Coaching Carousel Not Moving In the Swamp

by Steve Weinman on Mar 27, 2008 11:00 PM EDT in NBA Articles

A Daily Babble Production

There's nothing like a good old-fashioned non-sensical vote of confidence to get me thoroughly confused.

The type of vote of confidence that comes in support of the coach of a 30-41 team would likely qualify for this distinction. Especially if that coach was in his fourth full season, with win totals of 41, 49 and 42 in the previous three. And even more so if that coach had never made it past the second round of the playoffs.

Enter Rod Thorn.

As reported by the Newark Star-Ledger's Dave D'Alessandro, the Nets' president had this to say yesterday about the future of head coach Lawrence Frank:

But for the first time, the Nets president declared that Lawrence Frank will be his coach next season -- which was widely assumed all along -- and he adds that not even a visit to the lottery will change that reality.
"I don't have any thoughts or ideas of replacing him at all," Thorn said yesterday. "He's done a good job for us, and I'm sure he'll continue to do so in the future."
"I don't see anything that can transpire that would change my mind," Thorn said. "I got a call from a writer the other day who said he's writing a column that the coach should be fired. So I know it's out there in the media, and from fan e-mails. But that's not going to influence me one way or the other. I know the job Lawrence does for us."

I have yet to understand what this sort of course of action achieves.

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Disclaimer: This isn't a call for Lawrence Frank to lose his job.

[Aside: I made that mistake last year. It was a mistake not because I was incorrect (that remains up for debate), but a mistake because while I'm willing to do a certain amount of speculation and assertion as a writer on this wonderful Interweb of ours, there needs to be a limit on what lines I can cross with limited access. Without being there every day, without seeing what a coach does on a day to day basis -- and without a cardinal sin of misconduct to make the rest irrelevant -- calling for a fellow man's job simply isn't something I'm entirely sure I can do in good conscience. At least not without having that claim locked down to a rather extreme degree. In Frank's case last season, I hadn't done that. There were grounds to question his coaching -- as will be enumerated once more shortly -- but not for me to make the pompously definitive claim that I did that he needed to be canned.]

But there is plenty to question of what exactly Frank has done in order to merit the assurances he has received from Thorn.

Whether he needs to be fired, I'm not sure. But Lawrence Frank seems hardly to be the type of guy to whom a team would want to orally bind itself with the off-season soon a-coming.

Credit Frank for helping spark the Nets to a 13-game win streak when he took over for Byron Scott in the middle of 2003-04. Credit Frank for not making any one move in particular that was egregious beyond all belief.

The problem, of course, is that there isn't much we can credit Frank for doing particularly right either.

On the offensive end, only once in Frank's four seasons have the Nets cracked the league's top 20 in efficiency, peaking at 16th last year. This seems particularly abominable when one considers that Jason Kidd was Frank's point guard for most of that time. Frank isn't known as an offensive maven, and he has done nothing to rein in the free-wheeling ways of Vince Carter during his time in the Swamp either. Not much to write home about here.

On the other side of the floor, Frank inherited from Byron Scott a team that had finished first in defensive efficiency in consecutive seasons and fourth the year he took over at mid-season. Since then, the Nets' have finished ranked sixth, third, 15th and 21st in Frank's tenure. Frank isn't known as a defensive maven.

Two big sentences from the above stick out here:

1. Frank isn't known as an offensive maven.
2. Frank isn't known as a defensive maven.

The numbers back it up. This isn't all that encouraging, seeing as special teams performance isn't a crucial part of basketball. Yep, folks, offense and defense pretty much sum up the x's and o's portion of this game. Frank isn't special in either department. Not good.

Furthermore, Frank has no grand history as a leader either. Watching his team over the past few years has constantly led to the "Do these guys even listen to him?" question. He hasn't gotten through to Vince Carter. He couldn't keep Jason Kidd interested. The team's body language during timeouts is routinely negative.

None of the young players on this team seem to have experienced any sort of truly special development thus far. Josh Boone has been all right. Marcus Williams has been okay. Sean Williams has had his minutes jerked around left and right. Nenad Krstic was headed in the right direction prior to injuries and has been lost since (certainly, Frank isn't necessarily to blame here). Antoine Wright turned into nothing special as a Net.

And when all else has been said and done, it's worth remembering that in Frank has yet to get the team out of the second round. That would be the team that Byron Scott had taken to consecutive Finals prior to his own firing in January 2004.

No great tactical work on either end of the ball. Questionable leadership. Questions about the progress of the neophytes. Lack of playoff success.

Yes, with the Nets apparently headed toward an era of rebuilding, it seems only fair to wonder why Rod Thorn seems determined to not even consider rebuilding on the bench as well.

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Comments

Lawrence Frank should be fired. He’s a bad coach.

Rod Thorn has done a bad job there in recent seasons too. But at least you’re comfortable in the knowledge Thorn has some ability and is capable of doing a good job in the future. I cannot say the same about Frank.

by Who on Mar 28, 2008 4:55 AM EDT reply actions

the trade for harris was a good trade -old for young-give thorn credit for that. the kristic injury hurt this team big time. keeping invincable was a boo boo. frank, i don’t know. i wonder what scal and donny marshal would say if they were being totally honest abot frank, who probaly has learned a lot on this job. he’s the type coach who needs to get canned and come back somewhere else to prove what adversity taught him. this team never got over losing kmart.

by nazzbo on Mar 28, 2008 9:15 AM EDT reply actions

They are just waiting until Brooklyn and Jay-Z is gonna coach

by bringbackcousy on Mar 28, 2008 9:19 AM EDT reply actions

Kidd quit on this team. Carter quit on his last team. Their center has missed more time than he’s played the last two seasons. I don’t know how this team is supposed to be good no matter who is coaching it. Frank is a good coach in a bad situation. He should stay and see the team through. The trade will be great for them long term and Frank has already shown he can do a good job with whatever is handed to him.

by lobstermobster on Mar 28, 2008 10:51 AM EDT reply actions

the trade for harris was a good trade -old for young-give thorn credit for that.

