NEWS: RC out | Kidd hired as head coach & assembling staff

[Jommybone]

I’m a Hoosier. I was in Indy during the 90s when RC joined Larry Bird’s staff as lead assistant. He ran the offense. 

I’m an RC fan. He was highly regarded in Indy, both as an assistant and as HC. The knock on him was not playing young guys or giving them a fair chance to play/grow. Same knock that was purportedly the reason they ran him out of Detroit despite his coach-of-the-year win. Lots of debate in Indy over whether that knock was justified. Same debates as here. 

Don’t recall anyone ever saying what a nice guy he is. Ever. Lots of praise for lots of other things. Plays nicely with others not among them.

I’m no expert, and none of my info is first hand. Just relaying my sense of the reporting of his time in Indy.

[mtrot]

I’m a Hoosier. I was in Indy during the 90s when RC joined Larry Bird’s staff as lead assistant. He ran the offense. 

I’m an RC fan. He was highly regarded in Indy, both as an assistant and as HC. The knock on him was not playing young guys or giving them a fair chance to play/grow. Same knock that was purportedly the reason they ran him out of Detroit despite his coach-of-the-year win. Lots of debate in Indy over whether that knock was justified. Same debates as here. 

Don’t recall anyone ever saying what a nice guy he is. Ever. Lots of praise for lots of other things. Plays nicely with others not among them.  The question now becomes, after the hiring of a new coach, how will players' feelings toward Cuban impact on being able to draw big talent? 

I’m no expert, and none of my info is first hand. Just relaying my sense of the reporting of his time in Indy.

Yes, RC is sort of the opposite of a "player's coach".  I feel like, at this time when the Mavs desperately need to be able to draw top free agents, more of a player's coach might be a good thing.  You do have to have the best players, in the final analysis, to win a championship. 

The question now becomes, after the hiring of a new coach, how will top players' feelings towards Cuban affect their willingness to come to Dallas?

[burekemde]

Has Luka made a statement yet on RC leaving, similar to the one for Nelson? If not, this points to something for sure. Because he made one for Nelson.

I do not believe Luka had highest opinion for Rick as tactician. Or perhaps he could have, but not for his authority and involvement from the greek guy he accepted.

Luka is the new Tom Brady of the NBA. RC I do not view as the Belichick equivalent that can lead a dynasty and always be in front. It took him two games to employ zone plan B that worked, then once Lue adapted to it, he never stopped using it, and had no backup plan C.

[omahen]

Has Luka made a statement yet on RC leaving, similar to the one for Nelson? If not, this points to something for sure. Because he made one for Nelson.

He didn't make a statement. He had a weeks ahead scheduled press conference for the national team. Stein called and asked about Nelson and Luka replied. He didn't have new press conference since then.

[Kammrath]

Has Luka made a statement yet on RC leaving, similar to the one for Nelson? If not, this points to something for sure. Because he made one for Nelson.

I do not believe Luka had highest opinion for Rick as tactician. Or perhaps he could have, but not for his authority and involvement from the greek guy he accepted.

I have looked and seen nothing. But with the report that there was "simmering tension" between the two it doesn't surprise me. 

RC in his farewell statement named all the star players he had coached in Dallas EXCEPT Luka. I noted that IMMEDIATELY when RC resigned, but I am not sure many saw it in all the chaos. RC purposely did NOT mention Luka in his goodbye....I bet Luka is incredibly happy and excited he will be getting a new coach.

[mtrot]

I have looked and seen nothing. But with the report that there was "simmering tension" between the two it doesn't surprise me. 

RC in his farewell statement named all the star players he had coached in Dallas EXCEPT Luka. I noted that IMMEDIATELY when RC resigned, but I am not sure many saw it in all the chaos. RC purposely did NOT mention Luka in his goodbye....I bet Luka is incredibly happy and excited he will be getting a new coach.

Wow.

