Hoops

Gaze is the most inept coach in Aussie pro sport

Good insight kr.

Going back even further, during the pre-season of 2005-06 there was a feature piece on Fox about JvG and how he had signed both Bradtke & Copeland from the Tigers to his Bullets. The guy was absolutely grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat explaining how smart he was to acquire the two to an already solid roster.

Only problem is any fan who was paying attention knew that the NBL had put in place a points cap which had major flaws in it, whereby players with loyalty to one club got a discount of points (by being disloyal LOL), so he wasn't doing anything that revolutionary. Yet from the way he was carrying on in front of the camera he thought he was the second coming of Einstien. Hilarious stuff which was mocked and ripped into by everyone on Ozhoops back in the day.

I don't have the footage - wish someone did so we can all re-enjoy it.

I remember an episode of Overtime in 2011 where JVG spent quite a bit of time talking about how in the NBA, the front office picks the team and the coach coaches, and that's a much better system than having the coach involved in recruitment.

Gaze couldn't resist the pay. What a poor hiring by JvG. Think about it JvG wants all the power without actually being the head coach so gets a puppet in who is sold to the public as being hired due to being 'marketable'.

JvG from those quotes in the latest news article sounds even more delusional. His answers to the issues are basically along the lines of "Lisch can be a PG and that's that, I'm right wah wah wah."

I love that JvG returned to the NBL though as finally he's been exposed. Should have left your NBL career on a high note with the Bullets (ignoring how you tried to con your own players at the end) at least there the Groves money and Joey covered up your failings. Many argued you were the man, now they've been educated. LOL, how sweet it is.

@Anon - I think Cadee is on his last contract year and Newls, Lisch and Blanchfield have this and another one? Isaac was only signed for one season... Can anyone honestly say that any player looks like they want to be here, let alone stay here for another season if it's just going to be the same again?

What about Moose? That was a pretty dark era... But even with that giant losing streak, I can't recall them ever giving up like they did in the last two games... They still gave a toss...

You make a good point, Steve, and I think that there might have been a time or two where Singh and Isaac were on the court together and I think it could work... i'd rather IH at the 4 and have Singh as the backup even with an import 5, but who knows what sort of import big we're going to scrounge up now, especially if they're only just starting to look...

After reading that article tonight, it has made me wonder how much input Gaze actually has, and whether he's drinking the kool-aide or just having to put up with a boss that thinks he knows everything but doesn't... He's surely got to be drinking the same wacky juice as JvG doesn't he? I mean, if not, he can just pull out the "I'm the G.O.A.T" card to throw some weight around? Either way, it's his reputation on the line, so if he's just being a pussy and taking it, he deserves what he gets...

Bill Tomlinson was worse.

but it's the fact that there is Isaac ahead of him and the fact that we're lacking a starting quality 5-man, so that would push Isaac to the bench (where he's starting from anyways) and really no spot for Singh...

IMHO Singh is a good backup 3rd C. Its actually a fit with Humphries' game, since he is more of a 4/5 than true 5. It also happens that if Humphries want to crack the NBA, he has to develop into a 4/5.

With the current situation of him coming off the bench, I'd just play him no matter his foul count and tell him to go hard on D. If he fouls out every game, then so be it until he learns and adjusts during the season on what works and what doesn't. Singh is there as the safety net.

To date, I can't recall seeing Gaze put Humphries at 4 and Singh at 5 at the same time. I could be wrong, but if he hasn't done that even during garbage time, its a lineup experiment that should be carried out to see the impact of the hobbit as a weak side rim protector.

It will work even if they bring in an import big. Pineau is the one out of the equation, but you and me know that's not going to happen with Gaze at the helm.

So Gaze unleashes after NZ saying that the team didn't run what he said to run

Funny that, since the Breakers knew what the Kings were running but not his own players? Yeah right, Andrew.

Don't know anything about Jurlina, but the last thing we need is another fresh out of college kid... Daly would be a stop gap for two, maybe three games until we get someone proper in... There's still time to save the season, but they have to bring the bigger, more experienced players... and quickly...

Can't think of anyone better for Isaac to bang against in training than Truck...

