Welcome Home Coach Scott Skiles!

[chosen12 75]

Thunder have apparently talked to JB about joining there staff.

 

 

 

 

I have a feeling that JB might be a tad bit........ ticked off and wants out!

[HeHateMe 697]

I have a feeling that JB might be a tad bit........ ticked off and wants out!

 

Yea any coach in his situation would have wanted to stay HC, that's a given. But it might not be personal at all. If you have a chance to be an assistant for Orlando or OKC right now, is it even debatable which team you would chose? If Billy D can finally get OKC over the hump and you can ride that out as an assistant on a finals team, HC jobs potentially await you.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

Yea any coach in his situation would have wanted to stay HC, that's a given. But it might not be personal at all. If you have a chance to be an assistant for Orlando or OKC right now, is it even debatable which team you would chose? If Billy D can finally get OKC over the hump and you can ride that out as an assistant on a finals team, HC jobs potentially await you.

[Jason Funderburker 111]

Think we should keep Igor, bring in another offensive guy, add hire Mike Malone as lead assistant

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Well apparently Skiles gave JB until Monday to decide whether he wants to stay on as an assistant so we should start to figure out the rest of the staff pretty soon I'd think.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

OS: You were known as a tough player. Can a coach make his players tough?

 

Skiles: I'm just arbitrarily picking out one thing . . . If you'll step up in an NBA game and take a charge, that signifies some toughness. Well, sometimes you'll watch a team and you won't see any of that going on and somebody could say, "They're not very tough."

 

Well, it could just be they haven't got their habits in order enough, that they're not in position at the right time and place to even take that charge. Again, that's just one little example. That's an area that a coach can help in. Somebody could look and say, "Oh, they're getting tougher." Well, actually, they didn't get any tougher. They weren't there in time before, and now they're there.

 

One thing is you have to talk about it every day. You have to talk about it [like], "Look, guys, it's incredibly hard to win one game, let alone a playoff game." . . . You just have to keep talking about it. You've got to show things on tape where we can get tougher. You've got to show where we can get mentally tougher. Maybe there's a game or a scrimmage or an exhibition game [or] an early season game where we sort of wilt down the stretch. You've got to look at those minutes. You've got to look at plays that can be made. And you've got to hope to just sort of step-by-step, incrementally [have] guys go from sort of young players that are good players that don't understand how tough it is yet to being tougher. I know it can be done. But it's not because the coach is tough and he waves a magic wand and everybody gets tougher. It's because the players are taking ownership of it, know how important it is and they're just getting more mentally tough.

 

OS: What do you see as some of the strengths Nik Vucevic has and some of the areas that he needs to improve?

 

Skiles: When I go roster to roster, I just don't see a lot of the big people who have that type of skill set. He doesn't dribble 15 times before he makes a move. He's got a nice economy with his dribble. It's one, two dribbles — boom! — he shoots a jump hook or has a pump fake and move. Obviously, he steps out and shoots.

 

That combination [is rare]. You've got the Gasol brothers, you've got Vooch and you start running out of names pretty quick. That list is small. So that's an advantage for us and we need to use that.

 

Having said that, he's got to be more of a factor on the opposite end of the ball. He's a good defensive rebounder, which is outstanding, and there's something that goes back to my original comment about toughness. Usually guys that aren't tough are not on the defensive boards because they don't want people jumping all over their backs, they don't want to bang [or] it's not a point of emphasis. Well, it is [a point of emphasis] for him.

 

So there's some toughness there, no doubt about it. It's just now we've got to transfer some of it onto the way he moves around defensively and his responsibilities in the group with his coverages and things like that. But there's no reason he can't do it.

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-scott-skiles-interview-0607-20150606-story.html#page=1

 

Couple of highlights from Q and A with Skiles as it relates to our teams toughness and Vuc. (Apologies if I quoted too much)

[Magicman28 295]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-scott-skiles-interview-0607-20150606-story.html#page=1

 

Couple of highlights from Q and A with Skiles as it relates to our teams toughness and Vuc. (Apologies if I quoted too much)

 

Exactly why I don't want to move Vuc. Wanna see what Skiles does with him. All the q's and a's with Skiles I read, the more optimistic I've become with Skiles as our coach.

[Catman 380]

I don't think anyone wants to move Vuc yet. He just is our most tradeable asset because his contract is incredible with the cap adjusting next year.

 

Love that interview with Skiles. He is really open with what he wants to do. I think that is going to make post game interviews real interesting, its not just fluff. It's actual insight into the team's direction.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

I like the fact that Skiles coached Bogut because I think Vucevic and Gordon could become a little like Bogut and Green. Maybe even better offensively

 

We just need some 3 point bombers now

[HeHateMe 697]

I like the fact that Skiles coached Bogut because I think Vucevic and Gordon could become a little like Bogut and Green. Maybe even better offensively

 

We just need some 3 point bombers now

 

Yea I don't think it's crazy to think Skiles will be able to help Vuch improve defensively. I'm thinking back to Skiles interview on Dan Patrick earlier in the week and Dan asked if you could coach toughness, and Skiles essentially said toughness starts with putting yourself in position to make a play defensively. Not saying Vuch is going to become Bogut on defense but I expect improvements from him this season.

[Catman 380]

I like the fact that Skiles coached Bogut because I think Vucevic and Gordon could become a little like Bogut and Green. Maybe even better offensively

 

We just need some 3 point bombers now

 

There is no way Vuc will be like Bogut. If people want the Magic to be like Bogut and Green they need an elite rim protector at 5 to do that. Bogut is the #1 rated defender in the entire NBA this season. He is a total beast on that end.

 

And yet they say they will be disappointed if we draft WCS. Well in free agency there just aren't many elite rim protectors available. The best option is Koufos, but he wants to be a starter so it may be a tough sell to get him here unless you over spend.

 

So you have to cross your fingers and hope Vuc can get better on that end, or Gordon will be playing a lot more help defense than Green has to.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

There is no way Vuc will be like Bogut.

He probably won't be as good as Bogut on defense, ever. But I think that he could improve a lot. Bogut isn't really the most athletic guy - he's played a lot of seasons with only one ankle.

 

I think Vucevic could improve just by knowing what to do and how to use his body. Obviously he doesn't have the natural fire that Bogut plays with but he could become a solid defender