Needs to Play, Coach, to Win
Jan 29, 2010 Coaching, Rotation
After watching the Nets get pulverized into a pile of jelly during their West Coast road trip last week, Wednesday’s night victory against the Clippers has made me a bit greedy.
The next three games for the Nets are all against struggling Eastern Conference teams –Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. Unless this organization really doesn’t give a hoot if they set the record for most losses in a season – and they should, because as a fan, I want nothing to do with this record, and the players clearly don’t either – than Kiki Vandeweghe needs to coach these games to win.
By “coaching to win,” I mean Kiki needs to follow the successful blueprint carried out on Wednesday night, when the Nets played five guys for the last half of the fourth who were basically, the “hot hands.” Their age, experience and contract value was irrelevant.
The Rotations of Kiki Vandeweghe
Dec 18, 2009 Kiki Vandeweghe, Rotation
It’s been two weeks since Kiki Vandeweghe has taken over as head coach of the Nets, and while he’s had to deal with assorted injuries to Chris Douglas-Roberts, Tony Battie and Keyon Dooling (not to mention Yi Jianlian and Jarvis Hayes, who haven’t played since the very beginning of the season), there are a few early trends worth noting in how Kiki likes to pair players together:
CDR vs. Courtney: Who You Got?
Oct 8, 2009 Analysis, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Courtney Lee, Rotation
The Nets line-up is basically all set. You got Devin at the point, Hayes at the SF spot (hopefully this is just temporary until T-Will gains his bearings), Yi at the 4, and Brook at the center spot. That leaves one position up in the air…yup, you guessed it, the SG spot. It seems that the two players battling for this spot are CDR and Courtney Lee. Whoever wins this “competition” will be starting, and whoever doesn’t will most likely be the 6th man. One thing is for sure, these two guys are really battling it out:
“It’s nasty,” Harris said. “Just nasty. From watching, two guys I can point out are Courtney and CDR. That’s going to be a battle all year long. Those guys are really competitive, they do a lot of different things on the court. Obviously, Terrence (Williams) has got a bit of a bulldog in him, too, but that matchup right there … you can see it from playing in pickup. It’s just going to be nasty. That’s good for the competition and guys pushing each other.”
I know that CDR is the fan favorite here (I love him too! Don’t get it twisted), and I might catch a lot of stuff for this, but I really think that he should be coming off of the bench this year.
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