER = 14.8 2016-17 PER = 8.9 2014-15 TS% = .631 2016-17 TS% = .507 2014-15 TRB% = 15.8 2016-17 TRB% = 10.8 2014-15 WS/48 = .158 2016-17 WS/48 = .053 2014-15 ORtg = 117 2016-17 ORtg = 102 2014-15 DRtg = 105 2016-17 DRtg = 112 Kim Hughes was not "some hall of fame big", but he was a proven big man coach. Joel Freeland, Chris Kaman, DeAndre Jordan and LaMarcus Aldridge showed significant improvement under Kim Hughes - and Meyers was, too. So, you tell me, what exactly has Jim Moran done to show he can help NBA big men improve their games? Name one NBA big man Jim Moran has "coached up". Jim Moran may be a good NBA assistant coach, but he has done nothing to show he's a good NBA big man coach. BNM
Meyers' play last season was not a representative sample and you of all people should know this. Him rehabbing a serious shoulder injury all off-season had more to do with what happened last year than anything Jim Moran could've done to help him succeed. But I'm going to leave this alone. Like with anything, we are working with limited information here and we could argue both sides of this argument all day long. I guess I'm more apt to trust that if the organization thought Jim Moran was the main reason our young bigs haven't developed like we'd like, he'd already be replaced.
He sure hasn't made a case that we should keep him in that role though. And yes, I would rather have McHale coaching our bigs. He and Olajuwon are arguably the all time greatest players in the post.
McHale, from what I've read, is pretty respected as a coach for big men, he isn't merely an all-time great post player.
What about the year before? Moran has had two full seasons to work with Meyers and Meyers regressed massively both years. Compare Meyers progress under Kim Hughes to his regression under Jim Moran. The difference is striking. Other than 20 games playing beside Nurk, 3rd year Noah Vonleh still looked like the exact same player he was when we acquired him from CHO. He had the lowest scoring average of any player to start at least 41 games last season. How is that progress? While I loved Plumlee's energy and high BBIQ, he didn't develop any kind of offensive game in his two years under Moran's tutelage. Meyers was the most striking example, but none of our other young big men have shown any significant growth under Jim Moran. At least under Kim Hughes we saw steady improvement. BNM
Ed Davis is a great back up pf. He was injured last year. The year before, he put up 7/7 in 20 minutes with great defense and efficiency. And an 18 PER.
Unfortunately, he came into camp last year fat and out of shape. He sucked before he got injured. Even before the injury 2016-17 Ed Davis <<< 2015-16 Ed Davis. BNM