NBA Roundtable: Trades, Kevin Durant Injury Issues And Disappointments
So far, the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets have held “players-only meetings.” Do these types of meetings ever help and is it a good or bad sign for teams that do this?
Jason Coldiron: I’m going to side with Larry Bird, who once said that these kinds of meeting are bad news for bad teams and completely unnecessary for good ones.
Evan Caulfield: When a team holds a players-only meeting, especially four weeks into the season, it’s an obvious red flag. It shows the coach hasn’t connected well enough with the players and that there’s dysfunction in the locker room. There’s no question Houston’s internal meeting cost the job of coach Kevin McHale.
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Matt Ziegler: Players-only-meetings can be good, but in rare situations. For those type of meetings to be beneficial, there cannot be questions around the head coach’s job security as thoroughly as there is in Sacramento. Also, you would need players who are unquestioned leaders. For as great of individual players as Cousins and Harden are, I don’t see either being considered a lead-by-example kind of guy.
Nicholas Hughes: A players-only meeting can be a positive or negative sign for a team dependent on the situation, and who is looking at it. In the case of the Sacramento Kings, there are a number of players who have had trouble assimilating into a team culture or falling in line with a head coach. So with this team you have to be worried about what a players-only meeting calls for, especially if you’re George Karl. On the other hand you have a team like the Rockets who are a title contender on paper but have yet to live up to that potential, particularly in the early goings of this season.
A players-only meeting shows camaraderie in this instance, and a desire to get things right internally while there’s still a chance. Kevin McHale is a a highly respected coach, and reportedly well liked by those who play for him. If that is the case then the players holding their own meeting shouldn’t be too much of a concern over the long haul.
Brandon Osborne: Usually, these meetings help with morale but if a team is experiencing a players-only meeting this early in the season it usually is a sign of bad things to come.
Michael Saenz: Considering that the Rockets’ players-only meeting got Kevin McHale fired, I don’t think they’re good for any team.
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