"By contrast, Sloan didn't even enforce defense from his starting bigs."
What is supposed to do? Yell at Fesenko? "Goddammnit Fes be more like Gasol!!"
Fes is raw, but he wasn't the problem defensively. And it's hyperbole to expect Fes to be more like Gasol if Fes doesn't get the minutes.
You're talking about a different defect; poor player development by the coaches. The #1 way to make Fes somewhat more like Gasol is to give him playing time. And the irony is that more often than not, Fes was a net asset on the court anyway, despite limited scoring, so it wasn't like it should have been necessary to find time for Fes anyway. Bigs especailly need court time to develop, and Sloan made minimal effort to do so.
But unlike Popovich with Duncan (earlier in his career), Sloan didn't ever sit down Boozer when he was dogging.
Boozer's defense was the problem. Even though it was a contract year, he played D only part of the year, and was pretty ineffective against the Fakers.
"And CJ took years to develop--no impressive coaching there; Millsap and Matthews seem to have developed a lot on their own."
CJ came out of high school, Matthews & Millsap both were starters and had extensive college minutes.
That's why I said "no impressive coaching." It took three or four years for CJ to start being a positive contributor. I doubt that this is average even for a high-school player, but it certainly isn't outstanding. Also, Sloan didn't enforce defense from CJ, either, which was a core part of his development. It's likely IMHO that CJ would've developed faster if Sloan had played CJ less time; benching CJ faster when he was dogging it on defense--and telling him that he was doing so.
College might have given WM and PM more maturity, but they improved significantly even further from Day 1 in the NBA, and I attribute this more to their own work ethic than anything that Sloan did except supporting them in their efforts. Point is that players like Matthews and Millsap would be relatively easy to coach. But games and championships are won by coaches being able to develop and incorporate players who are less naturally motivated and talented. Think role players. Doc Rivers was able to develop (or at least play) Perkins; but Sloan made no effort whatsoever to find PT for Utah's bigs, even though it was blatantly clear (from Greg Miller to KOC to everyone on down) that interior defense was Utah's #1 problem.
'And KF & KK2 are still raw after years on the team--no points on development there."
KK can't play. Period. He will be out of the league soon enough. Not his fault if the guy can't play. Hell he is going to be 5th or 6th on the Minnesota depth chart and they don't want him either.
KK might be a career backup at best, showed promise in his first year, and then Sloan shut him down for no reason.
Fesenko is a goof-off, but Sloan hasn't given either of these players minutes, even when the outcome of the game wasn't in question.
Utah lost against the Lakers because of injury (missed AK on the wing; I don't think that Okur was a big loss because he's too slow, even though he tries hard) and height (all Sloan proved is that two undersized PFs can't beat two players at 6'10" or taller).
Maybe he should have given Fes a few more minutes, but over Okur, Boozer & Millsap? I mean he is trying to win games, not develop players.
You are exposing your ignorance if you are oblivious to the negative impact of Boozer's and Okur's defense.
"And he still played two undersized PFs against a substantially taller Laker lineup at the end of games."
Honestly do you think Gasol would have been slowed down by Fes or Doufus? Also it pretty much eliminates the offensive threat, where the Lakers are best(on defense). Good luck with that.
Yes, because the paint was slowed down when Fes was in the game. With Fes playing alongside Boozer instead of Millsap, Utah outscored or matched L.A.'s scoring in every single playoff game. And that was against mostly Faker starters. Sloan should have known that Boozer + Millsap down the stretch was ineffective because it hasn't worked for years and didn't work early in the series.