Mike Krzyzewski return to US team no longer ruled out
Krzyzewski told Sports Illustrated in a story that “there’s a chance” he’ll return.
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Mike Krzyzewski Reportedly Considering Returning as Team USA Coach in 2016
Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has made quite a mark on the USA Basketball team since he assumed the head coaching position in 2005. Despite remarks to the contrary, it now seems Krzyzewski could remain at the helm through 2016.
According to Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated, Coach K has “reversed course” in admitting he is considering a return:
BREAKING: Coach K reverses course and tells @sinow “there’s a chance” he coaches USA Basketball again. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basket…
— Pete Thamel(@SIPeteThamel) May 18, 2013
Thamel reports that Krzyzewski, 66, and chairman Jerry Colangelo have been discussing the ongoing nature of the former’s relationship with USA Basketball.
Colangelo commented, “I think it’s very close to being resolved. That’s all I can say for sure. Give it another week and it should be resolved.”
USA Basketball hasn’t always been a top priority for the NBA’s brightest stars. After a lull in success prior to Krzyzewski’s arrival, the team has been a dominant force in international play, compiling a 62-1 record in that span. His tenure also includes Olympic gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Games.
While nothing is finalized, the fact that Colangelo didn’t find an immediate replacement is telling. According to Thamel, the chairman held off naming a new coach at the beginning of the year in hopes of convincing Krzyzewski to retain his position to lead the team in the coming years.
Coach K was the architect of USA Basketball’s most recent Olympic gold medal in 2012 at the London Games—a run that included a perfect 8-0 record and a 107-100 victory over Spain in the gold medal game.
USA Basketball also won gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but that may not have been possible without Krzyzewski at the helm. The year before Coach K took over (2004), the team produced a disappointing third-place finish at the Athens Olympics.
Should he agree to remain with the team, Thamel suggests Krzyzewski’s final run could encompass both the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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Game Plan for Mike Brown to Rebuild Cleveland Cavaliers’ Defense
Say what you want about Mike Brown, but the man knows how to coach a defense.
A former assistant coach to defensive mastermind Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs from 2000-2003, Brown has built a reputation as a premier defensive coach in his own right.
During his first tenure in Cleveland, the Cavs never ranked worse than 10th overall in opponent points per game, and led the league in the category during the 2008-09 season according to basketball-reference.com.
That season the Cavs finished 66-16, the best record in the NBA.
Lately, though, the Cavaliers‘ defense has been a mess.
On a team riddled with injuries, Cleveland has ranked 23rd, 26th and 25th in opponent scoring the past three years. Their defensive identity has been nonexistent, with even their star player, Kyrie Irving, showing little interest on that side of the ball.
Enter Brown, who can turn the Cavs‘ defense around quickly, mostly by following the same principles he used the first time around.
Roster
From 2005-2010, Brown didn’t actually have a lot of elite defenders on the roster. LeBron James got better year by year, Anderson Varejao made an All-Defense second team in 2010 and Delonte West did a nice job of containing opposing guards.
Other than that, all other Cavs during this time could have only been considered above-average at best. Ben Wallace is another name that comes to mind, but he was well past his Detroit Pistons-prime by the time he was traded to Cleveland.
This time around, Cleveland still has Varejao, but for how many games? Tristan Thompson has the potential to be a very good post defender. Alonzo Gee can guard multiple perimeter positions, but has the ceiling of a sixth man at best. Surprisingly, guard Wayne Ellington allowed the lowest opponent efficiency rating of any Cavs player at just a 13.4 rating, according to 82games.com.
Right now, the Cavs don’t have a lot of reliable man-to-man defenders—an issue they’ll most likely try to solve in the draft.
The addition of a shot-blocking center like Nerlens Noel or a do-it-all small forward like Otto Porter would certainly help Brown patch the Cavs‘ defense next season.
Pace
No one will ever confuse Mike Brown for Mike D’Antoni—and that’s OK.
Brown’s teams prefer to slow things down and operate in half-court sets. The Cavs from 2005-2010 ranked 19th, 18th, 25th, 25th and 25th in pace of play, per basketball-reference.com.
