Anonymous
Years ago

Anstey's coaching ability

Hi All,

I'm a lurker here, I read some threads occasionally but generally don't post.

I noticed some comments lately stating that Anstey is a poor coach. Including some particularly critical ones from Mick, who is a highly respected poster around here (with good reason).

But I find these comments very odd. Why? If you wind the clock back 12 months, few people tipped the Tigers to make the 4. By season's end, they = had shown they were undoubtedly the 3rd best team going around. When most people tipped them outside the top 4, that's an achievement. They exceeded the expectations of most people. But Anstey's supposed to be a crap coach?

Tomlinson has gone from a straggler in the first half of his first season, to assist league leader in season 2. Goulding arrived in Melbourne with clear potential, but no one expected him to become the dominant super star he became. Walker has continued improving every single season. I'm not giving Anstey all the credit for this, but surely he deserves some credit given the huge development of players under his guidance?

I follow the Tigers closely and I give Anstey a definite pass so far. In fact a pass with flying colours. Given Dennis's injury last year on the eve of the season, then Ubaka's uninspiring cameo, it was a mighty fine effort to get the Tiges into the Semis and the push the 36ers to 3 games. The season before, they were literally one basket away from a finals birth without a particularly strong lineup. So I wanna hear why a few of you despise Anstey.

This discussion is all the more timely right now because for the first time it looks like Anstey has a team who should challenge for the Title. If anything they're clear favourites given the lineup they have assembled. So it is do or die for him this season. I'll concede that with the lineup he has, barring major injuries, anything but a grand final berth will be a dismal failure.

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PlaymakerMo  
Years ago

On the flip side: so much individual improvement from Tomlinson, Goulding, Walker, Odigie etc, yet Melbourne were only a slightly above-average team. I disagree they were "undoubtedly the 3rd best team going around", and was very happy for Adelaide to play Melbourne in the semis instead of Sydney or Wollongong (and of course Perth).

Goulding far too often had to bail out a stagnant offense that provided few options. Defensively they were solid (and uninspiring), but didn't generate many easy transition opportunities. It was only late the regular season that Melbourne started playing to their potential, and even then they were sporadic.

Melbourne should be a clear top 2 side along with Perth this year. Not only do "United" (ugh) have the talent to succeed, they are balanced and should suit Anstey's very traditional game-style. Time will tell if he can put them in a position to succeed.

Holding onto their Tigers heritage is also paramount for the newly re-branded franchise, which bodes well for Anstey's coaching future. In saying that: I don't think Anstey's a passable NBL coach, but he's still inexperienced and can realistically only improve with more seasons under his belt.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Yeah I suppose the improvement thing is a two edged sword. You can always take the interpretation that he had improved players but that should've led to more success.

It's kind of having your cake and eating too though, if you A. Fail to give him credit for helping them improve and then B. Criticise him for not doing better with the improved players.

Totally agree about the stagnant offensive issues, but I'm not sure how much blame should be given to Anstey there. They simply didn't have a lot of good one on one players. You need a certain amount of offensive ability to come from guys who can create. They only really had Goulding who could create consistently. Yes, ideally in theory if you have a good offense and everyone can pass the ball then you can get an offense going, but I still maintain that you need some serious one on one ability distributed through the team. And look at last year's roster....

Tomlinson is a good passer and a decent three point shooter, and those two things alone make him a decent enough floor general. But he doesn't get much penetration going off the dribble. Walker is a 3/4 combo man who was playing 3, he generally needs people to create shots for him. He can go one on one but is best when he's only two or 3 steps from the ring. Greer and Macmillan have both always been very limited offensively. Morrison was useless any time he was further than 6 feet from the ring. Ballinger is a good spot up shooter but doesn't create his own shots anymore. He can catch and shoot but he doesn't move with the ball.

That leaves Wortho and Farrahkan. Wortho can still score a bit, and Farrahkan added spark, but he was a late addition to the team, and after he had some niggling injuries down the stretch of the season he missed some games and when he came back he never looked the same again.

So with a team like that, it's kind of to be expected that Goulding would be bailing them out all the time and that they would look stagnant way too often. This year with both Dennis and Macrae there, and Barlow at the 3 with Walker reverting to mostly the 4 spot or a combo of 3/4, I'm tipping they'll look a lot more fluent.

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PlaymakerMo  
Years ago

Interesting point. Based on my observations I'd probably rate Melbourne about average in terms of capable 1v1 players:

Perth - Ennis, Redhage. Push: Beal, Knight (oft injured).
Adelaide - Johnson, Ervin. Push: Gibson.
Melbourne - Goulding. Push: Worthington, Morrison.
Wollongong - Clarke, Tiggs, Martin.
Sydney - Young. Push: Ogilvy, Carmouche.
NZ - Push: Wilkinson, Johnson, Abercrombie
Cairns - Push: McCamey, Wilson.
Townsville - Conklin. Push: Pace.

Melbourne didn't have great depth, and the loss of Dennis hurt them. I'll grant you that.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Morrison a one on one player, only if isolated and within 6 feet of the ring. To be fair, I'd put Farrahkan in the push category. But again, he joined late, took some time to get going and then looked very ineffective after having niggling injuries. So there was only a month or two in there when he was actually good and going.

The 7 or 8 times a game they could get Morrison in that position, were generally very fruitful. But other than that he was mostly useless. You couldn't run an offense with the 5 man receiving the ball outside the paint, because it'd suddenly become 4 on 5! I think I recall him taking one shot (maybe 2?) outside 6 feet for the entire season. And I thought "Ah!! so that's why he never shoots them..."

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Zero ability. That's why hes now hired frank Arsego to help him and Dmac. Nuff said.

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Mick  
Years ago

First off the idea that I am respected anywhere, let alone here, should be taken as satire or sarcasm and little more.

Secondly, the Tiger's offense, as stated above by a Mo, was woefully stagnant all season long. Which is okay sometime when you have creative scorers like Bubbles...but it just got ridiculous how many times he had to bail them out last year at each and every shot clock buzzer. I'm amazed how high Goulding's shooting percentages were given how poor that offense was. I honestly only saw the tigers play a handful of times last season so am not that qualified to speak (every mel/tsv game plus one or two more), but I feel like I saw enough.

Give the poor guy a screen to curl off, if only once, just to see if it works at the very least.

At the risk of sounding lazy and reductive, his schemes at both ends of the floor are both so simple that they don't really warrant analysis of any kind. He pretty much just lets his guys go out and play and face the enemy alone, because his sets break down so early that they basically become free-for-all ball halfway through the shot clock.

Early days though, he's only been coaching for a short while.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

One would expect/ hope that with Seamus like money being thrown at the Tigers this season, that if Anstey doesn't win the gold he will be gone.

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