I actually don't want Gaze to go. He has been very good for my Sportsbet balance.

Same for my William Hill one... It's an easy bet to bet on them losing, it's just a matter of what the line should be to maximise investment... I had -9.5 and -18.5 on 36ers which paid off nicely...

@Wookiee, I wonder if he would want to join a sinking team now. Wouldn't be a fun workplace you'd think.

I saw a FB post of his saying to fight for pride during the NZ game, I actually think that if they actually made the approach as in that they need him (which they REALLY do!) instead of throwing HIM a lifeline, and actually use him properly, he's got enough pride in his city and his teammates that he'd maybe want to do what he can...

After tonight, I'd cut Kendle and Thoseby. Tommy and Singh have to be moved up the rotation above Pineau. You may not like Singh but you have to admire his effort and fight, in fact he's been positive in almost all the time he's on the floor.

Both of those should never have been signed... Thoseby showed in the pre-season that he was all about shooting (not necessarily scoring) and I was disappointed that he got a full spot over someone like Daly, who actually had the potential to fill a need...

Agree on Singh and his effort... Like Leslie being the import cut if we need to go to an import big, it won't actually be his fault that he gets cut as it was just the wrong recruitment... He's a project that if he was younger, would have been a lock in for a DP spot and a chance to develop into a solid player with the extra training and if he could get up to speed... He does what is expected of him reasonably (gets a body to the boards [sometimes] and can maybe change some shots) but it's the fact that there is Isaac ahead of him and the fact that we're lacking a starting quality 5-man, so that would push Isaac to the bench (where he's starting from anyways) and really no spot for Singh...

So Gaze unleashes after NZ saying that the team didn't run what he said to run, so it COULD have been shit but we would't actually know, but when the players have such an incredibly shit game and he is all supportive and "I love this challenge!" in Adelaide, what are we supposed to gather from all that? Was he having subtle digs at management saying the makeup of the team isn't his fault and he's just doing what he can?

Time to put a phone call to Dimma.

@Wookiee, I wonder if he would want to join a sinking team now. Wouldn't be a fun workplace you'd think.

After tonight, I'd cut Kendle and Thoseby. Tommy and Singh have to be moved up the rotation above Pineau. You may not like Singh but you have to admire his effort and fight, in fact he's been positive in almost all the time he's on the floor.

I actually don't want Gaze to go. He has been very good for my Sportsbet balance.

The sad thing is he's probably on more money than any other coach.

If after tonight game, Gaze doesn't give it in within the fortnight, I will be very surprised...

Link to your NBL lego?

Search for NBL Lego on the facebook :)

Link to your NBL lego?

Spot on, Duke Fan, leadership is just not coming from Gaze and it's having a very adverse effect throughout the team...

I commend your bravery in stalking a 6'11", 125kg balding behemoth that can headlock Wortho into submission Wookiee...

Out of interest, did he actually reply?

lol... He did... I think it might have helped that I opened up with "Sorry to bug you, I'm the Lego guy ..." (I create Lego NBL figures and he's been a fan). I was quoting him when I said that they didn't want him... Incredibly disappointing and if they haven't already gone back to him by now, they never will (at least while the same decision makers are in charge). I can't see what could be easier than cutting Singh (or even Tommy, if you just want to end it and keep the marketing tool) and bringing Maric back in...

Kobe, since when is a small guard that brings the ball up more than occasionally, initiates offense and guards opposition PGs not a PG?

Are you suggesting, then, that Rhys Martin and Mitch Norton are shooting guards?

Oops wrong thread

Cooke is manhandling Wesley here. Twice on the last play. No fouls though.

Refs are worth 10+ points a game to Perth in this arena

Well done Wesley. I honestly have no problem with that foul.

Where was the foul on Cooke first?

Refs trying to bring Adnam back to earth here?

Wrong thread?

Cotton kicks his legs out, Adnam makes contact. Ref rewards Cotton.

Protected species?

As of last night when I stalked him and asked him if he can please please please come back, the Kings don't want him

I commend your bravery in stalking a 6'11", 125kg balding behemoth that can headlock Wortho into submission Wookiee...

