Thursday, May 26, 2011
Posted: 10 a.m.
By Dei Lynam
CSNPhilly.com
The NBA is down to its final few teams as Dallas awaits the winner of the Eastern Conference finals. The games have been competitive and entertaining to say the least. The talent on display is fresh, but so too are the coaches.
Chicagos Tom Thibodeau was named Coach of the Year after his team won 62 games in his first season as a head coach in the NBA.
Erik Spoelstra was criticized plenty early in the regular season when the Big Three compiled a 10-9 record through the first month of the season and in early March lost five straight before entering the playoffs on a 13-3 spurt.
Spoelstra is just 40 years old. Prior to this season he guided the Heat to 90 wins combined in his first two seasons as an NBA coach and now is one win away from the NBA Finals, a place he has been as an assistant coach when Miami beat Dallas after trailing in the series 2-0.
Former Sixers point guard Scott Brooks had guided the Oklahoma City Thunder for two full seasons after taking over a 1-12 team in 2008-09. He was named Coach of the Year last season after winning 50 games and earning the eighth seed in the West. His team was eliminated in a tough series against Dallas, but his future and that of the Thunder are ultra bright.
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And finally there is Rick Carlisle, who won 50, 55 and 57 regular season games in his first three seasons coaching the Mavs. Carlisle earned a trip to his first-ever Finals appearance as a head coach.
Most NBA fans agree that a team cant win it all without a superstar. I would suggest without the right man heading your squad, given the talent level, the age and the mix of personalities, wins are hard to come by for a team as well.
Collins was the perfect fit for what the Sixers were this season. They were young and needed someone to develop their talent. A season earlier, they had struggled mightily on defense, ranking 21st in field goal percentage defense (47.2) and last against the three (39.3). Whats more, the Sixers averaged 41 rebounds per game20 teams grabbed more.
Collins and his staff deserve credit because they actually lost a key defender when Samuel Dalembert was traded for Spencer Hawes. Dalembert had been the teams leading rebounder and shot blocker, while Hawes needed to improve in both areas.
Yet, the teams defensive numbers jumped.
The Sixers went from being the worst team against the three to sixth best. They also jumped 12 spots in opponents field goal percentage to ninth.
Such improvement was made possible by Collins, who not only taught his defensive principles but also held his players accountable if they failed to adhere to them.
Plus, Collins believes in his staff and allowed associate head coach Michael Curry to do more of the defensive teaching.
How many times did you hear Collins say we need to value the ball.
His team did that as well. The Sixers averaged the fewest turnovers (13) in the NBA, tying three other teams, which was a drastic improvement from the year earlier when they tied for 17th (14.5).
Collins is not a coach that puts countless demands on his players; instead he asks that they know and deliver his priorities, which were defense and ball security, and clearly he communicated their importance.
Collins communication is a huge part of his coaching style. He likes players to know how he feels and where they stand and that he cares about them as people. How does he convey that? Text messaging, mostly. But his passion for the game and life is visual in the way he conducts practice, talks in huddles and manages a locker room.
Last summer he was committed to getting Elton Brand to want to be a part. Brand had had two rough years after choosing the Philly Max, and it was bordering on the power forward checking out mentally.
Brand (15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds) finished as the most consistent player on the roster in terms of his scoring and rebounding. He also missed only one gameand that was because of a suspension.
When the season got underway, Collins and Andre Iguodala seemed to be on separate pages. He finessed that relationship as well, getting every ounce of defensive prowess out of his No. 1 guy, which ultimately landed Iguodala on his first all-defensive team (second).
Collins decision to play Iguodala at the point forward position, as he had done with Grant Hill in Detroit, proved the right move on multiple levels. It took pressure off of Jrue Holiday, who in his second pro year was still learning the nuances of running a teamespecially in the guts of a close game. Holiday finished the season averaging 6.5 assists, 17th highest in the league.
Collins helped Iguodala, who often seems to think pass before shoot, find a niche that suited him. He finished a spot behind Holiday in assists, averaging 6.3 per game, and his 3.06 assistturnover ratio was 10th in the league.
Collins ability to keep arguably two of his top talents on the bench at the start of games may have been his greatest feat. The roles that Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams played as reservesafter having been starterswas tremendous. The Sixers bench was top three in scoring all season long, but those two players specifically bought in to Collins way of building his teams depth.
Finally, the placing of Jodie Meeks in the starting lineup did wonders for the Sixers, who are not a threatening offensive squad. Meeks stretched the floor because of his ability to make the three, and for a team made up of slashers, spreading the floor was essential. It seemed impossible early in the season.
Meeks worked hard to be recognized and Collins kept an open mind about a player that he did not even allow to dress for six games.
The biggest questions about Collins next season: Will his voice be heard as clearly? Will he be able to continue to develop the young core he has, as much as he did this past season?
Collins is never one to stand pat. He is the right guy in the right place at the right time.
E-mail Dei Lynam at dlynam@comcastsportsnet.com
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