Kerr joining the Clippers as an assistant coach caused quite a shock in the league.
When Cole decided to leave the Suns general manager position, many teams wanted him to serve as general manager or head coach.
But Cole resolutely decided to return to his position as a TV commentator and be a bystander rather than a participant.
After all, bystanders of the game are much more relaxed than the participants of the game.
But in just half a year, Cole changed his mind and chose to be an assistant coach.
And he went to the Los Angeles Clippers, a traffic team that has been controversial for more than a year.
This undoubtedly gives people a huge space for imagination.
Speculation given by some media is that Cole will inherit the position of head coach of the Clippers next season.
In this half-season, he came to the team first to adapt to the environment as Dunleavy's successor.
Some media also believe that Cole's real replacement is not Dunleavy but Min Congda.
Smart Min's position in the Clippers is not so stable. Once the team capsizes, Cole will take over.
The answer given by the well-known NBA Twitter self-media and mysterious whistleblower NBA-Batman is: Steve Kerr ate fried fish in the Clippers cafeteria and thought it was delicious. In order to eat fish here for a long time, he decided to sign a contract Clippers.
This NBA-Batman gossip about the Clippers is getting more and more outrageous.
Clippers fans are full of expectations for Steve Kerr's arrival, believing that Cole can quickly change the Clippers' current offensive state.
As a result, on January 14, the Clippers lost to the Golden State Warriors 112:121 in Oakland.
On January 16, the Clippers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers with an incomplete lineup 99:91 at home.
In back-to-back games on January 17, the Clippers lost to the Indiana Pacers 110:117.
On January 19, the Clippers defeated the Timberwolves 119:106 at home.
Still winning one game and losing one, the team's status is still ups and downs.
In this situation, Min Congda is already very satisfied. Winning or losing is unstable.
It’s better than winning streak after wave, right?
Moreover, Cole has been in office for a while, and there have been no major changes in the team's offense.
In the so-called pass-and-cut offense, the Clippers are indeed using more and more high-post support and baseline slips.
But in terms of offensive efficiency, there is no qualitative improvement.
Moreover, the number of mistakes caused by more passes has increased, which has caused the Clippers' defensive quality to decline.
Originally, after some adjustments to the Clippers' defense, positional warfare was much more effective against pick-and-rolls.
However, the lack of athletic ability at the third position, the old and the young in the back line, and the two relatively slow big men in the interior have made the Clippers' ability to prevent quick counterattacks always poor.
When there are few turnovers, the Clippers can control the rhythm. Once there are too many turnovers, the Clippers will be in trouble.
In the few games we lost, we made a lot of mistakes and were caught by our opponents in counterattacks and fast breaks.
Last season the Clippers won nine out of ten games against the Warriors, but they have lost twice this season.
In addition to Curry's absence, the main reason was that he was caught by the Warriors in counterattack, allowing Rubio to bring out his fast break counterattack organization ability.
This situation is almost unsolvable for the Clippers, unless the trade improves the third position, but how could Min Congda make such a trade.
Seeing that Cole did not bring any immediate changes to the Clippers, Min Congda can go fishing with peace of mind.
Cole also found it strange after he came to the Clippers. As the general manager, is Smart just doing nothing?
I see no one every day. I show up for a meal at noon, but no one is around in the afternoon. I occasionally watch games in the evening and curse the league after the game.
No transactions are made, salary space is not dealt with, business negotiations are not participated in, media interviews are not arranged, just fishing and clubbing every day.
He thought Smart was making some great changes every day in the Clippers, but it turned out to be "bad"!
However, after working with the Clippers for a period of time, Cole quickly discovered the difference between this team and other teams.
The first is the team atmosphere. There is a sense of relaxation from top to bottom, not lax, but relaxed.
Everyone is doing their part to complete their work, encouraging and cooperating with each other, without oppression or fighting.
After asking later, I learned that the salary of Clippers employees is higher than that of the Lakers next door, and Smart has not laid off any employees since he took office.
Secondly, the workload is small. Everyone, from coaches to staff, does not have much work to do every day, and they never work overtime when they get off work.
When Cole worked for the Suns, he felt like there was endless work to do every day, and it was common for employees to work overtime.
Especially when it comes to player transactions, a lot of things need to be communicated and documents need to be processed.
There are only a few big deals that stir people's hearts every season, and many teams seem to be doing nothing.
In fact, small transactions, signings, and personnel selections are non-stop, and the uniform team is very busy.
In addition to basketball affairs, business affairs are an area that gives Kerr a headache.
But there's no other way. It's useless just to have a good record as a team. You have to be able to make money and cash out.
Otherwise, just by having good results, money will not fall from the sky. You must be able to package and cooperate.
These things that Cole thinks about every day seem to not exist in the Clippers.
trade? Mr. Smart doesn't like transactions.
Business? Let them come to you.
Scout? No mistake, Mr. Smart never reads scouting reports when selecting players...
In this way, it is incredible that the Clippers can achieve today's results.
What makes Cole most incredible is that the Clippers coaching staff and players have no pressure to win, which is simply unimaginable in a professional team.
Just like farmers don't count on harvests, banks don't count on interest, and James doesn't count on hitting percentage, it's impossible.
But this impossible thing happened with the Clippers.
Mike Dunleavy reminded Kerr on his first day working, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. We won't ask to win immediately. Our goal is to take a long-term view."
After Min Congda's repeated influence, Lao Deng finally became what he once despised.
Cole got the same answer in his daily interactions with Clippers players.
It's just that the players are all young and energetic and want to win from the bottom of their hearts. It's very unpleasant to lose all the time.
In response to this situation, Cole did not rush to get angry and arrange a lot of tactical training for the players.
Instead, it focuses on appeasing the players' emotions and telling them that the reform of the team's tactical system is a long-term plan.
"It's just a transitional stage now. We have to be patient enough, from games to training, to slowly understand the meaning and role of the pass-and-cut tactical system."
It makes no sense that the first job Cole did after taking over as offensive coach was not to immediately draw a lot of tactical diagrams for the players to memorize.
His first job is to convey the concept of sharing the ball and passing the ball to these young people.
Let this concept penetrate into the reflexes of the players, so that once they see an opportunity when playing on the court, they will not hesitate to share it with their teammates.
This concept highly overlaps with Min Congda's idea of "everyone has a ball to play".
However, to complete the infiltration of this concept, a dozen games are definitely not enough.
Fortunately, Cole found that Min Congda gave him plenty of patience.
When the Los Angeles media issued an article questioning whether Cole could bring an offensive improvement to the Clippers, Min Congda spoke in support.
Nonsense, the team has never been "improved", can Min Congda not support it?
"Half a season, a summer, give me this time, I will give you a surprise, Smart."
"No, Curry will come back at the end of the season. By then, there will be a surprise for you."
(End of chapter)
