Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
This is largely true.
Gentry's first time making the post season as a HC was in 1998-99, as the HC of the Pistons. They went 29-21. That team had Grant Hill, Jerry Stackhouse, Joe Dumars, and Christian Laettner on it. Obviously by then, Dumars was old and on the decline, and Hill was gone from Detroit not long after.
His second time was 2009-10 for the Suns. He inherited Nash who went for 16/11 that year and had yet another 50/40/90 season. Stoudemire was still there, and still marginally healthy. None of the top 5 minutes getters on that team was below 26: this year, 3 of our top 5 minutes getters were 24 or under (Hart, Lonzo, BI).
His third time was with the Pelicans: that was the year we had Boogie, and it was also the year where Jrue was at his peak as a two way player and the year where Niko was being ridiculous and AD went on a massive tear.
He doesn't overachieve with young or bad teams. It's just not something Gentry does.