The Earl Watson Report

[TOO]

If im UCLA, I offer Mark Few whatever he wants.

There's virtually little difference between Few and Miller except Few should finally be the first of the two to break through to the FF.

He gets a lot more out of his players IMO. Gonzaga as good as it is still doesnt get the top 5 recruiting classes that Arizona or UCLA do.

[TOO]

Few loves the Northwest and he has a great thing going at Gonzaga. He doesn't need to go to UCLA.

If I can use college football as an example, Chris Peterson had it made at Boise State, but you step up to a bigger school, you get better talent, more money etc.. Washinton is a sleeping giant, UCLA is the same. No reason they shouldnt be a perennial final four contender like Kentucky.

[JustWinBaby]

Looks like we are going to be able to keep Watson as our leader so that we continue to build on the tremendous progress he has made as our head coach.

[Ring_Wanted]

I long for Mike D too, but if we fire Watson, who do we sign? Someone from the NCAA?

[JustWinBaby]

I long for Mike D too, but if we fire Watson, who do we sign? Someone from the NCAA?

That is a great question. I think Thunder Dan would be a popular replacement. Who knows if he will be any better.

I just want to watch a team with consistent ball movement.

Maybe that will be solved if we get one of the top 2 picks and we are able to move on from Bledsoe and Knight.

If that happens, Watson's excuses will be gone. IMO

[pickle]

As awful as this full on youth movement has been in the box scores, we've had some decent ball movement. I think the lack thereof throughout the season can't all be pinned on Watson. He may not be an X's and O's guy, but as a chef he also cannot cook up a nice meal without the ingredients. Bledsoe, bless his heart, is not a guy who can change a game with his passing. Unless his forays into the paint and midrange pullups are working, his passing is not going to be a potent weapon. And thus the team plays along to his pace. Not sure what D'Antoni can do with this roster.

[O_Gardino]

As awful as this full on youth movement has been in the box scores, we've had some decent ball movement. I think the lack thereof throughout the season can't all be pinned on Watson. He may not be an X's and O's guys, but he is also not a chef who can cook up a nice meal without the ingredients. Bledsoe, bless his heart, is not a guy who can change a game with his passing. Unless his forays into the paint and midrange pullups are working, his passing is not going to be a potent weapon. And thus the team plays along to his pace. Not sure what D'Antoni can do with this roster.

Move Bled off the ball.

I LOLed at "bless his heart."

[ShelC]

MikeD wouldn't do anything with this roster. He needs a PnR, freeflowing offense. He can't coach a ball pounder or draw up halfcourt plays. Harden is perfect for the offense because he's a killer in the PnR, can shoot the 3, hit the midrange, get to the basket or make the pass to the outside. He's like a bigger, more offensive minded Nash. I'd like to see Booker watch tape of Harden this year and try to pick up some of his tendencies. Not looking to make Booker the primary ball handler, but would like to have that option down the road in some cases/matchups.

[pickle]

Better ball handling skills can't hurt. Booker doesn't need to become Rafer Alston but he could tighten up his handle a lot more. He has decent passing vision already. As he becomes the focal point of opposing defenses hopefully his passing instinct improves too. Just don't learn to play D from watching Harden.

[Cap]

As awful as this full on youth movement has been in the box scores, we've had some decent ball movement. I think the lack thereof throughout the season can't all be pinned on Watson. He may not be an X's and O's guys, but he is also not a chef who can cook up a nice meal without the ingredients. Bledsoe, bless his heart, is not a guy who can change a game with his passing. Unless his forays into the paint and midrange pullups are working, his passing is not going to be a potent weapon. And thus the team plays along to his pace. Not sure what D'Antoni can do with this roster.

Move Bled off the ball.

If we end up with Fultz or Ball, that is one reasonable way to go, since both have SG size.

[EDC]

MikeD wouldn't do anything with this roster. He needs a PnR, freeflowing offense. He can't coach a ball pounder or draw up halfcourt plays. Harden is perfect for the offense because he's a killer in the PnR, can shoot the 3, hit the midrange, get to the basket or make the pass to the outside. He's like a bigger, more offensive minded Nash. I'd like to see Booker watch tape of Harden this year and try to pick up some of his tendencies. Not looking to make Booker the primary ball handler, but would like to have that option down the road in some cases/matchups.

I agree he couldn't do much to help Bledsoe or Knight.

If he just had the young guys he would improve the offense by quite a bit I think. He would probably run everything through a Booker and Chriss/Bender pick and roll.

I still don't understand why we insist on having Len set 95% of the screens. It just isn't working out. Len isn't much of a threat on the roll.

It would be fun to see MikeD coach a lineup of Fultz, Booker, Warren, Bender, and Chriss. As long as he brought in a defensive minded assistant.

[ShelC]

After his time in PHX, NY, LA and HOU, it's pretty clear his offense is PnR and letting his ballhandler make the decisions. He's certainly good at putting guys in positions to be successful but there's nothing mindblowing about his offense and he's not drawing up new plays in the huddle. He's not a pure Xs and Os guy, so we'll see what happens in a 7 game series with the Rockets. The big difference is Harden is a go-to guy and closer, which is something we never had.

