Hoops

Is Rob Beveridge as good as advertised?

In a weird way 'doctor Basketball' make a good point: professional coaching is largely about managing egos and putting players in position to succeed. How successful the team will be is mostly dependent on the talent available to the organisation.

One exception I can think of is Geordie McLeod. I don't know if he's won an NBL championship, but he has recognized that (due to a constrained budget) his teams are regularly less talented than their opponents, and does a great job of disrupting opposition teams with unorthodox players and strategies e.g. Oscar Forman, matchup zones.

Perth were noticeably more talented this season, even without Lische, and a championship was always expected of Gleeson and the Wildcats. Given that Bevo didn't 'fail' in his tenure at Perth (IMO), I think he would have been equally successful as Gleeson with the 13/14 roster.

"I wonder if Phil Jackson used to yell out to Jordan or Shaq or Kobe "run the offense""
All the damn time. There's an entire book largely about Jackson trying to get Jordan to run the offense.

The anon is misunderstanding what Gleeson's point had been; which was that if you have a team like the Wildcats playing group, with a leader like Martin, sometimes the best thing you can do is put the onus on the players and see what they come up with.

They're a pretty savvy bunch, after all.

Melbourne does need some greater consistency; hard to win a title without some sort of reliability, and one streaky shooter isn't the trick.

So, if instead of getting Gleeson, the Wildcats had, for instance, poached Heal, do we think Wildcats would win the title/make playoffs? And if they had nabbed Wright or Gordie, does the team go 26-2 or something silly like that?

It can't be denied that the off-court resources of the Wildcats have done well bringing this team together and providing their coaches with every tool to develop them and any coach given the reins has a leg up from the start. But you still need someone who can coach; give the team to Marty Clarke and "28 Straight" becomes "Wasn't that 27 year streak cool?"

I remember David Parkin coached a Carlton side to a flag in the 80's & everyone said how they didnt need a coach that year.

Bollocks!!

Well done Gleeson & with crafty coaches like joey around thats what makes it special.

Gleeson had an awesome year & to sell him short is typical of our 'small poppy' mentality. To say 'do what bevo did' shows respect to the previous coach & works on the strengths this group already had! Trev is a terrific bloke & great coach & he just shoved it up Anstey & the Tigers by proving them horribly wrong. Yes his roster was stacked but yes he got it right!!

Just seems like a stupid debate to me. Why does it matter that there may be an element of Bevos legacy still contributing to the current teams success ?

They got the job done and he is the current head coach. Seems like a more than capable coach regardless. Same as Bevo and Joey.

the skill set required to coach a cellar dweller team Vs a team of ego's and settled players is entirely different......well done Trev.

I recall reading somewhere (I think it was one of Damo's articles for the NBL website) that a lot of Gleeson's gameplan this season has been "just do what Bevo had you do."