Out of interest, did he actually reply?

At the end of the day the buck still stops with the coach.

This. I wasn't impressed with Drewey in that interview. Contrary to what he said, he is trying to exonerate himself from this mess by going public with things that should stay behind closed doors.

As a high profile head coach, he is the leader of this team. Not Kevin Lisch and not Brad Newley. A lot of these players, especially the young newcomers look up to him. Blaming them in public when these guys look to him for leadership in difficult time is disgraceful. That is not leadership, its a cop out.

Its easy to watch the replay and point your fingers at which players responsible for those defensive lapses. Cadee can't guard Sosa, the others tried to help him out and paid the price for leaving their assignments. Blanchfield and Newley was overpowered by Vukona at the 4.

Humphries was so concerned with picking up cheap fouls, he failed to assert himself defensively. Ellis struggles to contain Pledger due to size mismatch and isn't long enough to discourage Sosa, Newbill or Ili's penetrations.

I hate to single out Thoseby, but he was the catalyst of the defensive rot in the last 4-5 mins of the 2nd quarter. Its not because of lack of trying, his defense last night wasn't up to par for the NBL. He couldn't fight through the on-ball screens and was lost in terms of spacing in the 2-3 zones, standing practically next to Cadee in some plays.

Everyone of these mistakes can ultimately be traced back to the coach. Everyone knew Cadee's defensive deficiencies and the frontline mismatches with Vukona/Pledger, why did you insist with smallball lineup? Why did you manage to close the gap the moment you subbed in Humphries?

As for Thoseby, if he wasn't able to do what you wanted, why didn't you sub him out immediately? It took him a good 3-4 minutes until the Breakers' lead ballooned to 20+ before calling a second, angry timeout. To make matters worse, as the coach and leader, Drewey couldn't see that his charges were starting to panic when they see him and Newley started to lose it in the huddle.

Not Drewey's finest hour. Absolutely terrible.

Here is part of the interview and what Duke Fan was paraphrasing.

www.nbl.com.au/video/direct/1tZGYzZDE6Tv7vWx4snINqI4taJ01ggt

To be fair, he never said his plan was great.

In fact, he said it could be 'shitty', but he would have liked to see it executed.

At the end of the day the buck still stops with the coach.

Wow. If so it goes to show how entitled Gaze is. Just because you have a plan doesn't mean it's going to be executed well unless you drill and communicate to the players well.

I don't know how to link to the press conference, but to paraphrase:

"My game plan was ace! But you'd never know because my team is shite and couldn't execute it"

Quite possibly true but the sort of thing that should be said to the team behind closed doors. If there was a problem with team harmony before there certainly will be now. When players can't trust their coach.....you're done

Any links to the press conference

Perth with Damian Martin at PG is the only example in support I can think of, and even they had to recruit Cotton last year to take them over the top. NZ had Cedrick Jackson and most recently Dillard, Adelaide had Randle, Illawara had Rotnei Clark etc. Maybe Cairns with Gliddon, but they also had Trice last year.

When did Clarke and Gliddon become point guards?

Link to disgusting press conference?

You would have to think it would irk the players knowing the coach is being paid more than all of them too.

If Gaze had completely zero say in the team I'll cut him a tiny bit of slack. I think a coach who has zero say in his team is a fool, but I'll cut him that tiny bit.

If he was involved in putting the team together then he deserves every bit of criticism coming his way.

Player turnover...blah blah blah
Injuries....blah blah blah
X's & O's....blah blah blah

My biggest gripe is how he reacts to adversity in games. He gives up! When he sits down with the arms folded and the pouty look on his face he's telling his team that not only does he not believe they can win, he believes they can't compete. It sh*ts me completely and the players follow his lead and give up too.

Some teams are lucky to have that one or two special players who drive the team culture. Apart from that it comes from the coach. If your freaking game plan isn't working you have plan B, C & D that you've worked on at practice and the COACH changes things up. Coach the damn team or let someone else do it. Show your team you're going to compete for 40 minutes no matter what the score is and they might do it too. Use the bench. Gorj had a great saying "I only need 5 guys". Stop being their buddy and be their coach and find the guys who will play hard

That's if anyone still wants to play for him after the disgusting performance at the press conference

A PG is the key to your team. Without it you go nowhere. Kings are at that point right now.

