George Karl

[skurey]

Seems to me that Carmelo's playoff record was greatly impacted by this terrible coach.

 

[SUOrangeSU]

hahaha...he needs to get those teeth looked at as well...yikes

 

[cuseattle]

Always liked Coach Karl when he was with the Sonics. Met him once at a 7-11 getting a big gulp, he was friendly and down to earth.
First round loss to the Nuggets in 94 when Seattle had the best record in the league was frustrating, but that was a 5 game series.

 

[CusefanATL]

I'd be a little careful about what is said until Carmelo at least escapes the C's.

 

[shermstheman]

He can't be that bad of a coach- he's had a head coaching job since 1984 and won 60% of his games. Rarely have I thought his teams loaded with talent. I like his no bs approach. Regarding Melo, he was not stellar in the C's series- I was a bit taken aback as how he played during the C's comeback- ball hogged, turnovers though he did make a couple of badly needed shots. The next (last?) step for Melo is to truly lead a team on a long playoff run.

 

[Gabjon]

He can't be that bad of a coach- he's had a head coaching job since 1984 and won 60% of his games. Rarely have I thought his teams loaded with talent. I like his no bs approach. Regarding Melo, he was not stellar in the C's series- I was a bit taken aback as how he played during the C's comeback- ball hogged, turnovers though he did make a couple of badly needed shots. The next (last?) step for Melo is to truly lead a team on a long playoff run.

Karl is not a bad coach he is a bad playoff coach. Denver won game 1 on a last second shot by Miller and lost the next 3 games before Karl made any real adjustments. Game 5 he changed his line-up and slowed the pace a bit, but by then his team has to win 3 in a row to advance. He has to make quicker adjustments in the playoffs and it's been 20+ of the same valid criticism.

 

[OrangeDW]

Karl's teams have underperformed greatly in the playoffs. He's basically had 1 good run with each team, and that's it. His Sonics made one run to the finals in '96 but were knocked out early every other year, and by lower seeded teams in several of them(Denver in 94, Lakers in 95 come to mind). Milwaukee made the ECF in 2001 and lost to a less talented Sixers team, where all Karl did was complain about the refs the entire series, so I don't even give him credit for that "run" because his team should've never lost that series. With the early 2000's East being so weak, there's no reason those Bucks shouldn't have made the finals at least once, if not several times. He had a prime Ray Allen, a prime Big Dog, and a prime Sam Cassell. And he made the ECF once in Denver in 2009, and has gone out in the first round all the others...though most were to better teams. Not this year though.

Blaming Melo, when Karl has made early exits in almost all of his playoff series' is just wrong.

And he's had a big problem with throwing his stars under the bus and turning on them/having them turn on him. He did it in Milwaukee and Denver.

 

[OrangeDW]

Karl is not a bad coach he is a bad playoff coach. Denver won game 1 on a last second shot by Miller and lost the next 3 games before Karl made any real adjustments. Game 5 he changed his line-up and slowed the pace a bit, but by then his team has to win 3 in a row to advance. He has to make quicker adjustments in the playoffs and it's been 20+ of the same valid criticism.

His refusal to play an actual Center when he has two decent ones, and trying to play Farried at C was dumb. Farried's not a center. Not even close.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I never felt he was a good coach, but his post-Melo teams have been surprisingly good.

Karl's Melo teams, though, were almost always the lower 'seeded' playoff team. They shouldn't have been expected to win.

 

[Gabjon]

His refusal to play an actual Center when he has two decent ones, and trying to play Farried at C was dumb. Farried's not a center. Not even close.

Right Golden is a better shooting team and it is not close! You have to play them big and beat them up on the glass! I find most UNC guys only run their base system with little adjustments. That is fine in the regular season but doesn't work in the playoffs! Larry Brown in the noted exception.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[OrangeDW]

Remember when people who think they know something about the NBA but don't, were saying the Nuggets got the better of the deal? Yeah, well now you had Wilson Chandler(one of the guys they were supposedly better off with than Melo) taking the big shots down the stretch in an elimination playoff game. How'd that work out?

 

[Melancer46]

I think Karl is more an overachiever than anything. I never feel that his teams are that good on paper, but they always end up in the 3-5 seed range in the playoffs. This is one of the first times his Nuggets teams have lost while being the higher seed.

If the Nuggets give up on him, I'd gladly take him back in Milwaukee. It seems that he's one of the only No BS coaches that players actually enjoy playing for.

But yeah, there's no way a team who's best two players are Iguodala and Ty Lawson should be a top 3 seed in the Western Conference.

 

[OrangeDW]

I think Karl is more an overachiever than anything. I never feel that his teams are that good on paper, but they always end up in the 3-5 seed range in the playoffs. This is one of the first times his Nuggets teams have lost while being the higher seed.

If the Nuggets give up on him, I'd gladly take him back in Milwaukee. It seems that he's one of the only No BS coaches that players actually enjoy playing for.

But yeah, there's no way a team who's best two players are Iguodala and Ty Lawson should be a top 3 seed in the Western Conference.

Many had Denver projected to win 50+ games and mentioned them as a darkhorse to win the west. One(SI?) even had them in the finals. They did about what they were expected to, except for the Golden State loss. You can say those are there two best players, but you'd also be overlooking that they aren't built on stars, and Karl seemed pretty comfortable with that. In fact that was the point made by those who were vocal about Denver being better off being built that way than built around Melo, despite the fact that almost every single champion ever featured one of the best players in bball.

They are built perfectly to win 50 and win a series or two, and there's nothing wrong with that. They have talent and a good team. But they won't go beyond 2nd round or WCF if everything breaks right.

Gallo getting hurt didn't help, but still. GS without Lee...they should win that series.

 

[CaptainJ]

Always liked Coach Karl when he was with the Sonics. Met him once at a 7-11 getting a big gulp, he was friendly and down to earth.
First round loss to the Nuggets in 94 when Seattle had the best record in the league was frustrating, but that was a 5 game series.

Wait, which one of you was getting the Big Gulp? And why not a slurpee?

 

[NailstheCusefan12]

Remember when people who think they know something about the NBA but don't, were saying the Nuggets got the better of the deal? Yeah, well now you had Wilson Chandler(one of the guys they were supposedly better off with than Melo) taking the big shots down the stretch in an elimination playoff game. How'd that work out?

Considering another key cog in that deal in Danilo Gallinari was out for the playoffs I think it's easy to rush to that judgment right now. Gallo took and made a lot of huge shots for the Nuggets this year before he tore his ACL.

 

[NailstheCusefan12]

Seems to me that Carmelo's playoff record was greatly impacted by this terrible coach.

Considering it took him 5 games and 3 quarters to finally put one of the best perimeter defenders in the world (Igoudala) on Steph Curry, I'd have to agree. Curry panicked down the stretch of Game 6 with AI on him, and that's exactly when the Nuggets made that huge run to almost steal the game.

 

[cuseattle]

Wait, which one of you was getting the Big Gulp? And why not a slurpee?

Late reply because I just saw the question! Coach Karl with the big gulp and me prob a box of smokes(dirty habbit). He really was nice. Can't complain about his coaching here either.

 

[texascpa]

Oh, the irony!