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Does Frank Have a Christmas Deadline?November 17, 2009, 6:03 pmKen Berger of CBS Sports thinks that Lawrence Frank is one of two NBA coaches with limited shelf lives…the Clips’ Mike Dunleavy is the other. “Thorn has stood behind Frank for this long, so he’s not going to push him out” with so many players hurt, writes Berger. But he adds “I give Frank until Christmas”. Berger says one of Frank’s big problems is he “grates on players’ nerves even in the best of times”.  Scott's gone as Dunleavy, Frank coach on -- for now - Ken Berger - CBS SportsPosted in Barrise, Tom; Frank, Lawrence; Harris, Devin; Injuries; Thorn, Rod; Vandeweghe, Kiki | 53 Comments » |
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You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  53 Responses to “Does Frank Have a Christmas Deadline?” | |
November 17th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
As a coach if you’re not grating on players’ nerves, you’re probably doing it wrong.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Did Berger actually refer to us as the “Nots”? I hope that was a typo.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
yeah this Ken Berger seems to be a huge feminine hygiene product.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I wonder if he uses the same product as Hollinger…
November 17th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
It would be really unfair if Frank was fired this season. I mean, what more can he do? Ken Berger couldn’t be more wrong.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I’ll always ride for L-Frank.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
How many times can we say “What more can he do?”
The answer is: nothing. He’s been given plenty and failed to produce, consistently putting this team in worse shape as each year moves on.
Part of the remake of this team needs to begin with Frank. It should’ve happened LAST year, but I understand the contract.
He’s not getting fired this year. No way they waste all that money.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
KEEP FRANK!
FIRE THE RAT and THORN!!!!
HOLLAH!!!
November 17th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
ok, but who will coach ????
sign avery johnson. He knows harris well and the team might actually win.
We need a new med staff too!!!
November 17th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
@ Shawn C
You’re playing, right? Keep Frank? Fire Thorn?
I want all of them (except Kiki) gone. If anyone has to stay, it better be Thorn (with Kiki…of course…)
November 17th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
pure sensational speculation. Frank has never coached better. This team has never been so focused. Maybe not having RJ and Kidd and VC means focus and team. I don’t know, but I do know Frank has earned his money and done a great job with sooooooo little. He’s turned Hassel into an offensive weapon! Wow. Who knew. He’s made Sean relevant. Who thought it possible. He’s found a way for CDR to excel and for Boone to be consistent.
His article seems left over from before all the injuries and does not take into account the reality of the situation. This team competes. That’s all Thorn can expect. If Frank goes, that means Thorn and Kiki are gone too, by the RUssian.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
@Shawn Carter
Agreed. As long as the front office is replaced by better people, I honestly could care less if Frank stays or goes. Heck, I would blame him if he chose to go elsewhere.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Problem isn’t the front office – the change starts with ownership. That’s where the major failure lies. Rod Thorn is easily a top-5 exec. He’s been constrained by awful ownership. Beyond that, I believe Frank should go, but not because of anything that’s traspired this season. Many coaches have been fired and had better suceess than Frank. Having said that, I do believe a contract should be honored. I’m tired of the Nets firing guys mid-season. It makes the outgoing coach lose face and it does nothing to help team preformance.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Problem is LF does not give his players minutes to see what they can do on the court.
How many DNP-CD did Hassell have? SWAT?
While he played other players who were having bad games.
He never called out Carter or Harris and other veterans for their atrocious defense but screams at the younger players and yanks them out of the game when they make ONE mistake.
LF also does not understand the term momentum. Last year; SWAT, CDR, Hassell would play a good game but then not see the court for another 5 games.
LF needs to go. The way he screams on the court is also embarrassing. LF in my opinion is better suited for the college game than the Pros. Maybe he can get a job with the Hoosiers!
November 17th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Thorn loves Frank so it never happening
November 17th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Why Wait ?????
November 17th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
This would be the Best Christmas Gift I could ever get….
November 17th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I dont really like frank but i must admit he appears to be coaching and doing a decent job given the quality of players he has to work with.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Thorn loves Frank because Frank is a good toy to be controlled from the back.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
People have been saying that it would be unfair if Frank gets fired EVERY SEASON THAT HE’S BEEN HERE
Get real
November 17th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Nets got rampaged again. 0-11 right ahead
nice game for CDR, Brook too but his shooting wasnt all good.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
“The Battle of the Unwatchables”… Nice. I will be glued to that game. Sigh… I knew we would be bad but hey.. injuries…
November 17th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
0-11 but this is not a coaching issue. We are playing roster players 10-15, instead of 1-9. What would you expect? But LFrank may still get the boot, because you can’t fire players for not having NBA starter’s talent. Who decided to draft Antoine Wright instead of Danny Granger? How about we FIRE that guy?
November 17th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Femdig:
Last year’s second half benching of harris and carter for not playing defense.
a coach (especially a short one who never played the game) does not get on his player’s good graces by screaming at them for every little mistake, especially the star players.
