When you are the assistant coach and you've got a good head coach, you are able to openly share your concerns and be overridden if your opinion goes too far or the method isn't right. Lalonde had wanted to red-ass Kucherov. Kucherov doesn't respond to red-assing. He responds to you trusting that he knows what to do to improve and that you praise his successes over narrowly focusing on his faults.
It's like me and my family.
* My older brother beats himself up worse mentally than anyone else could, so he needs support.
* I routinely get my head stuck up my own ass, metaphorically, and I need a swift whack to knock me out of my pity-party bullshit to do the damn thing.
* A sister knows what she's doing and is so dead set on proving she can do it alone that you give her the space to try it and fail before you offer help.
* The youngest just has supreme confidence in himself that he'll succeed in whatever he does. So, you stay out of his way entirely and he'll tell you what help he needs.
It's why the guys like Torts and Babs wear out their welcome as quickly as they do. They have one mode and it's a really good mode, but all players don't respond to the same thing.
It's like the story I read about Chuck Daly with the Pistons in the 80s. If he wanted Mark Aguirre to respond, he'd yell at Isiah Thomas. When he wanted a end of game call made, he drew it up for Bill Laimbeer and then Isiah took over the huddle and said "No, we're doing this". Which is what Chuck wanted all along.