I'm trying to think of successful teams recently that haven't had import point guards outside of Perth with Martin. CJ at NZ is the only one I can think of, but they had success after that with Jackson.
My memory isn't the greatest mind you!

Moller and WMW yes, completely forgot about them, my apologies :)

Moller especially leaves a holea nd I was really looking forward to seeing how he would go with more responsibility, but with an off season with the team and proper pre-season with the intention that he'd be getting more minutes, WMW could have come along gangbusters this season too...

With Moller, I'm curious as to how much he actually got as the Kings probably caught a whiff of being able to get Blanchfield and obviously it's an either or and went for the higher profile name, instead of the player that would fill a need and also a Sydney local and breed some local depth and connection with the fanbase...

Will have to agree to disagree with our initial PG choices, Paul and fully agree on them dropping the ball on the replacement player... However, if they DID get that type of player to start with, like the player I suggested, they wouldn't have this issue now... They would have been more organised on the court to start the season with someone who could get the ball to so many of the offensive weapons... But again, each to their own opinion...

FWIW I actually thought WMW as a development ? playerin his first season, was twice the PG Cadee ever was, for the whole of cadee's time in Adelaide

1) More like 3.15 players returning... But out of last seasons team, apart from Maric (see my hundred other rants on the topic) how many should have come back? Sure, it goes back to recruiting properly and for the long term, which I hoped they could have started last season, but it hasn't happened this season either...

2) Maric, Maric, Maric, Maric... I know he's getting on and his numbers didn't reflect his true worth last season (despite Gaze doing his best to not use him properly), and I'm all for locking in Isaac for at least 3yrs (although they only managed 1) and planning for the future, but who could have been better for Isaac to learn from and bang against in training? As of last night when I stalked him and asked him if he can please please please come back, the Kings don't want him... A huge bloody mistake and they should go back to him on bended knee begging forgiveness...

3) This more goes back to not recruiting a proper PG to begin with... Even with Lisch, the team looked disorganised... Lisch IS capable of handling the ball and pulling of some nifty passes, but a proper PG that does not make and I'll say it again, as JvG and Gaze are quite happy to bring the fact that he's won the MVP twice, his MVP seasons weren't at the PG position... Fix this initially, and there would be no need to knee-jerk the wrong player now... However, even not taking that first step, not going with a top shelf PG NOW and then moving Lisch to SG when h e comes back, is a huge mistake... Daly showed enough in the pre-season to fill in for a dozen minutes when needed and apparently held his own last night, which only reinforces that... But now the Kings are STILL without a decent pg AND big...

4) Gaze proved this last season and I can't see why he would have changed this season, and that was with a really good assistant coach behind him that he didn't seem to listen to most of the time (but at least had the players ears at training)

If I might add another point, its establishing a winning culture based on defense and hard work, not PR rubbish of nice blokes with good character.

*preach*

Well that's on Lister then.

All JvG did was spend Groves' money and still only came out of that era with one title for the Bullets despite all the $$$$ thrown around.

Not in the article, but it was known in certain circles that he was Harvey's first choice and approached. If you wish, you could do some research and politely ask them yourself. They have a long working history before this latest collaboration.

Good points paul, 1 & 2 allude to the mistake of letting Aleks Maric go. In hindsight, that was a grave error with unfolding significant consequences.

His stint in Bahrain has concluded and he is back in Sydney I believe. There is a small window to rectify that error, but would the decision makers have the courage to do so?

As for 4 players returning, with the exile of Garlepp, effectively its only 3.

If I might add another point, its establishing a winning culture based on defense and hard work, not PR rubbish of nice blokes with good character.

Lister*

JvG is a master spruiker/spinner, including making you think they (listed) came to him.

SteveK2 nowhere in that quote does he say he was headhunted (LOL at the notion), and he basically admits basketball is his #1 go to. He would've heard of the role and gone from there full speed to get it.

