Worst decisions by goat coaches?

[Kblaze8855]

everybody makes mistakes. Even the best. What comes to mind?

The most prominent might be pop, leaving Duncan on the bench for boss to get that rebound and kick it to Ray Allen. But I immediately thought of a different one.



https://youtu.be/yXOts9kaiLQ?si=uLcrkfvi41mDtRXa


You have to defend The passer on that. Riley Was on a hell of a run and they won the next two titles but they should’ve had an epic matchup with the 86 Celtics that year as well. Very few people are Jason Kidd, who can just lay that bitch right where he wants it no matter who you put in front of him.



https://youtu.be/vEwM14TocS0?si=WNI2d4Zd4LEDXiRH


They let him throw a line drive right to Ralph. At least make him put some arc on it. Season over just like that.

[Kblaze8855]

https://youtu.be/LCqJ5zB4iMg?si=uyPtxDV-2qytJSHJ



Sometimes they get it off anyway…but you gotta try.

I feel like that debate also went on when Grant Hill threw that court length football pass to Christian Laettner to hit that famous game winner I’m sure most of you don’t remember. I don’t think anybody was covering Hill on the other side of the court. Was that against Kansas? It was too long ago and I’m already out of the car. don’t feel like going down any rabbit holes walking around the store talking into my phone

[Xiao Yao You]

https://youtu.be/7iWweaxB61k?t=498

The Comedian handing the series and a chance at the repeat to the Lakers with his go to inbounder the stiff Mark Ivaroni. He turned it over like this more than once during the season too :facepalm

[Kblaze8855]

Hardly qualifies as a goat level coach but I’m sure you’ve been waiting to get that off your chest for a while.

It may comfort you to know that the basketball gods would never allow a team with Karl Malone to eliminate a team with Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan on it in the first place. Your hope was false. False as magic wife’s HIV test results for reasons we don’t need to Speculate about.

[FKAri]

The most prominent might be pop, leaving Duncan on the bench for boss to get that rebound and kick it to Ray Allen.

This is so overblown. It's a 50/50 call at worst and the right call to have him benched at best. Sticking to the shooter and contesting the 3 is more important than having a big in there to grab the defensive board from an attempt which most likely was going to be a long rebound anyways(any shot attempt coming in was most likely a 3). It was the right call that didn't pay off.

[Kblaze8855]

Whatever it might have been it in fact did end up a rebound in the Restricted Circle, Bosh grabbing it over Manu and I think Danny Green or Tony Parker. Everything could go differently. But the way it went? The 4th all time defensive rebounder(not recorded in the 60 for the record) might have come in handy. Had 30 and 17 that game. One more wins the title. Pop had his reasons but there is reason to wonder.

[SouBeachTalents]

You can criticize Pitino for the exact same thing against Duke on the Christian Laettner play.

A more underrated one would be Kerr bringing in Ezeli in the 4th in Game 7. He proceeded to bite on a LeBron pump fake from 3, when his jumper was off all game, to set the Cavs up with 3 free points, and then while not as egregious, was switched onto LeBron on the next possession who hit a 3 over him for a critical 6 point swing when the Warriors were up 87-83.

[SouBeachTalents]

Whatever it might have been it in fact did end up a rebound in the Restricted Circle, Bosh grabbing it over Manu and I think Danny Green or Tony Parker. Everything could go differently. But the way it went? The 4th all time defensive rebounder(not recorded in the 60 for the record) might have come in handy. Had 30 and 17 that game. One more wins the title. Pop had his reasons but there is reason to wonder.
The Bosh rebound is the one that's the killer for not bringing Duncan in. He was the only big on the floor and I just can't imagine he's able to grab that rebound if Duncan is in.

The first one though was such a fluke, like half the players on the court got a hand on it before it went to Miller who was able to set up LeBron for 3.

[FKAri]

Whatever it might have been it in fact did end up a rebound in the Restricted Circle, Bosh grabbing it over Manu and I think Danny Green or Tony Parker. Everything could go differently. But the way it went? The 4th all time defensive rebounder(not recorded in the 60 for the record) might have come in handy. Had 30 and 17 that game. One more wins the title. Pop had his reasons but there is reason to wonder.

It depends if you made this thread about decisions that had terrible results or decisions that seem terrible regardless of results. Imo Pop's decision there was perfectly justifiable and was a medium risk for a high reward.

[Kblaze8855]

Are any coaching decisions terrible despite results?

Any come to mind?

[Axe]

Pop benching duncan in a crucial game during the 2013 finals.

[tpols]

I know a lot of people criticize Pop for the Duncan benching but looking at the play under a microscope (you'll have to pause the video multiple times to analyze) ...