[burekemde]

My main issue with RC is he never developed an offensive gameplan better than the one of "just give Luka the ball and let him run the offense". Well do you know who can run that? Mosley for sure. Thats why the offense looked the same with Mosley. Maybe even me as HC. You just let Luka run the offense and read defenses and call plays. Its easy.

I think we need someone to develop a scheme that gets everyone involved, yet maintains Luka as a focal point. Making effective switches between the Luka run iso offense, and the one with designed plays for others as focal points, and making those two type of schemes mesh together smoothly so they can be adapted in best ways depending how the defense lines up. We have seen too few designed plays for others than Luka. RC tried it, and was less effective than iso plays to Luka, so in many ways it makes sense we became Luka centric, but that falls on RC not being able to develop that well enough.

We need a HC, someone that can challenge Luka, because I dont view RC was able to do that. He simply didnt come up with something that works better than letting Luka running the show on his own improvising. It always ended with exactly that - let Luka run the show, because I have nothing more effective than that I can come up with. In many ways this was fine, as its effective, but our offense could really explode to historic unseen levels if that Luka run show was meshed with a scheme of designed plays for the other 4 players to take charge.

[burekemde]

I have looked and seen nothing. But with the report that there was "simmering tension" between the two it doesn't surprise me. 

RC in his farewell statement named all the star players he had coached in Dallas EXCEPT Luka. I noted that IMMEDIATELY when RC resigned, but I am not sure many saw it in all the chaos. RC purposely did NOT mention Luka in his goodbye....I bet Luka is incredibly happy and excited he will be getting a new coach.

Well noted Kammrath. There seems something in this for sure. I think also based on this, that Luka was happy with Nelson for drafting him. But not happy with RC. We have seen it in games that he questioned the decision making of RC. There is probably a lot going behind the scenes we do not know relating to Xs and Os. To me it more related to tactics the way he questions RC than to something else, they seem personally as good friends on the court and in the way RC was speaking of him before and the other way around.

I think to me that paints another picture than most on this forum that "RC is great tactician, but not good enough a players coach". I see this as 180 degrees opposite... To me based on all I have seen, the offense becoming Luka-centric, that RC was not able to develop anything tactically better than Luka getting the ball and improvising. I think even Luka has become tired of that, and questions the decision making of RC.

And I think RC hates that, because Luka in some ways is better tactician than him. Lukas offense worked better than anything RC could come up with. Put it this way, I believe Luka challenged much more Rick in tactics than the other way around.

I think he holds high opinion of Nelson for drafting him which would never change, even if he kept making every wrong decision, as he did after drafting Luka and Brunson. But Luka must be annoyed to some level not being surrounded by quality playoff caliber players such as Gallinari, Capela, Bogdanovic, Collins and new good draft picks: Hunter etc.

Based on all these thoughts, the HC position I am the least worried with. Because RC became Luka-centric, and as everyone will able to do that, as the very minimum, we should only be able to stay the same or become better going forward. The most important and difficult thing would be to get a great GM that can assemble the right players around Luka. But since Nelson didnt do well the last 3 years. Well, I am also not afraid of this change.

All in all, at a minimum we should stay equally competitive IMO.

On offense, we need a HC that can challenge Luka and earn his respect with Xs and Os. Something that i think RC was really bad in, is developing tactics to mitigate the double teams on Luka. You would hope and wish your opponent double team you, so you can easy exploit that, its free points almost. Our schemes were awful exploiting that and it worked too many times and it is like RC didnt learn how to combat that and adapt. Another thing I hated is that Luka runs too much with the ball. His stamina was/is not world class, and the best tactician would have thought of that and tried to minimise this particular impact. In fact, stamina of Luka decided the series against Clippers, so this was a huge thing not just a little detail. Luka was so tired and ineffective towards of the end of each game. Why not let someone else than Luka get the basketball up the court and pass it to Luka in the post, from where he can be the focal point and start the show? He spend so much energy running with the basketball very far away from the paint, getting double teamed and pressured etc. giving the ball away, and then running so much again to positions where he could get the ball again. At these deep lying positions, double teams are also way more effective. If his initial contact with the basketball instead was first in the final third, or in the post, he would have much more energy for a full game, and double teams would be much more risky here. Look at how Denver get the basketball to Jokic. He doesnt dribble for a minute from one end of the court to another each and single posession. This not only would save Lukas stamina, and also make double teams less effective, but also involve other players more to get the ball up the court and exploit matchups alone, without Luka, if available and good.