If in doubt about Frank’s coaching ability… ask yourself this
If Krstic did not go down in 2006-2007, what then? Would beating Finals bound cleveland that year have made Frank a “good coach” in the eyes of others? Recall Game 1 of that game was a very close affair and the Nets almost stole a game on the road.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
@ eLone
“He’s been given plenty and failed to produce”.
At this point Frank can not stay. But the statement above is ridiculous. This roster, and all of eth Nets rosters for quite some time have sucked. The last time Frank had a decent roster he won 50 games.
That said Frank should still go because this ridiculaous losing stuff takes on a life of its own. And I’m starting to buy in to the “he’s not giving Sean Williams a chance stuff”. Usually I blame the player, because they are usually the self-destructive immature problem child type milliionaires who fail to acheive because of their own issues.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I agree. If we do not get a W by X-Mas, Frank should be fired.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Oh yeah, and coaches can’t get into star players faces (this ain’t college or high school) because guess who runs the show? You need your best players to be solid pros if you want to be successful. Look at all the good teams. Their stars are coaches on the court. Many teams have “stars” who are punks and make their coaches look bad too.
I do think the Nets need a new coach though. Ater this debacle Frank will have even less mojo – if he had any to begin with.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Frank should be gone as soon as the Harris and Yi return.
If he’s not, we’ll know that he’s boning Ratner’s wife.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
@femdig
That’s completely untrue. Do you not remember when Frank benched Harris and Carter for an entire 2nd half of a game???
November 18th, 2009 at 4:19 am
There couldn’t be a lamer duck.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Berger knows nothing about basketball.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:28 am
@ rightclue and aaaaaa,
It’s true that Frank benched Harris and Carter in the second half of one game; from my recollection and I’ve watched 90% of all Nets games since 1989, that’s the only game where LF has done anything similar to calling out his “star” players.
As much as people like to wax poetic about Vince Carter; that dude played horrific “El Matador” defense. Every game, he’d leave the player he was supposed to be defending and try to double-team the post, the post player kicks the ball back out to the player Carter was supposed to be defending, another Nets player (RJ) will have to rotate to cover Carter’s player, that player will in turn pass the ball to the player that RJ was covering ansd swish the 3 pointer. This happened every single game!!!
LF never corrected Carter on this.
@ LOL
On the 2nd day of training camp with the Orlando Magic this past summer; Stan Van Gundy who has never played in the NBA called out Vince Carter on his horrific defense (Link attached): http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/09/30/van-gundy-takes-vince-carter-to-task-defensively/
Carter’s bad defense also influenced Devin Harris into thinking it was cool to play lax defense when you are a “star”. Why is it that Devin is usually playing back on his heels against his opposing point guard trying that same Carter “El Matador” double-teaming the post and getting blown by his opponent who gets in the lane with ease? Once this happens, Brook has to step in and usually gets a foul. LF never corrects Harris on this!!!
LF preaches about practice but it’s obvious he needs to start practicing making everyone on the team accountable. Every single player on the team needs to be accountable; not just the young players who are not established (SWAT, CDR, T-Will, etc). When a coach can’t command the whole team and chooses just to go after a certain segment in the squadron; it causes resentment among the ranks.
RJ was right all along; LF is not a real coach in this league!!!
November 18th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Right on Femdig.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:20 am
High School Coach at Best…..”frank Happens”
November 18th, 2009 at 9:33 am
@ Femdig.
After all these years you should know that LF does not call out his players in public.
Do you truly believe that benching VC and DH was the first time LF addressed their defensive efforts?
Unless you’ve spent time with the team behind closed doors and know otherwise, I’m pretty sure you’re way off base on this point.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:41 am
@ femdig:
And your conclusion that VC “influenced DH into thinking it was ok to play lax defense when you’re a star”is a bit facile, no?
November 18th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Thanks Ferndig. People always mention last years incident with VC and Harris, but Frank has never pulled that before. There have been many games where Kidd, Carter, RJ and other non stars should have been benched. Please it took Frank months before taking Allen and Collins out of the starting lineup. Please in the game he benched them, if I remember correctly, the Celtics were up 20+ at the half. So what were Harris and VC going to do? This example is BS. Nothing came out of that benching. Harris and VC continued to play bad DEFENSE.
Frank has always been a bad coach. The only reason he got the job is because of Kidd and Eddie Jordan was gone. For the majority of his tenure, he had Kidd, RJ and Carter. Last year no Kidd, but luckily for Frank Harris replaced him by scoring a ton. Now No Harris and no Carter.
Now you look at this team of 8. Like someone else said, with these 8 how many DNPs have these guys collected over the years with Frank? Granted not everyone can play at once but isnt there an evaluation issue here?
November 18th, 2009 at 10:01 am
@ Smack Adams
Considering how entreched Yi is with the future of this team, how do you think the coach deals with Yi’s inability to defend? Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:11 am
@ SIC
Regarding benching Harris;
“Nothing came out of that benching.”
I disagree. Imo he lost the respect of Harris at that point. VC didn’t care cuz he might have known how much they wanted to trade him and his makeup is laid back but Harris is different. For those who claim Harris doesn’t play D (I don’t agree) you might chalk it up to that point going forward that he doesn’t care anymore.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Sounds like pure speculation, no source. And tell me what coach doesn’t get on players’ nerves from time to time?
