I was going to mention this in another thread but I said why dont a just start a new one. I think Frank will have a very big part in the development and success of the young guys and few of the others. In the past Frank has been less patient with the young guys. How do you think Frank is going to handle it this upcoming season?
I think Frank is about winning, and he will do as he's always done and play the players he thinks give the team the best chance of doing that. That notion that he has a bias against young players is wrong. He has consistently played who he thought would win the game and that will not change this season. Frank got what he wanted. He doesn't have to adapt the team's style of play to Kidd anymore and management went out and got him defensively sound, versatile team players. He would have killed for a Najera or Dooling last year. Now he has both. It's up to him now to figure out how to win games. The Nets won't tank, and if they are surprisingly good (and if they are good that will certainly be surprising) they would love to be aggressive and make an impact move. Rod Thorn is not particularly patient (or young) and he always has an eye toward winning now, so those are Frank's marching orders. Win games.
And while most people will complain about Frank playing to win, I think its a good thing for the young guys to realize you always play to win in the NBA and you have to give your all or you don't play. They all come from winning college programs so there is no need to let up.
Wasnt it thorn that came out and said they need to do a better job developing their young guys. Yeah "You play to win the game." but with this group, development is also very important.
The two are not mutually exclusive. I believe Thorn and Kiki were mostly referring to off-court work, such as skills building with that comment. Frank plays his rookies as much as most other coaches. Hard to say that Wright, Sean, Boone and Marcus didn't get an adequate amount of burn here.
Obviously, to anyone that has followed our several year discussion on this subject, I disagree with that. Frank has become much more confident in keeping his job and therefore in taking chances on rookies. Krstic was more developed and more ready to play the NBA game as a rookie than Brook is, but I'm fairly certain that Brook will get more playing time in the first month of the season than Krstic did.
I believe Frank's initial marching orders are to teach this group of kids how to win / how to play the right way. I believe the FO gave him guys like Najera, Dooling and Hayes so that he would have enough guys he would trust to play (can you say Billy Thomas) that he can always keep at least one rookie / unproven player on the floor. If the Nets are losing games a lot of games ~ 93-89 and Frank continues to give Brook, Yi and Ryan plenty of playing time, I'll be impressed.
Right now, the Nets have enough veteran players so Frank could just stay with them and not play any of the rookies or second-year guys like Yi and Sean. If he were Pat Riley, he would do just that. But that is not the best team. Boone and Najera need backups to play a fast-paced game, so he will go to a nine man rotation. To start the season, he will probably play Swat, if he is still around. Yi is a cinch to play, probably to start ahead of Najera, simply because Boone/Williams are small at center. When the slower but bigger Lopez plays, probably in the second quarter, he'll need room for his moves. A four corners type spread-out set would be effective. Beyond that, I can only imagine playing Ryan and CDR in losing games this year. They just don't have an NBA game yet, from what I've seen watching the summer leagues.
Two guys will always be hurt, and two players will be terrible. Depth has a way of working itself out.
Personally, Im not the biggest Frank fan..I think he should be an assistant coach. but I do like his positive attitude. To me, he doesnt seen disciplined enough. is isnt strict enough and therefore, it seems like the players can do whatever they want on the floor. That isnt good when you have a bunch of young inexperienced players on your team. And he also has a rep for not giving young players too many chances and he tends to have favorites. but I think this season he has no choice but to play the young players because they can make a huge impact I think. With that said, Frank isnt a horrible coach..he is all about winning and I think with the new offense the Nets put in, that he will get this team to surprise many. I think we have the pieces to be somewhat competitive in the East still
I don't disagree with any of this. He wants to use the young guys. I think he loves when they step up and show he can use them without regretting it. As for those close games, they'll play if they are playing the best. If the vets are playing better, they won't.
My gut feeling is that Frank will do his best coaching job yet this year because of the makeup of the team (tough, defensive-minded vets who won't complain about PT and young, hungry players with a lot to prove) and because Vince is a less petulant and, yes, more malleable #1 than Jason Kidd was for the last couple of years. If the team remains highly energetic year-round so that he's not having to coach effort, it will finally tell the tale about how much Frank's structure really works. I believe he overcoaches at times and sometimes makes dubious substitution/lineup decisions. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine a coach who is better prepared for what another team is going to do, and he usually makes at least one excellent call out of a time out every game. I'm encouraged that he is apparently going to try some different things offensively this year to try to maximize Harris' skills. That's important to the team's success and to his own growth as a coach.
Frank just wants his players to be the best at what they do. I think that's the common thread for all it's disgruntled affectees: Swat, Marcus, even Wright (who got pt because he was our best wing defender). Frank does not "donate" minutes to his lineup, they must earn them, in other words he's fair about giving oppertunities to players as long as they show him something.