[In2ition]

After his time in PHX, NY, LA and HOU, it's pretty clear his offense is PnR and letting his ballhandler make the decisions. He's certainly good at putting guys in positions to be successful but there's nothing mindblowing about his offense and he's not drawing up new plays in the huddle. He's not a pure Xs and Os guy, so we'll see what happens in a 7 game series with the Rockets. The big difference is Harden is a go-to guy and closer, which is something we never had.

He definitely has a lot of PnR, but they are pushing the ball at every opportunity. PnR comes as almost a last resort.

I hope that the Suns get one of the big pgs in the draft and McD can make some deft moves to build on this team. Then next year, they have a super young team and put in an offense that puts up points quickly, takes advantage of the young guys, athletes, shooters and versatility. Then just push it on teams, get it down the court and run teams out of the gym while also building a tough defense that can be sustainable for the foreseeable future and contend and win championships. Please no more tanking next year, let's see them go out win next year and forever more. And keep the team together, no more selling off guys for $. No more non-basketball decisions made that decides the roster and ultimately undermines the competitiveness.

[Cap]

Please no more tanking next year, let's see them go out win next year and forever more. And keep the team together, no more selling off guys for $.

Nobody wants to see a whole season of tanking, but at the same time we have to be realistic about this team's timeline. Sacrificing young players, draft picks, and $ for win-now players would be short-sighted.

Keep the young core together. Add to it as opportunity arises, especially through the draft. Keep/acquire reasonably-priced veterans as necessary to fill out the rotation. Go out, compete, and see what happens.

[In2ition]

Please no more tanking next year, let's see them go out win next year and forever more. And keep the team together, no more selling off guys for $.

Nobody wants to see a whole season of tanking, but at the same time we have to be realistic about this team's timeline. Sacrificing young players, draft picks, and $ for win-now players would be short-sighted.

Keep the young core together. Add to it as opportunity arises, especially through the draft. Keep/acquire reasonably-priced veterans as necessary to fill out the rotation. Go out, compete, and see what happens.

I agree, keep the core together if they project out to keep improving and become something special. I'm just hopeful(and maybe unrealistically) that they make a HUGE jump next year in their level of play and it accelerates their timeline.

[Ring_Wanted]

Mike D has the Rockets and Harden playing like never before. This is just another example of the game he coaches. NY had it too for a while (Felton looked great, how bout dat). This time his system is even more than encouraged by the GM. I honestly believe the chance was there for Phoenix. He should have been coaching around Booker's ability to create. We'll see.

[ShelC]

NY had it too for a while (Felton looked great, how bout dat).

Ehh, not really. It took him about half a season to get comfortable and look OK but then they traded him. Billups wasn't a great fit but Lin was the PG he needed running that offense.

[Indy]

I agree with Laz's take around needing to find that strong X/O guy to be his tactician. Let him be the strategic developer of psyches or whatnot, give inspirational speeches about playing as a family on and off the court. But we will need a tactician to be successful.

[Ring_Wanted]

OK is great speaking about Felton haha. True about Linsanity, it was really nice to see him go nova. Also true about Billups, who was not a prototypical D'Antoni point guard, although he still delivered at an old age.

[JustWinBaby]

MikeD wouldn't do anything with this roster. He needs a PnR, freeflowing offense. He can't coach a ball pounder or draw up halfcourt plays. Harden is perfect for the offense because he's a killer in the PnR, can shoot the 3, hit the midrange, get to the basket or make the pass to the outside. He's like a bigger, more offensive minded Nash. I'd like to see Booker watch tape of Harden this year and try to pick up some of his tendencies. Not looking to make Booker the primary ball handler, but would like to have that option down the road in some cases/matchups.

You could be right that he would struggle with this roster, however:

2010/2011 - NYK - Raymond Felton had his best year 17.1 Pts & 9.0 assists prior to Dolan trading everyone for Melo - The Knicks were winning and exciting. Mike could not coach the ball hog and said it is him or me. Dolan stayed with Melo. How has that worked out.

2013/2014 - LAL - Kendall Marshall 8.8 assists & Steve Blake 7.6 assists - Neither still in the league.

I don't know how many more games we would have won with Mike as our coach but I truly believe that he would have better utilized both Bledsoe and Knight. I also think that Len would have barley seen the floor, he would have made Chandler a pick and roll monster and we would have seen tremendous growth from Bender, Chriss and Warren. I also think Booker's shooting percentage would be much higher due to getting better shots within Mike's offense.

The worry about how the Rockets will do in the playoffs is spoiled milk. If you are a Rocket fan at least your team made the playoffs. We have not done that for 7 years and there is no way to predict when we will make them again. Also it is hard to believe that we are in better position to win a championship in the future with Watson as our coach rather than Mike. If anyone truly believes that they need to get a grip.

Mike is not coming back, ever. However why not Nash? I know that Nash was somewhat on the radar prior to hiring Watson due to a believed close relationship with Sarver. I expect that Watson will be our coach next year. However if we do not see real growth, not just love-ins we really need to consider moving on during the summer of 2018 or sooner.