Charless Lee new Hornets coach. He already started gathering assistants, including development coach from the Jazz. Blurb "The Charlotte Hornets have agreed to hire Lamar Skeeter as the lead assistant coach under Charles Lee. Skeeter spent the past decade with the Utah Jazz under Quin Snyder and Will Hardy.'
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/54...itchell-darius-garland-jb-bickerstaff-future/ League sources briefed on the Cavaliers’ mindset told The Athletic that Bickerstaff’s job is in serious jeopardy after five and a half years as head coach, following the team’s season-ending loss in Game 5 of the second round to the Boston Celtics. Two league sources said the team is likely to take some time — multiple days — to make a decision. Bickerstaff, despite all the pressure he and members of the organization above and below him were under this season, has built equity with the front office and was at the helm for Cleveland’s first appearance in a conference semifinal since 2018. Multiple league sources have said, for months, that Mitchell did not have great confidence in Bickerstaff, and he was not alone. Several players questioned Bickerstaff’s strategies, game management, practice habits and accountability measures, privately and publicly, throughout the season. …But Bickerstaff’s tenure was mired by post-All-Star break slumps each of the last three years and a Play-In collapse in 2022. Last year, the Cavs entered the playoffs as the No. 4 seed and were dismissed by the New York Knicks in five games. The second guessing of Bickerstaff started there. Multiple veterans in the Cavs locker room grew frustrated with Bickerstaff for treating the Cavs as a young team with much to learn, instead of as a team ready to contend. They were also less than enthused by the Cavs’ offense last spring and into the first part of this season. Mitchell was among them. Players would leave practices and morning shootarounds wondering aloud: “Why did we even do that? What did we accomplish” — so perplexed by the lack of structure and intensity in the workouts. Bickerstaff’s usage of Mitchell, league sources said, was a reason Mitchell provided when declining an invitation to play for USA Basketball last summer at the FIBA World Cup — a refusal that went a long way toward his exclusion from the Olympic team. …After suffering a 38-point loss to Orlando in Game 3 of the first round, the most lopsided point differential in a playoff loss in team history, Allen openly praised the adjustments Magic coach Jamahl Mosley made, and seemed to take a swipe at Bickerstaff’s strategy. “You could tell that (Magic coach) Jamahl Mosley did an excellent job planning for this game,” Allen said. “There’s times when I was just in the corner, I stood in the corner last game, but, just overall, you could see tiny differences that accumulate into a lot.”
Lakers should wait, consider Bickerstaff. Cassell again gets the shaft, unbelievable, though I never really believed he had a shot. If Redick becomes their coach then that would suck big time. He's the best analyst across all networks.
I thought the same thing about Mark Jackson with GSW. He took that team to the WCF and I thought that was as good as they could expect to be.
So . . . I am expected to beleive that the Cavs were SSSOOO UBER-TALENTED That getting to the second round was despite the Coach and he contributed nothing??? not sure I'm buying it . .. but hey coaches lose jobs all the time their fault or not Rocket River
Mark Jackson held that team back. IIRC, the reason they fired him is he was insecure and refused to hire an assistant that could take over if they let him go. He forced their hand and firing him was the best decision the Warriors ever made.
I like Cassell so my anti Laker stance is I rather not see him go to the Lakers. That LeBron/AD team is a NBA coach career killer. Would rather not see Sam's long waited coaching opportunity be unfairly cut short. If the Cavs have an opening, Sam could wait and take that gig instead.
At the end he was definitely not the right coach anymore, but both can be true: he was a good coach and at the same time time had come for him to go. Same with Don Chaney here. Vernon Maxwell credited Don for going after him and allowing him to be himself, which carried over with Rudy T. Don also did a tremendous job strategically to get the most out of OT and Kenny. He laid a foundation that Rudy T built upon, mainly in their approach to the game and Hakeem to trust his teammates more. Remember that it's also a matter of personnel, since Rudy T unlikely succeeds in making the 3pt shooters around Dream work without Horry, Cassell and Elie (Don didn't have them). There's no Clutch City without Don. And same with Mark who made them a much better defensive team. Record improved in his 2nd and 3rd year from mid 20s to 47 and 51 respectively. The very next year they win 67 games and the trophy. That's not just Kerr somehow making magic happen. Another example is the Rockets winning 22 games and a contender with Yao & Tracy a year after JVG was fired. Adelman gave us a different offense, but that was definitely a result of what JVG built. And it was definitely time to go! And no playoffs result did not make JVG a bad coach in any shape or form.
I can agree with you some about Don Chaney as Rudy was his disciple, in a way. But Kerr was such a huge contrast to Mark Jackson I can't go there at all. Kerr brought an eraser. He didn't build on what was there. The goonish, undeniably dirty, so-called "old school" mentality that Jackson installed at GS was nothing like the smart, coordinated team defense concept they started to play after he was gone. Among many things, one thing I will never forget is the Rockets were on the verge of setting a record against GS for 3-pointers made in a game and Mark Jackson's answer was to intentionally foul the shooters before they could shoot the ball. Post game, he blathered about being "old school", which apparently means don't even try to legitimately defend in order to stop a team from setting a record. Why not just run them off the 3-point line? What a sorry idiot! What a terrible example for a young team. Kerr nuked that entire culture, installed his own and (to their benefit) they forgot everything about Mark Jackson.
Its going to get interesting next year as all these teams that canned their coach get a look at their team with his replacement. I got to wonder how many of these teams actually improve due to firing their coach? The Bucks certainly didn't. And those that don't, what their recourse end of next season? Fire the coach again?