November 18th, 2009 at 10:18 am
@ Smack Adams – Doesnt it seem odd that our perimeter defense had declined since we got VC?
November 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am
@ Mr. Big.
Are you blind? He deals with Yi’s D by breaking his pinkie and kicking him in the knee. For all LF’s faults, you gotta give him props for that.
(I actually like Yi, but not as muck as I like a wisecrack at his expense)
November 18th, 2009 at 10:33 am
@ SIC –
Wasn’t the point I was trying to make. That being said, I’m not surprised that the perimeter D was better with Kerry Kittles than with VC.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Lets hope that when Harris returns he can get with the program and play defense like everyone else.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
@ Smack Adams – IMO VC had influence on other people and team defense. If your SuperStar/Leader doesnt play defense why should you? You are busting your tail off on defense and your SuperStar isnt. Of course, I am only speculating.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
@Femdig
you do understand “doubling down” is a viable defensive strategy if you big man cannot handle a superior pivot man in the post?
the RJ rotation would also be the correct response… (and subsequent rotations)
This is good defense if the opposing big man is a lock to score (think Shaq/Duncan/Howard) or any of the other semi-skilled big men on a hot streak
but running that on a weaker inside player with no discernable skill such as a Chandler, that double team would not be warranted.
therefore, unless you can provide a gametrack log, I can’t take what you say very seriously
and “watching games since 1989″ does not make your fan opinion any more valid than mine or anyone else’s.
and the post of this post is not to attack you. Rather, it’s to state that Frank’s employing the “matador” defense is really just a product of personnel.
we would all love a team with 5 individual lockdown defense, but that just isn’t happening with this team
November 18th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Fire Frank, Thorn and Kiki. They miss on Grainger, Jennings and Blair. Frank’s act is getting old. Get rid of the owner too.
November 18th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
@ Sic, Oputney and others who agree with me; thanks for the support. The following statement by SIC sums it all in a nutshell about VC’s defense
SIC – “Doesnt it seem odd that our perimeter defense had declined since we got VC?”
For those others who disagree with my opinion about our defense; I respectfully disagree with your rebuttals.
I truly feel that the “superstar” of the team has to buy into playing real defense; it’s the only way the rest of the team will follow along.
Stan Van Gundy calls out Dwight Howard in public when he’s not playing great defense and grabbing rebounds.SVG knows the only way for his team to succeed is for his star player to set the example.
When Devin Harris comes back from his “injury”; if he’s not going to be 100% committed to playing real defense, not that “El Matador” crap, he should be traded asap!
Hoping we pick up some wins soon. I’m a bit worried about the psyche of our younger players; losing sucks and leads to bad habits being formed!
This forum is the greatest! I’m very impressed with how enlightened and passionate we Nets fans are about our team.
Let’s go Nets!!!
November 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
@Femdig
I do agree that if the star player wants to save his energy for offense and ALWAYS play that matador defense, that is a poor way to go.
I still remember Harris’ first game against the Bucks when he was all over the floor and barking defensive assignments and rotations.
He seems to have forgot how to play defense.
Still, employing smart double teams with quick rotations if there is a superior post player (what you are overlapping with what you call “matador defense”) is a valid strategy for an undermanned team. Recall you let them beat you by jump shots, not by layups.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I like Frank, I do. He puts in long hours, I’ve seen him personally at team practice, and he’s good with the team. But he’s still got the mentality of an assistant coach. A very good assistant coach, not a head coach. I wish he could get demoted and stay, but that’s not how NBA coaching is run in the modern era.
I wish he could get his act in gear, but I’m realistic enough to say the clock is ticking and he’s got to get this team as close to a .500 record as possible or he’s gone by the All-Star game…
… because I expect management to drag their feet.
And topic twist: is this the guy we want in charge when we’re courting Wade/Bosh/James?
November 18th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
@Rightclue.
You make a valid point about smart double teams and quick rotations against superior post players.
My issue with the Nets is their double teams are neither smart nor quick and the rotation is always a step too slow which leads to 3 point play opportunities in the post and open 3-pointers.
I blame our defensive lapses on coaching. The LF version of our beloved Nets play too lackadaisical on defense. All I’m asking is either double-team the post HARD or playa tight man to man defense. I feel we play this in-between variation of both which leads to countless 3 point plays and open 3 pointers.
We (fans) all need to see improvement. We need to hold LF and all the players accountable!
November 18th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
@ Netsdaily/Netincome/whoever is responsible for the maintenance of this site
If possible, can you guys set up a survey which tracks the coach we (fans) would like to see coaching the Nets in 2010-2011 assuming LF isn’t going to get his contract renewed.
Also, if someone here has an ear in Nets Senior Management; they should tell them the results so Nets Management know what we Nets fans think.
I vote for Avery Johnson.
Any other coaching suggestions?
November 18th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
@ Smack Adams – That was because we still had Byron Scott coaching this team at that point.