Nah, I'm not trying to set him up for failure. But for all the talk we hear about the playoffs being a "different game" when it comes to the players, I suspect it applies to the coach too. In my estimation, even the most generous assessment of AJ's playoff coaching last year would garner him only a D. The less optimistic assessments give him an F. The way the Phoenix series ended was the biggest clusterfook that I have ever seen. This is not to say that AJ isn't a good locker room guy, that he doesn't have a good system, or anything else along those lines. But he managed endgames miserably in last year's playoffs. (From what I have seen, he isn't necessarily much better this regular season.)
I expect quite a few games to come down to the last possession or two, when tactics take on a premium. I'm not saying Johnson is doomed to failure here, but if part of the criteria in evaluating a coach (as it seems to always be in evaluating a player) is how he performs in the postseason, let's just be kind and say that Johnson has a sizeable hole to climb out of.
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