I think people are being slightly unfair on Gaze. Is there anyone in Australia who knows and loves the game with the same passion and intent as Andrew Gaze? I'd doubt it. His results are not dissimilar to how Andrej Lemanis started, and at least Lemanis was an assistant for a few years; they've really thrown Gaze in the deep end. Gaze will take time to be a great coach but I think he has the potential to do it. It just wont happen over night.

What is really, really not helping are the player recruitments, and that comes down to management. Who in their right mind makes a 19 year old the squad's main center? Who holds back on an import when you clearly need a proper team-running point guard and a proper center? This comes down to JVG, who deserves much more of the blame than Gaze does.

Just out of curiosity does anyone in OZ (i.e. BA or someone else) run high level coaching courses? You hear about potential AFL coaches completing 'Level 4' coaching accreditations.

Some of you guys are being pretty savage just quietly.

All born out of intense frustration with the Kings once again going style over substance with an unproven coach... Rumours were that Shawn Dennis was the front runner for the role before Gaze got it, and we had a MUCH more experienced and proven assistant in Vickerman, but the powers went with a higher profile name... That might have paid off a little bit with bringing a name in that the general public knows even if they're not really basketball fans, but it hasn't paid off anywhere close to having a winning season and a playoff run would have...

And it will keep working against the team negatively the more he loses it and gets on the air dropping f-bombs (not something that i have a problem with in general, but Gaze looked like he's seriously losing it at that point, which isn't good for your head coach) and the team keeps losing...

The only thing Sydney crowds love more than a high profile name is actually winning and so many road games against teams I can't see them pulling off a miracle against, could bring them home 1-5 and bottom of the ladder with no excuses... I wonder how they're going to fill Qudos then? Have Gaze and Copes in their old Tigers gear walking down George St handing out free tickets?

Gaze won't get sacked. He might resign though if the pressure becomes too great but even that's unlikely. You can tell by his coaching, he's got a stubborn streak.

This was evident with his lineups last season and persistence with was not working... It's showing it's ugly head even more this season with the GarleppGate and inability to do what needs to be done...

Any other proper coach would kill to have a team with Lisch, Ellis and Newls on it, let alone other role playing talent like Blanchfield and Cadee (who when used properly are very effective) and young talent like Humphries...

Poor management, poor coaching, and it will be to the detriment of the team... The "I told you so" line will need to form in an orderly way behind me...

Gaze won't get fired. He will resign to 'be closer with my family who are still in melbourne'. Then he can go back to seabl/bigv and have he same terrible coaching record in those leagues.

Unfortunately for you, its not a joke.

An excerpt from Matt McQuade interview with JVG:

Q: You’ve been out of basketball for a few years. When you were approached with this proposal to lead the Kings, what were your initial feelings?

A: It’s interesting, because I’ve really enjoyed that broadening experience I’ve had over the last five years. The years I spent with the Broncos were tremendous – I think the club leads the NRL in most commercial categories – and my time as a chief advisor to the Queensland Sports Minister was a real eye-opener. Once you’re in that role you really get a chance to get to know the sporting fabric of the state.

So while it was interesting for me to hear there was this potential basketball role and Harvey was keen for me to consider it, I still had to really consider my decision because I was in a phase of my career I was enjoying. But in the end, your first love is usually your strongest love and that’s no exception for me and the game of basketball. I’m glad I’m back in it.

My condolences...

So many in truths in this topic. Last I remember that JVG wasn't recruited from the Gov't.

Yeah what a joke that comment was. JvG would've been promoting himself the second he heard AEG were looking for a GM and he would've been spruiking his Bullet$$$ days.

I remember when Bullet$$$ were about to fold but JvG told the players to save the club take pay cuts and then it was exposed if the players were going to do it JvG wasn't taking a cut himself. LOL, headhunted... yeah right!

Kings line up, as I predicted, will struggle against taller physical teams. Kings are relying too much from the outside game, and if they're not dropping, will struggle. Ellis as good as he is, can't do everything every week. Need an import centre and an inside game, otherwise the Gaze/JVG experiment is over.