Maybe I'm being naive, but do you think that part of the problem is that our coaches do not provide enough structure in the offseason?
Now, I'm not an expert at the rules of engagement, but it seems to me that in some sports, teams are using the offseason workouts to really do team work, not just individual development and pick-up games.
I believe that some teams have semi-organized summer programs where you can put in systems, so that you're ready to go when the official practices start.
If you're just starting your work as a team on Day One, I think you're already behind. Aren't sports year-round at the top levels?
It seems we have gotten better later in each of the last 2 seasons. Maybe other teams are doing in August what we're doing in October.
I don't know enough about what goes on behind the scenes. But here is what I'll say... these guys are all career coaches, their assistants are all career coaches, their S&C guys are all career S&C guys. There isn't that much new under the sun when it comes to off court process so that stuff should be table stakes. If it's not then the coach should be fired plain and simple.
What I suspect is actually happening is several things that are happening because we have a first time HC who has been a career assistant coach for just about his whole career under a HoF HC who owned 100% of the strategy and was very rigid in his strategy:
1. Red has a vision for the team - play fast, put the other team under pressure, run lots of bodies at them, shoot lots of 3s. But I could get that same vision statement from chat-gpt. As a leader of an org, it is important to have a vision to motivate the team, attract new resources and investment to the team, get people excited about the team, etc... I'll give Red credit, he seems to have done a good job of this, or maybe people in Syracuse were so desperate for a change just not being JB was enough of a vision to generate new energy.
2. Unfortunately, as a leader having a vision is the easy and smallest part of the job. Having a strategy for how to execute the vision is the 2nd biggest part of the job and the hardest. This is also where someone new on the job is most likely to get exposed. I'll give you a personal example... I've been in adtech for 15+ years now and I've done it over and over. I took a new job in January in a completely new country... but the job transition was seamless because ads are ads and I was able to largely take the vision and strategy I've always had and tweak it to make it work here. I was able to do this because I've done it multiple times before under different circumstances and I had to speak to that in my interview process. Now with Red, there seems to have been minimal vetting done of what the vision was and the strategy to get it done. Now here we are... I see zero evidence that Red has any strategy for how to accomplish his vision. He is just trying stuff to see what sticks... this is year 3 and there is ZERO consistency in the way the team is structured or plays from year to year. The only consistency in fact is a complete lack of strategy.
3. Now comes the hardest part, executing the strategy on game day. What I think we are seeing is a complete failure in execution because the strategy is non existent. So to answer your question, I think the failure isn't lack of structure in the off season, it's that the players are just playing without any sort of execution plan. Or more likely whatever execution plan they are practicing is so basic that the second the execution comes up against friction it completely falls apart because it is just so surface level. I do believe Red has a vision and strategy but it's not layered enough because he hasn't had to do this before in his career. Every strategy and plan falls apart somewhat when the bullets start flying, good coaching is the ability for you and your players to react to that and we are completely missing that so far.
We missed having a true interview process after JB... maybe Red is a great interviewee and would have nailed the vision/strategy part of the process, we will never know. But we are paying the price because maybe a more experienced coach would have shown more than Red in the process. It feels like we are seeing the same issue on the football side this year where there is a great vision, but again the strategy is falling apart once it hits adversity. Given that the same dude hired both guys, maybe the problem is the hiring manager?
Anyways this post is way too long and rambling. My 2c.. if Red can't figure out the strategy part and how to get his players to execute it on game day he is done after this year. I don't think the same guy who hired Fran and Red and fell for “Orange is the new fast” should be the same guy who hires the next HC... or at least they need to pull outside people into the vetting process.