Teams that rely on fast-break scoring opportunities often struggle against Brown’s defenses, as they force opponents to attempt to score on them in the half court, taking away their speed and athleticism.
While this can be detrimental on the offensive side of the ball, the defense should thrive if given the right players.
Team/Help Defense
Since he didn’t have a lot of elite defenders with the Cavs from 2005-10, Brown used a lot of sets that required help defense.
This meant a lot of responsibilities for each and every defender, and (perhaps too often) had big men at the top of the key putting additional pressure on the ball-handler.
Rotation will be the key for Brown’s team next season, as everyone will likely have to work a little bit harder on the defensive end. As Brown stated in his press conference, the team “may hear language they’ve never heard before” when referring to practicing his different defenses.
Getting the younger players to buy into his systems early will be key, as will veterans like Anderson Varejao leading by example. Varejao may be the most valuable player this training camp, as he’ll likely be the only player still on the roster from Brown’s first tenure in Cleveland. His work with the younger post players like Thompson and Tyler Zeller will be critical for their defensive development.
Accountability
The first time Brown was in Cleveland, he didn’t hold every player to the same standard on the defensive end.
This has to change.
There can’t be any special treatment for star players. Every single player must be held accountable for his own actions, be they good or bad. On a roster so young, it’s crucial Brown have control of his players from the beginning, and know that their playing time will largely depend on their ability to defend.
No longer a rookie head coach like he was back in 2005-06, Brown should be much better in his leadership and overall command of the locker room.
Look for the Cavs‘ defense to be much improved in 2013-14, thanks to coach Brown.
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New York Knicks: Why Isn’t Mike Woodson Playing Chris Copeland?
Why isn’t Mike Woodson playing Chris Copeland? Does the New York Knicks coach not see that his team, now down three games-to-one against the Indiana Pacers, is desperate for offense? Maybe the coach just doesn’t see the dreadlocked scoring machine that’s been sitting right in front of him all along.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have the answers; I don’t think anyone does, actually. The Knicks are absolutely desperate for offense with J.R. Smith struggling (shooting 33.6 percent from the field) and Carmelo Anthony getting bullied by Paul George.
And yet, Copeland just sits there in his warm-ups—well, until Woodson already concedes the game and empties his bench. When that happens, the 28-year-old rookie proves to everyone that his coach is making a huge mistake every minute that he sits him.
Before I get into the stats, I would like to acknowledge the fact that Copeland is horrendous defensively. He’s awful on that end of the floor—I understand that—but that’s not what this discussion is about. This is strictly about what he could bring to the team in the area that needs the most improvement: offense.
Alright, now let’s begin: with Copeland on the floor, the Knicks are simply a better team.
In the postseason, the team’s offensive rating (ORtg -an estimate of points produced or scored per 100 possessions), is +15.5 points while Copeland is on the court. New York’s assist percentage (AST- an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor) is +8.5 percent (via Basketball Reference).
But that’s not all. While the team has shot 32 percent from the three-point line throughout the playoffs, Copeland has been one of the team’s most consistent long-range shooters. He has connected on 5-of-13 shots from downtown and has the third-highest three-point percentage (38.5) of anyone who is averaging more than one attempt per game.
Copeland actually lit up Indiana for 10.8 points per game during the regular season while shooting nearly 53 percent from the field. In the month of April, while the Knicks were ravaged by injuries at basically every position, Copeland poured in 15 points per game.
Is it becoming more obvious that Woodson is making a mistake?
If not, listen to this. As a starter, while averaging 27.2 minutes per game in 13 games this season, Copeland gave the Knicks 16.1 points per night. Coming off the bench, while averaging 11.8 minutes per game this season, the rookie contributed 6.4 points—that’s a difference of nearly 10 whole points.
Personally, I like Woodson and the job he’s done with the Knicks since taking over last season—he had his team defending and playing hard while making Anthony look like an MVP candidate. However, all along, he didn’t give Copeland the chance that he deserved.
It’s time to unleash the 28-year-old rookie whom the Knicks signed from Belgium in the offseason. If given serious minutes, Copeland could save his team—and the coach who has mistreated him all season—from a humiliating defeat at the hands of Indiana.