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/IsaacLHarris/status/...8314931209

[Thukydides]

Guys, was the Amick report that RC was forced to play Boban vs Clippers by Voulgaris discussed already?

[Tyler]

Guys, was the Amick report that RC was forced to play Boban vs Clippers by Voulgaris discussed already?

Interesting. If it was, I missed it. Feel free to summarize if there's more to it. And I'll admit up-front that I need more info to trust any "forced" claim. I may not care for Voulgaris based on what I've heard about him lately, but it's the job of analytics consultants to suggest effective lineups.

[Thukydides]

The whole Mavs thing has become so complex that it´s hard to follow the threads. 

Amick is a very reliable source though. He´s not talking bs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYFw7FCaZq0 Here we go.

[ItsGoTime]

Guys, was the Amick report that RC was forced to play Boban vs Clippers by Voulgaris discussed already?

If true, we all know Bob is Dahlsim!!!

[KillerLeft]

The whole Mavs thing has become so complex that it´s hard to follow the threads. 

Amick is a very reliable source though. He´s not talking bs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYFw7FCaZq0 Here we go.

Wow, what a find. Thanks for posting this, because I might've missed it completely. 

I think this connects even more dots for us, such as how Tryonn Lue knew Boban was going to be in the starting lineup before our local reporters even did. 

I'm pretty convinced that this Voulgaris fellow understands some things about the game, but I'm equally convinced that he should be kept as far away from a job with the Mavericks as possible.

[Fuerza1]

It's funny because a lot of fans called Carlisle a genius for using Boban. Was every good Carlisle game due to Voulgaris? Or only the bad ones?

[KillerLeft]

It's funny because a lot of fans called Carlisle a genius for using Boban.

Man, I didn't. I HATED that move, and made a big point of saying I was thinking of getting on the "fire Carlisle" bandwagon that night. 

What I remember that night was a lot of Carlisle haters saying "finally, a good move!"

[Thukydides]

In the end the Boban move kept us in the series. I think, noone can deny that. Still, they should have gone away from it after G5. Voulgaris is smart, but you must connect to people  somehow or stay away from them completely.

[KillerLeft]

In the end the Boban move kept us in the series. I think, noone can deny that. Still, they should have gone away from it after G5. Voulgaris is smart, but you must connect to people  somehow or stay away from them completely.

See, but because Carlisle was so influenced by Voulgaris, we actually don't know what adjustments HE would have made instead. 

The Boban move was a little successful, but I maintain that going that deep into the bench was the wrong move, at that point. 

But my big problem is that the coach (whoever he or she is) needs to be the coach. Then, if they don't do a good job, you fire them. Simple and plain. This clown car Cuban has been running seems like a great way to get the worst job possible from everyone involved to me.

[Thukydides]

But my big problem is that the coach (whoever he or she is) needs to be the coach. Then, if they don't do a good job, you fire them. Simple and plain. This clown car Cuban has been running seems like a great way to get the worst job possible from everyone involved to me.

100% agree. This mess of different opinions with Cuban lingering over all of it and vaguely deciding stuff by randomly supporting one position here, one position there can not happen. Cubes needs to step back and install a clean hierarchy.

[Time Machine Dirk]

Man, I didn't. I HATED that move, and made a big point of saying I was thinking of getting on the "fire Carlisle" bandwagon that night. 

What I remember that night was a lot of Carlisle haters saying "finally, a good move!"

So what was it now? A good move or a bad move?