Comparing Phil and Rudy T

Posted on LG.net on 1/11.

Phil's style was that he knew all the answers and that all that his players needed to do was play the way he told him to. Now, there are several advantages to this approach: (1) as Phil did know how to win, it effectively raised the team's basketball IQ; (2) because Phil knew exactly want he wanted from his players, it produced improvement quickly; and (3) Phil could push players to improve in ways they would never have thought of. However, the downsides to Phil's approach were (1) some people can't put totally trust the coach; (2) it doesn't take advantage of the ideas of the players on the team; and (3) if Phil's system ever wasn't appropriate, there was no way to change the system. My impression is that Shaq loved having a coach tell him to play the Triangle offense every time, where as Kobe didn't care for being treated as intellectually inferior. To me, Phil's system really didn't work last year because IMHO a team of four HOF's should have won more regular season games. In particular, Phil never figured out how to take advantage of Gary Payton.

Rudy T's style seems to me to be totally different. My impression is that he has some ideas and a general philosophy, but is open with the players that he doesn't have all the answers and wants their suggestions, particularly Kobe's. Here is my impression of how the season has gone: Rudy T sat down with Kobe at the beginning of training camp and asked him, "What kind of offense do you want to run?" and Kobe said, "Give me the ball all the time and let me create for myself and my teammates." The Lakers ran that offense for a while and didn't do well with it. Rudy T then sat down with Kobe and said, "Running lots of iso for you is resulting in lots of standing around, lots of turnovers for you, you winding up exhausted and Lamar not being involved. What do you think we should do different?" Kobe said, "How about we iso Lamar a lot more, particularly in the third quarter and rest me at the start of the fourth, so that I will be fresher to close out the games." The Lakers went with that a while and had some success, then got pasted by San Antonio and Dallas. Rudy T then sat down with Kobe again and they talked about how their opponents were sagging so much, Kobe suggested the Princeton offense and Rudy T countered by suggesting the Triangle. The Lakers have since won two in a row and have showed a lot more movement on offense. I wonder - is this the mix of offense sets that Rudy T wanted all along, but he waited for Kobe to understand the need for using the Triangle? It would help explain why he kept Frank Hamblen on as an assistant coach.

Because the system Rudy T is implementing is gradually being developed based upon the input of the players, it is much slower to be implemented. However, because it is developed with the player's input, it has much more buy in. Also, it appears to me that Rudy T is working on only one or two things at a time, so the Lakers' complete game will take quite some time to develop. For example, the Lakers initially were allowing way too many offensive rebounds. In their first seven games, they allowed 16, 11, 16, 12, 16, 17 and 17. In their last four games, they have allowed 11, 8, 8, and 5. Another example - the Lakers are dead last in forcing turnovers, but from what people have posted on LG, the Lakers have in the last few games started putting a lot more pressure on the other teams' guards. Also, it appears to me that Rudy is almost forced to not play the players not in his regular rotation (Medvedenko, Walton, Vujacic) because he needs to focus on listening to only 8 or 9 players and needs his regulars to get as much experience with the system du jour as possible.

Overall, I think Phil's style suited a lot of superstars in the NBA, but not Kobe (and not Payton). Rudy T's style seems to be much slower to deliver results than Phil's, but it appears to suit Kobe much better. Phil's style was great for his superstars, but his role players and rookies never improved much. Under Rudy T, we have seen Mihm, Atkins and Jones produce far more than they ever did with other teams; Cook far more than last year; and Odom and Butler have made steady progress since the beginning of the season. The Lakers have a long way to go, but Rudy T's style seems to promise steady improvement throughout the season.