Aside from the way he calls timeouts and some substitution patterns
[which is much of what distinguishes a head coach from an assistant coach],
I am very happy with Igor's coaching. He has clear continuity in the way he is formulating the overall rotation
[for the last few games, perhaps, but before that he was all over the place, even after certain line-ups and rotations were clearly working while others weren't].
There is a clear offense
[that is still last in the NBA in efficiency and is over-reliant on passing along the perimeter and camping our franchise center at the high post, rather than the low post where he belongs].
The team is starting to play defense
[that much is true, and I will give Kokoskov credit here, except to say that he was also at the helm when we were giving up a practice lay-up drill during games, so I would limit the credit he gets for correcting the awful play for which he was responsible in the first place].
In spite of being blown out in early games, this team is still playing hard for him
[some players, yes, but others, especially Trevor Ariza, absolutely not].
They are now competitive
[that is true, but again like the improvement in defense, I would limit the credit Igor gets for being competitive now when they first were historically non-competitive under his watch].
He has a pattern regarding playing time.
1. Vets get the preference first. (Anderson, Ariza, Canaan to start the year)
[This is an archaic approach and largely what got Mike D'Antoni fired here and why we fell off a cliff every time Steve Nash wasn't in the game to rescue us. It is critical, especially for building a contender for the future and developing the young cornerstones of the franchise, that the best group of players, at least for the team's future if not those who are the best at the moment, get the playing time. Nobody should be gifted a spot or minutes just because he is a vet, especially for a young team that needs to learn how to win. If a vet is good and productive enough to help the team build the way it needs to build, then absolutely give him playing time. But if a vet is contributing nothing, or worse is a negative presence or influence, playing him anyway is at best going to stunt the team's development and at worst is going to encourage players to emulate the vets' bad habits in order to "earn" playing time and then will ultimately drive a wedge and cause a rift in the locker room with younger players grousing about unfairly being deprived of opportunity.]
2. Vets gets time to adjust and produce. (First ten games or so)
[It's been twenty games, and Ariza and Canaan are still being gifted playing time, Ariza despite his total lack of effort and Canaan despite his total lack of production.]
3. But vet do eventually have to produce consistently or they can lose their spots. (Anderson, Canaan)
[Canaan lost his starting spot but is still getting way too many minutes. Ariza has lost nothing despite doing his best impression of Eric Bledsoe from the beginning of last season.]
4. Young players have to earn it. (TJ and Mikal both produced in minutes given)
[While vets don't. Not exactly the way to build good camaraderie between the young core and the vet "leaders", particularly in situations, like with Ariza, where the vets are doing everything they can to be a bad influence. Meanwhile, though TJ, the relative vet, has been rewarded with steady extensive playing time, Bridges, the relative young player, has been benched or had his minutes reduced after performances as good as TJ's. Again no consistency here other than to give undeserved preference to the vets just because they are vets, which again is a surefire formula for long-term failure. The vets and young players all need to be held accountable equally for bad play. And the vets and young players all need to be rewarded equally for good play.]
5. If young players start to consistently out-produce the vets in front of them, they will move up. (TJ over Anderson, Mikal essentially moved Canaan out of the starting spot)
[Jackson and Bridges have not moved up over Ariza, despite this axiom. And no young player is even being given the opportunity to out-produce Canaan, despite the fact that Canaan is not producing anything and that it is a virtual automatic that the worst than can happen with Okobo or Melton is the same level of production, or lack thereof, as Canaan, only with the opportunity to learn from it rather than just sitting on the bench and doing nothing other than watch Canaan continue to get minutes he doesn't deserve.]
6. If the young players do not produce well enough, they will not displace the player in front of them, even if the vet is not playing that well. (JJ has not replaced Ariza, Okobo and Melton have not replaced Canaan.)
[And yet JJ has out-performed Ariza, and Okobo and Melton have not even been given an opportunity.]
7. Igor is more deliberate about this. He does not hurry with his decisions. He gives players time to truly show what they have. It's not as fast as most fans want, but his pace is probably more wise.
[Deliberate? Or just stubborn? Or clueless? The need to allocate Ariza and Canaan's playing time elsewhere is pretty much obvious to everyone not named Igor Kokoskov. Even lowly blog writers, including some quoted on this board, see this. What more could Igor possibly need to know???]
For the first time in years, there seems to be a very deliberate way of sorting out playing time.
[And unfortunately that "deliberate way" is a surefire formula for failure and ultimately for dissension between the young players and the vets.]
