Monty Williams Week: Monty's Discipline

by andrew61388 on May 4, 2011 5:19 PM CDT in Columns

Given this is Monty Williams week, today I thought I'd compare the Monty era so far to the Byron Scott era. Specifically, I wanted to look into one big improvement and one area that we still need to see work in.

Big improvement- Team Discipline

Under Byron Scott, the Hornets were one of the most undisciplined teams in the league. Players ran a muck and generally did what they felt like doing. Sometimes it was J.R. Smith and Julian Wright jacking up hots whenever the mood struck them. Other times it was Chris Paul coming in and out of the game whenever he felt like (true story: I've heard under Byron Scott CP3 would literally stand up and check into the game without even consulting Byron Scott). Monty is having none of that. Every player knows his role and plays within his system, and if that isn't the foundation for long term success, I don't know what is.

Area To Work On- Developing Young Players

I've mentioned it before- if CP3 leaves, the Hornets will have no one to blame but themselves. Our inability to develop local talent will have been the reason. Under Byron Scott, we failed to give J.R. Smith and Brandon Bass a reasonable chance to develop, and both of them went on to become key contributors to playoff teams. We also failed to develop countless first round picks (J.R. Smith, Hilton Armstrong, Cedric Simmons, etc.). Much of the blame can be put on Byron Scott and his attitude towards rookies, which was something like "play hard for five minutes, jump after loose balls, and then sit down on the bench for the rest of the game. Don't do anything else, and definitely don't talk to me otherwise." Monty hasn't had much of a chance so far, but I don't think the results are promising. Quincy consistently looked lost on the court, especially at the end of the season, when everything should have started clicking for him. Marcus never really got a shot under Williams, even though he would have added a desperately needed playmaker and shooter to the Hornets rotation.

Hopefully, season 2 of the Monty era will see some improvement in this area.

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Comments

Hmm

Not sure I follow you.

You say that Byron Scott’s teams completely lacked discipline. Players would just run amock and do whatever they wanted, particularly young players.

On the other hand, you also say that Byron Scott was bad at developing young players because he would completely control what they did and their court time.

I think Byron Scott’s problem was that he was probably too disciplinarian. J.R. Smith and Julian Wright have been running amock under various coaches now, not just Byron Scott, so it’s not really a Byron Scott issue.

Plus, Byron Scott either got rid of the undisciplined players or benched them for good. In that sense, being strictly disciplined is not that compatible with player development. Players need freedom to ‘run amock’ and make mistakes, they need a long leash. That’s not what Byron Scott was about.

by MZURK on May 4, 2011 6:16 PM CDT reply actions

Agreed

A picture really is worth a thousand words. :)

by RedHopeful on May 4, 2011 6:38 PM CDT up reply actions

OMG.....

Lol…

by MZURK on May 5, 2011 2:02 AM CDT up reply actions

wow lol

by sd3 on May 5, 2011 7:46 AM CDT up reply actions

Hmm, surprising...

Like MZURK I never thought of the Scott-era Hornets as undisciplined at all, except perhaps in his last days as coach. His reputation is “hardass,” and it always seemed fairly accurate to me. That said, outside of 07-08, I don’t know that any of the Scott teams ever had the cohesion that this year’s team seemed to have had.

by Caleb462 on May 5, 2011 3:53 PM CDT reply actions