Miami inbounds the ball to Chalmers who brought it up the court on Parker who got screened off by Lebron to put Kawhi on Chalmers who then passed the ball back to Lebron after Bosh set a screen on Parker and Boris Diaw had to show to not give Lebron a wide open look.

Even if Duncan was in the game in place of Diaw, he would have had to close out on Lebron in that upper left wing and he would've had no chance at grabbing the rebound bouncing to the right baseline. Kawhi also had to pick up Chalmers on the opposite left baseline.

So it was honestly a perfectly drawn up play to scramble the defense by Spo and the fact that Lebrons miss bounced literally to the opposite end of the court where Kawhi or Duncan would've been made all the difference.

Watch the 1st 10 seconds here. Duncan wouldn't have gotten that rebound because he would've been in Diaws position closing out on Lebron which was on the opposite side of the court.


https://youtu.be/tr6XsZVb-ZE?si=kp9jNUVFyUaa-h_x

[SouBeachTalents]

Are any coaching decisions terrible despite results?

Any come to mind?
I honestly can't think of one off the top of my head that actually worked. But as an example, even if the Seahawks had scored, throwing a quick slant pass to a scrub receiver into the middle of the field from the one yard line would've still been a completely idiotic and reckless play to me, even if it worked.

I will say one that got heavily criticized that I didn't have a problem with was Belichick going for it on 4th & 2 against the Colts.

[FKAri]

Are any coaching decisions terrible despite results?

Any come to mind?
That's why I said "terrible results" but "decisions that seem terrible". Every seemingly terrible decision has a chance to be saved by hindsight. "They went for it and now that we have the data it appears it was the right move". The reverse doesn't work. A seemingly good decision can't be criticized based on hindsight because, "they went with what they knew". So as a general rule it's harder to outright call something a bad decisions vs a good one.

Now when I say hindsight it isn't based on the single outcome. Can a play be terrible despite the results? Yes. Because you'll lose in the long run. A coach should always play percentages and put players in the best positions to succeed. If they succeed once, it doesn't mean much. If they keep succeeding then you have something that works. Examples? I've seen some wild side out of bounds plays. Easy to blow up by a defense. Ball gets loose. Ends up in a great shooter's hands. Bucket. Incredible job coach! Guess this play really does work. No it doesn't. Now if I come back in a few years and it's been working then it's a saved by hindsight situation. I was wrong and the results(plural) speak for themselves.

Full disclosure, in an alternative Universe where Ray Allen hits that shot even with Timmy out there? I doubt I'd be criticizing Pop. He probably knows the odds better than I do based on his enormous coaching experience.

[BarberSchool]

Phil Jackson not pooling funds with Jordan to pay for a hit on Krause in late 1995 / early 1996

[Nowoco]

At the 2004 Olympics, Larry Brown giving Wade, LeBron, Amare and Melo limited minutes and allowing inefficient chuckers AI and Marbury to shoot the US out of games.

[rmt]

Always go with your best players - (then no regrets) - not percentages (Diaw instead of Duncan). If not, then foul and force them to make 2. Especially with a three point shooter of the quality of Ray Allen on the court.

That'd probably have been 6 rings 4 FMVPs vs 3 rings/3 FMVPs.

[tpols]

Always go with your best players - (then no regrets) - not percentages (Diaw instead of Duncan). If not, then foul and force them to make 2. Especially with a three point shooter of the quality of Ray Allen on the court.

That'd probably have been 6 rings 4 FMVPs vs 3 rings/3 FMVPs.

Watch the play Miami ran though. Duncan in Diaws place wouldve had to close out on Lebrons left wing 3pt shot off the pick the Heat ran for him. He would've been nowhere near position to grab the rebound that bounced to the right side.

Given the fact that Kawhi and Manu both missed game sealing FTs beforehand, letting it become a 1 point game with no timeouts would've been even crazier.

[ShawkFactory]

Yea I always thought the Pop decision was overblown as well. Great breakdown on the play there, but even not recalling all of that there still is no direct correlation to Bosh getting that rebound with Duncan being off the floor. He doesn't get every rebound in existence, particularly long unpredictable ones, and not having him out there when he knew Miami was going to run a play at the perimeter isn't a bad move.

If Allen misses or the rebound goes elsewhere then I don't think anyone would be questioning it in any way. In fact, I'd be willing to bet would be lauded him for having the balls to throw a more perimeter-oriented defender instead of Duncan out there in such a big moment

[Xiao Yao You]

At the 2004 Olympics, Larry Brown giving Wade, LeBron, Amare and Melo limited minutes and allowing inefficient chuckers AI and Marbury to shoot the US out of games.

Brown didn't pick the squad and rookies certainly weren't the answer to their problems