A conversation between Kahn and Rambis

(so it doesn’t look like I’m nodding head in agreement, but really I am…or am I?)

Couple of things – someone mentioned elsewhere that Kobe when to the playoffs with the Lakers starting Smush Parker and Kwame. Made me wonder if Rambis learned his at times bizarre rotation ideas from Phil.

The other aspect can be taken many different ways, but here are two: the first is simply what you are suggesting. In the name of player development, and perhaps to ‘showcase’ bit players so that there’s ample highlight film of Hollins thundering dunks down when Kahn needs to convince another team that they’re great filler for a trade, Rambis is giving burn to guys despite knowing that it probably reduces our chances of winning. This year is a throwaway year in terms of wins. And honestly, both Rambis and Kahn must realize how devoid of star talent this team is. With a legitimate shot at an All-Star caliber guard at the top of the draft, there is very little downside to this team continuing to develop players. In a schadenfreude kind of way continuing to play this way may actually be beneficial in the long run, as it enables the coaches to accumulate a mountain of evidence for creating and supporting specific training programs for the players over the summer. What I mean is, how can Jonny Flynn complain or not take seriously that he needs to dramatically improve x, y, and z or he’s not the starting PG anymore when Rambis can hand him hundreds of minutes of tape showing him repeatedly making the same mistakes.

I’ve always wondered if the reason why some players seem to take 3-4-5 years to ‘arrive’ is because they don’t play enough minutes to conclusively show a bad habit or tendency or something they’re fundamentally not grasping about the scheme, and so the team kind of harps on them but ultimately lets them get away with it. After 2-3 years, though (and maybe with a switch to a different team), there’s enough evidence on film of what’s going wrong that coaches can finally get through to a player and ‘suddenly’ they become much more effective. It’ll certainly be difficult for guys like Jonny, Hollins, and even Al (on D) to argue with the mountain of film documenting where their mistakes are coming from (and as a positive bonus, said mountain of film should also suggest some clear things to work on – like with Jonny and not Jonny Stopping any more. It’s not enough to know that he should stop Jonny Stopping, he needs to know the specific situations/reads/decisions that are leading up to the Jonny Stop to begin with and what he needs to do differently to mitigate that).