Or, Copeland could find himself sitting there for another whole game, check in during garbage time and knock down a few threes.
It’s up to Woodson—no one else can free the 6’8” scorer. But let this be clear: If Copeland doesn’t get significant playing time in the coming games, the Knicks will lose this series to the Pacers.
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Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made $9.7 million in 2011
Coach K’s 2011 pay is the greatest single-year compensation total for a college athletics.
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Mike Woodson Dropped the Ball in the Knicks’ Game 4 Loss
Players win and lose basketball games, and the New York Knicks were dismal in their 93-82 Game 4 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
They shot 35.6 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from behind the arc while being outrebounded 54-36. However, it is incumbent upon a coach to put his players in a position to succeed, and in the biggest Knicks game in 13 years, Mike Woodson failed miserably.
The Knicks coach panicked after New York lost Game 3, 82-71, and inserted Kenyon Martin into the starting lineup in place of Pablo Prigioni. In doing so, Woodson abandoned the small-ball strategy that won 54 games for the Knicks this season and ignored every piece of evidence regarding what has worked for his team.
New York had the third-most efficient offense in the league and set an NBA record for the most three-pointers in a season. Their recipe for success was to play Carmelo Anthony at the 4 and surround him with shooters to spread the floor. The spacing those shooters provided gave Anthony room to operate and opened up the lane for Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to execute the high pick-and-roll.
Another key component to the Knicks’ offensive success was Woodson’s use of two point guards together, which helped facilitate the ball movement that led to so many open threes. Early in the season, it was Jason Kidd who started alongside Felton. Down the stretch and in the playoffs, Pablo Prigioni took over Kidd’s role.
After Indiana’s big, bruising front line led by Roy Hibbert and David West broke the Knicks’ back in Game 3 with 18 offensive boards, Woodson felt he needed to combat their size with a bigger starting lineup. The strategy was doomed to fail. As Dan Devine of Yahoo! sports tweeted, “Going away from what YOU do best to do what THEY do best rarely works well.”
The Knicks were struggling to score with their usual lineup against Indiana’s No. 1-ranked defense—they shot just 35 percent in Game 3. Adding the offensively challenged Kenyon Martin to the lineup could only make matters worse. Neither Martin nor Chandler is a threat to score beyond five feet, so they clogged the paint, which was devastating to the Knicks’ spacing.
It was also the first time that Chandler and Martin started a game together. Game 4 of the conference semifinals is not the best time to experiment with new lineups.
Ball movement is essential to creating good shots against Indiana’s stingy defense, and Woodson and the Knicks players bemoaned the team’s selfish play in the three days after Game 3. The coach’s response was to remove New York’s most unselfish player, Prigioni, from the starting lineup. Prior to Game 4, the Knicks’ postseason assist rate with Prigioni on the court was 61 percent; without him, 46.9 percent (via NBA.com).
Shockingly, not only did Woodson bench Prigioni, the Knicks’ most consistent playoff performer played just three minutes. Jason Kidd, who has zero points on 0-of-16 shooting from the field and 0-of-10 from downtown in 177 minutes over his last eight games, played 16 minutes. The Knicks had a plus/minus of minus-25 with Kidd in the game over that span. With Prigioni in the lineup, they were plus-6.4 (via NBA.com).
The Knicks’ big lineup did not even solve their rebounding woes.
New York surrendered 16 offensive rebounds and allowed 17 second-chance points in the first half of Game 4, the most they gave up in any half this season (regular season and playoffs). As TNT analyst Reggie Miller pointed out several times, the Pacers’ best scoring opportunities came off of offensive rebounds.
It should not have been a surprise to Woodson that adding Martin to the lineup would fail to address the problem. The Knicks’ defensive rebounding rate this season with Martin on the floor was 72.4 percent; without him it was 74.6 (via NBA.com).
The Pacers grabbed so many offensive rebounds in Game 3 and Game 4 for two reasons: Chandler did not get a box-out Hibbert, and the Knicks’ perimeter players were out of position after doubling Indiana’s post players.
