Cannot Teach An old Dog New Tricks

I'm no b-ball coach, but it has to be difficult to know when to pull the plug when the five guys on the court are showing great momentum and start subsituting/putting the starters back in. Some people argue that Doc is very rigid in his subbing, not adjusting in the second half (or at all) no matter what is going on. This may be true.

Others argue that Doc should be more free flowing with his substituting, allowing the hot hand(s) to remain on the court...until what? Until it's too late It's like market timing. Very, very few people are successful at buying right on the low and selling out right at the peak. Maybe you've done it once, but I promise over time you will have a losing $ record.

I think Doc does what he does so that the guys know exactly what they have to do in the time given them. If someone knows they have a job to do in a given amount of time, then you come in as boss at 5PM and say, "Hey, you're doing great, keep going, work 'til 8 PM," Sure, you're happy for a brief moment because the boss just patted you on the back. But you're also pissed because now you have to call your wife, tell her you're working late, re-arrange your schedule, etc. You're not going to give your best effort for those next 3 hours.

Everyone has their job to do in the given time. If you do it better than expected, great. Worse than expected, not so great but someone in the next shift will have to pick up your slack. But expending the time just because your hot must have more negative impact than positive otherwise all the coaches would be doing it. I think if you start monkeying with the times of players or bench vs. starters they start to question their value and contribution(s).

Each game is completely different. Sometimes the starters dominate and the bench sucks. Sometimes vice versa. Sometimes both suck and other times both play great, but it's up to the coaches to sense it then for the players to determine how they are best to contribute and help the other(s) out.

Coaching the Great Starters Play/Great Bench Play should be easy. Those are the blowouts. The 67%+ Assist/Shots taken, 6+ in double digits scoring, etc. It's the other three categories that that all teams face a majority of the time where the coaches make their money. If Doc pulls the guys exactly the same each time, no one's ego gets bruised. If you do great in that time, great. If you screwed up, have a seat and realize somone else is going to have to carry you and play harder because you came up short. Yeah, it will sting a little bit, but you are still eager to get back out on the court and prove yourself the next time.

Let's not forget, we beat 2 quality teams on the road. We haven't been able to say that for quite some time this season. And unless we go undefeated throughout the playoffs, we are going to have some off nights.

What we do need to do now is re-establish homecourt dominance. We have quality games coming up this week in which to do that and prove that. We won the Southwest trip, almost got the broom out. Let's see what they do with those chances.

Doc's method is just one way to skin the proverbial cat. He in essence takes all the emotion out the process. Given what he has to deal with on and off the court with egos, etc. this method would work well overall and appears to work for every other team in the NBA.

With as many games that are played, someone has to have tried the "leaving the guy in with the hot hand" approach and probably wound up losing the game as a result more often than not, otherwise it would be the norm. I would imagine when the hot guy crashes, it's very ugly. Either it results in injury, he's too tired later on when he's needed most, etc. From our perspective as fans, we all want to see the hot guy make 20 3's in a row. But the adrenalin high and subsequent bigger crash to the player are taken into consideration and it gets the big X. But the coaches know better than us armchair folk. And they are compensated for that.

To me working hard is great. But working smart is 10X's better. It doesn't mean being lazy, it just means trying to achieve and go beyond in the time you are given. Doc is forcing these guys to work smart. Sprint vs. Marathon. Each game is a 5K, the season is the marathon, but the time you are out on the court is a clearly a sprint. Otherwise these guys could all play 48 minutes. Each playoff seires is a sprint because you aren't promised another series each round. The playoffs to the finals is a marathon, well maybe a 1/2 marathon in the grand scheme of things.

Besides, Utah is not a team we are going to face in the playoffs. CLE is. And they are coming up. DEN is a potential finals team. They're next.

I would like to see a +Starters/+Bench vs. DEN. That will go a long way to re-establishing fear in the hearts of teams coming to Boston. While I'll take a 1 point victory, a blowout would be nice.