- Nov 11, 2004
- 353
- 11
Before the flames come in...yes I know he has 9 rings and has numerous records in the playoffs that are flat out ridiculous. 40somethin and 0 when his teamwins Game 1, stuff like that.
HOWEVER,
if you look at his recent track record, it hasn't been so pretty.
Blown out by Detroit in 5 in 2004 when his Laker team was heavily favored.
Clearly outcoached by Doc in the finals last year. Every move Doc made in that series worked out, Phil not so much.
I never thought of Phil as that great of an X's and O's coach, but his greatest strength was his ability to get through to his players, especially thesuperstars, and bring out the best in them.
Before in the Jordan and Shaq dynasties, seems like he would always press the right buttons, and always make the necessary adjustments to win. Effort and heartwere never in question.
But in recent years, seems like he's lost his touch a little bit. When a team doesn't play hard, how much of that is the coaches fault? When your teamdoesn't even show up for not one, but two games in a playoff series, how much of the blame should be placed on the coach? Personally, if I was the coachand saw some of my players playing lackadaisical I would bench them immediately and get someone in there that wants to win.
It seems like because Phil has 9 rings and is arguably the most successful coach in history, he gets a pass for his recent failures. People like to blame thedivision between Kobe and Shaq for the failure in 2004, no one talks about how Larry Brown flat out out-coached him. Or people blame the absence of Bynum orthe lack of toughness for the failure last year, but it was clear that boston adjusted to LA much better than LA adjusted to boston. Boston had an answer forkobe, while LA never had an answer for Pierce.
People will point to Kobe and say what has he done without Shaq? But what has Phil done when he hasn't had the 2 most dominant players in the past 20 yearson his team? Before, Phil would win a title every year he coached....its been 5 (going on 6) years since he's last won a title, despite some very goodteams.
HOWEVER,
if you look at his recent track record, it hasn't been so pretty.
Blown out by Detroit in 5 in 2004 when his Laker team was heavily favored.
Clearly outcoached by Doc in the finals last year. Every move Doc made in that series worked out, Phil not so much.
I never thought of Phil as that great of an X's and O's coach, but his greatest strength was his ability to get through to his players, especially thesuperstars, and bring out the best in them.
Before in the Jordan and Shaq dynasties, seems like he would always press the right buttons, and always make the necessary adjustments to win. Effort and heartwere never in question.
But in recent years, seems like he's lost his touch a little bit. When a team doesn't play hard, how much of that is the coaches fault? When your teamdoesn't even show up for not one, but two games in a playoff series, how much of the blame should be placed on the coach? Personally, if I was the coachand saw some of my players playing lackadaisical I would bench them immediately and get someone in there that wants to win.
It seems like because Phil has 9 rings and is arguably the most successful coach in history, he gets a pass for his recent failures. People like to blame thedivision between Kobe and Shaq for the failure in 2004, no one talks about how Larry Brown flat out out-coached him. Or people blame the absence of Bynum orthe lack of toughness for the failure last year, but it was clear that boston adjusted to LA much better than LA adjusted to boston. Boston had an answer forkobe, while LA never had an answer for Pierce.
People will point to Kobe and say what has he done without Shaq? But what has Phil done when he hasn't had the 2 most dominant players in the past 20 yearson his team? Before, Phil would win a title every year he coached....its been 5 (going on 6) years since he's last won a title, despite some very goodteams.