Devin Harris is an empty shirt.

He’s a bad floor general. A bad passer. Lacks creativity. Lacks vision.

Is a mediocre penetrator off the dribble – he’s a great cutter off the ball, where most of his drives come about from.

He’s a poor perimeter shooter. Steady mid-range and good finisher around the rim. He’s shooting about 43% since joining Jersey down from his 49% in Dallas, and he’s below 40% if you take out his two hottest shooting games (first and last).

He’s in his fifth year. He’s shown marginal improvements since his rookie season, absolutely nothing to write home about. His biggest improvement has been his discpline.

The boy sure can defend though.

The only reason this guy has a good reputation is because he played on a team that regularly won 60 games a season. If he started off on a lottery team we’d be talking about him the same way we talk about Jameer Nelson.

……………….

The biggest advantage that Devin Harris brings to NJ is that he isn’t capable of running the show. That allows Vince and RJ to have more touches and more involvement offensively. No joke. This is the biggest advantage he brings to the table.

……………..

This guy has shown no capacity to be or become anything more than a fourth or fifth best player. I’ll be excited about a fourth wheel when the three others are in place and he puts them over the top to contention …. but now? You gotta be kidding me. Jersey are nowhere. Cap space would have been more useful.

by Who on Mar 28, 2008 4:49 PM EDT reply actions

Rod Thorn has been given a free pass

Can you imagine if McHale did the exact same thing Rod Thorn did? Oh wait he did, my bad.

The writing was on the wall two seasons ago. This team had no hope of becoming a contender with the RJ-Kidd-Vince combo. So what does Thorn do? Nothing. Waits and waits and waits while the whole wide world passed him by. Kills the best years of his best player in the process.

It’s been four years since Kenyon Martin left. Where’s my big man?

I won’t even be greedy here, give me a starting quality player not even a star? Where is he?

(Oh and Krstic was on the team a year before Kenyon left)

Where’s Thorn been during FA? Why no moves at Reggie Evans? Any lively big that can board and defend. At least give the RJ-Kidd-Vince combo a fighting chance. What bigs did he sign in FA? His teams biggest weakness. Who was the biggest signing? Malik Allen? Jamaal Magloire? Seriously ….. what’s holding him up? Team’s biggest weakness, a fatal flaw, and Thorn doesn’t even spend his MLE one year out of four to add a solid role player to limit the bleeding?

But surely since he didn’t spend any of his MLE on a big man, he must have added some quality elsewhere? Travis Best? Mikki Moore? Cliff Robinson? Jeff McGinnis? Eddie House? …… Obviously there was an urgent need for these guys, you see they had to hold off acquiring a big man to make for them.

Maybe it’s his brilliant draft record over the past four years: Zoran Planicic, 22nd in 2003
Kyle Korver, 51st 2003, traded for cash
Kryapha, 22nd in 2004, who was traded on draft day for the great Eddie Gill who isn’t even in the league anymore
Antoine Wright with the 14th pick in 2005
The other second rounders where Drejer, Ilic, Slay. Nothing.

Well there’s three straight years of failures. At least he rebounded in 2006 with Marcus Williams, Josh Boone and Hassan Adams. Good draft. And he followed it up with Sean Williams last year. So how many good picks in 5 years? I count two? Maybe three depending on how important you view Marcus Williams being.

Or maybe it was his decision to fire Byron Scott? What’s Byron doing nowadays?

His decision to keep Lawrence Frank killed this season and the one prior. He had no control over Vince Carter. He let the offense fall apart. He lost Kidd in the process. The defense has slid each year and mainly because of lack of effort. Who gives a damn if he knows some X’s and O’s? He can’t control a team. There’s more to management than being able to draw up a play. He doesn’t have it.

Why is NJ’s supporting cast criticized year after year? Why do I keep hearing about their weak bench? Why is nothing done about it.

Why did he give Richard Jefferson a gargantuan contract that nobody else would have come close to offering?

Why did he re-sign Vince Carter this summer? 4 years 60m? Because of Ratner. Excuse me, are you joking? This is Rod Thorn, one of the most employable GM’s in the business, if he didn’t want the deal he could have walked and walked straight into a new job. There’s no way he would have let Ratner handcuff him for four years and be against the deal. He wanted to re-sign Vince.

…………………

Let’s add it up:

(1) 4 years since Kenyon, no big man
(2) Gargantuan contracts to Vince and RJ
(3) Waited too long to trade Kidd, killing his trade value
(4) This team was finished two years ago but he didn’t try to break it up. He did the opposite.
(5) 5 years of drafting with 2-3 good picks out of 11 attempts
(6) Bad coaching decisions with Scott and now with Frank
(7) Horrible record in free agency.
(8) Now this one’s the kicker …. haha …. his team still has limited flexibility and no real future. His team has some youth but role players, not stars. Where are these future happy days? Well he still has to create them.

Mediocrity is a death wish in this league, especially when coupled with a pair of big un-attractive long term contracts.

He’s done a lousy job over the last 4 years.

If he didn’t have a track record Nets fans would be calling (with some good reasons) for his head.
………………

Oh and I really like and respect Rod Thorn. He’s very good at his job.

He’s just done a very poor job over the past few years, he’ll rebound and make it right.

by Who on Mar 28, 2008 5:31 PM EDT reply actions