Hibbert grabbed eight offensive boards in Game 3 and six in Game 4. Martin had to block out his own man, another solid rebounder in West and could not help out on Hibbert. Only Chandler could keep the Pacers center off the glass.
Since Indiana is a poor three-point shooting team, the Knicks sent hard double-teams every time the Pacers threw the ball into the post, daring Indiana to kick it out and shoot outside shots.
While the Pacers did not shoot particularly well from behind the arc (10-of-33 in Game 3 and 8-of-25 in Game 4), their missed threes often resulted in long rebounds, which the Knicks guards were not in position to grab because they were scrambling to the open man after doubling the post.
Woodson should have abandoned the hard double-teams after Game 3 instead of playing a bigger lineup. Hibbert demonstrated a nice array of post moves in Game 3, though his 24 points represented a season-high. He is not Hakeem Olajuwon. The Knicks did not need to double him and West every time they touched the ball.
It is understandable that Woodson would make changes after the Knicks were pounded down low in Game 3. Typically, when bigger teams have exploited Anthony on the block like the Pacers did with West, Anthony has used his quickness to create a mismatch on the other end, but the Pacers negated that advantage by putting the lanky Paul George on Anthony instead of West.
Woodson needed to be creative and find other ways to utilize his team’s superior quickness. He could have run Iman Shumpert, who was guarded by the slower West, off of screens or created more favorable matchups for Anthony by forcing the Pacers to switch on him in pick-and-rolls. Instead, the coach discarded the offensive system that brought the Knicks their first division title in 19 years.
According to Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated, when Indiana coach Frank Vogel was asked about Woodson’s lineup change before the game, he said of his Pacers, ”The beauty of this team is that we don’t adjust to other teams. We do what we do.” Mike Woodson should take note.
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Duke Basketball: 5 Most Important Traits Mike Krzyzewski Looks for in a Player
Mike Krzyzewski is the winningest coach in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball history.
With four national championships, 957 wins, and a few more years of coaching ahead of him, Krzyzewski will finish his career as one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports.
Krzyzewski became Duke’s head coach in 1980 and has turned the basketball program into an iconic force.
The players who commit to playing for Coach K at Duke receive an incredible amount of exposure, adoration, and criticism. In order to thrive in this environment, Krzyzewski has to be very particular about the players he recruits to Durham, NC.
Each player that commits to becoming a Duke Blue Devil must exhibit the following five traits.
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Can transfer Mike Moser re-emerge at Oregon?
The transfer market didn’t betray Oregon last season, so they gave it another shot.
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Mike Woodson: Knicks Coach Deserved to Be NBA’s Coach of the Year
George Karl, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, was crowned as the NBA’s Coach of the Year on Wednesday. Although Karl is a tremendous coach and made history this season by leading Denver to a franchise-best 57 wins, there was a more deserving candidate for the award: Mike Woodson of the New York Knicks.
Woodson finished third in the COTY race, behind Karl and Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, with six first place votes.
Last season the Knicks finished with a record of 36-30. Woodson took over for Mike D’Antoni with 24 games left on the schedule, and the team went 18-6 during that span (they were 18-24 when he took over). This season New York finished at 54-26, the team’s best record since 1996-97, and won the Atlantic Division for the first time since the 1993-94 season (via New York Daily News).
The Nuggets have the third youngest team in the NBA, but lack a traditional superstar. Ty Lawson was 31st in the league with 16.7 points per game, and led the team in scoring. The fact that Denver had a great season despite their lack of star-power is the main reason that Karl won the award.
Again, Karl is an outstanding coach, but Woodson was simply more deserving of the award.
The Knicks came into this season with the oldest roster in NBA history, and no one expected much from the team. Carmelo Anthony was coming off of shooting a career-low percentage from the field (44.3 percent) in 2011-12 as the struggle for dominance with Amar’e Stoudemire continued. Woodson solved that problem—when Stoudemire missed a huge chunk of the season after requiring a knee debridement surgery prior to the regular season, he played him off the bench and eliminated all controversy surrounding the duo.
Woodson also changed the culture of New York basketball by preaching something that had not been a factor in the D’Antoni-era: defense. Woodson even got Anthony and J.R. Smith to commit on the defensive end, which has spread throughout the rest of the locker room.
Smith has been one of Woodson’s projects since day-one, and the confidence that the coach instilled in the often out-of-control guard paid tremendous dividends.
Smith won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, and in his speech credited his coach.
“Coach Woodson told me from the get-go it would be a better situation for my teammates and me coming off the bench,” said Smith, who came into training camp hoping to become a starter. “Once I put in perspective, it really was and has been all year. He told me the first day of training camp, and I’ve embraced it since then” (via USA Today).
“I’ve got to credit my success to my teammates and coaches,” Smith added. “If we didn‘t win, I wouldn’t be in this situation. Coach Woodson has been unbelievable.”
Is it fair to discount Woodson for serious contention for the award because he has a superstar in Anthony? Karl has several good players (Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler), but the fact that the Nuggets didn’t even have an all-star on the team and still finished third in the Western Conference puts Woodson at a disadvantage.
In his first full season under Woodson, Anthony improved in all of the following: scoring (he won the NBA scoring title with 28.7 points per game), shooting percentage, rebounding (offensive and defensive), three-point percentage, free throw percentage, blocks and minutes per game (via Basketball Reference).
It isn’t fair to not give Woodson a fair shot at the award just because he has the superstar that happens to be a former Nugget, because under the head coach Anthony has raised his game to near-MVP level.
Karl is a great coach, class act and is without a doubt one of the best basketball minds in the game today. However, in 2012-13, Woodson deserved to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award for job he did with the Knicks.
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Duke Basketball: Why Mike Krzyzewski and Jabari Parker Are a Perfect Match
When you think of the storied Duke basketball program, one man stands above them all as the single, most important figure in school history. Without head coach Mike Krzyzewski at the forefront of this program, the aura that surrounds the Duke Blue Devils would be nonexistent.
Of course, Coach K will also be the first to tell you that without an assortment of outstanding student-athletes, Duke basketball would severely be lacking its superiority.
Names such as Gene Banks, Johnny Dawkins, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Shane Battier and J.J. Redick stand out most significantly in regards to what each one accomplished in their respective careers at Duke. In some form or another, each player became a program-changer. Exhibiting the qualities of being a winner, a leader and an ambassador of the school, this collection of talent, in their own way, became a perfect match with Coach K.
On December 20, 2012, one of the nation’s most highly sought-after recruits in recent memory, Jabari Parker, announced his intentions of playing college basketball at Duke. That decision was made official on May 2 of this year when the 6’8″ Chicago native signed his national letter of intent.
It was a decision that instantly became destined for greatness.
Duke. Highly regarded as one of the upper echelon programs in Division I college basketball.
Jabari Parker. Considered to be one of the best pure talents from the high school scene since LeBron James.
While Parker has yet to begin his first official season at Duke, he is already being tabbed with overwhelming expectations and pressure as a freshman.
Can he single-handedly replace the departing senior trio of Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee? Can he lead Duke back to the Final Four? Will he provide the expected contributions to give Coach K and the Blue Devils their fifth national championship?
All questions that fuel the desire to succeed that much more.
To his credit are four consecutive Illinois state basketball championships while playing at Simeon Career Academy. Additionally, he is a recipient of a collection of Player of the Year honors throughout his illustrious high school career. He is the centerpiece of Duke’s three-man 2013 recruiting class and will be the primary leader for the Blue Devils next season.
Like those names before him, he too possesses all of the tools to make his own mark for this program. With program-changing ability, it’s all a part of the mystique that Parker has carried with him throughout his playing career.
Jabari Parker needed Mike Krzyzewski; a coach and a leader, arguably considered as the greatest of all time, that brings out the very best in his players through unmatched guidance.
In turn, Mike Krzyzewski needed Jabari Parker. A player that exemplifies success on the basketball court through relentless work ethic and a determined mind.
Next season, they will come together as an incomparable coach-player tandem. An ideal match for one another.
Two men, together, that share the same common values towards one goal. That goal being championship glory in 2014.
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