good chance to watch the sidelines for top candidate tyronn lue tonight. lets see what the espn crew has to say about the cavs coaching and lue's contribution.
Just bumping for an update: We all know Blatt was fired and Lue was hired. I had Lue as our top choice this summer, but he didn't last that long on the market. We can now narrow the field to 10. Blatt on the market - Big name on the market means Morey and Les are looking. Known for an offense which Les would approve of. All the negative talk about Blatt would make him a risky hire for Morey. Doesn't hold stars accountable, freezes when drawing up plays in timeouts, calling plays for guys who aren't in the game, lost the locker room. He might actually be equal or worse than McHale. However, his knowledge of offense would make him an interesting choice as a top assistant to someone who is mostly a defensive coach like Hollins, Thibs, or Messina. He would also be a good assistant if we hire a rookie head coach like one of the college coaches. All in all, he's in the same category as Mark Jackson. Could be a good coach but created a mess and would be too risky for morey. Lue off the market - This was unfortunate. The Rockets should've gone after Lue as soon as Mchale was fired but they want to "give JB a chance" AKA not spend money on 2 coaches this year. Chalk this one up to Les not wanting to spend. Walton on the rise - Walton is being mentioned more frequently as the next assistant coach to find a HC job. I think the media love for this guy is making him a safer choice for Morey. The risk is that this is only his second season as an assistant, but the ceiling is high. When I started this thread Walton was seen as a high risk / high reward option that Morey might find too risky. However, if hiring him comes with praise from the national media, then Morey might feel safer taking this chance. I see him filling Lue’s spot in Tier 1. TOP 10 CANDIDATES (The market will change depending on performance and availability of these coaches, but as of today I think this is how Les and Morey, not I, would rank the field) Tier 1 - Serious Contenders Walton - He was high risk / high reward, but now he seems much less risky as he becomes the media’s favorite assistant coach. He still has some risks: he only has 2 years experience on the bench, and we can’t know for sure that he’d be tough enough to hold harden accountable on defense. He’s in Tier 1 now because he’s become a popular choice in media and around the NBA. That makes him a lower risk / high reward option. That’s the type of gamble Morey usually goes for. He checks off a lot of boxes on the Rocket’s search criteria. Big name and up tempo offense for Les. Open to analytics, could be a good recruiter, and will come with media praise for Morey. However, I could see him getting a huge contract. If the price is too high, Les will pass. Brooks - Fits what Les and Morey want too damn well for my liking. The only knock I can think of is that this will be seen as an obvious recruiting hire rather than a coaching hire. I’m not sure morey is in a position to take on any criticism of this next move, but he and Les might feel the pros outweigh the cons. Hollins - We know there was mutual interest at the beginning of last season, and so that puts him firmly in Tier 1. However, that was for the lead assistant role. Will Morey want him as a head coach? I assume if Hollins is willing to open up his offense he would be highly considered. Tier 2 - Dark Horses Thibs, Messina, and Boylen - I think they will be seen by Morey as undervaluing his input from analytics. I think Les will not want their style of play. They would be asked to adjust and I don’t think these guys are the type to go for that, and therefor stand much less of a chance of serious consideration. However, they are probably the best coaches on the market, and all safe choices for Morey. Tier 3 - Long Shots McMillan - Low risk / low reward. Was an average head coach, but there is a good chance he learned a lot under Vogel. still, unexciting name for Les, no recruiting power for Morey... but the Pacers new style is what they want, and he brings defense. Solid but not all that exciting of a choice. Miller, Ollie, and Krystkowiak - So much depends on their success in the tournament this year. For all of Ollie’s strengths, he won the national championship, but then failed to make the tournament the next year. This year will be telling for him. While Miller seems like a great fit, and has been to 4 Elite Eight’s, it would be more convincing to see him win big (Final Four or better) before making the jump to the NBA. Krystkowiak seems like a great fit too, and has NBA experience (unlike Miller), but has only 1 Sweet Sixteen under his belt as a coach. He, too, will need to win big this year to have a chance.
College to NBA is pretty risky coaching-wise, but Jay Wright is very good. Long underrated until this tournament run he just had. If they were to take that plunge...I wouldn't be opposed.
Let Durant choose if he wants to come. Wright seems like he would be a good option if he wanted to go pro.
I agree with smoothie's analysis on Wright. Defensively I think he's got some great, great qualities. I watched a lot of video on Nova last year while looking at Darrun Hilliard. He's put together great defensive schemes. Combined with understanding the power of the 3-ball I'm very intrigued by him.
Does anyone think that letting KD choose seems like a sign of weakness? I think it makes us look better if we go out and get a respectable name, regardless of what any FA's think.
I've got a lot of questions in this area on organizations letting the players choose the coach. Going back to the 80's. Magic Johnson placed his trade request because he didn't like playing for Westhead. Lakers fired Westhead, hired Riley, and the rest is history. But Riley was already on Westhead's staff. Same thing with the Bulls and Jordan. They fired Collins and hired Phil Jackson who was already on Collins' staff. But that wasn't in a dispute with MJ. The front office had a problem with Collins. They later had problems with PJax but couldn't do anything about it because the Bulls were winning championships then. But generally speaking the organizations that have dominated the championships have not allowed the players to run the asylum. Organizations like the Spurs, Heat, Mavs, Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, etc. haven't really had "players' coaches" per se. They are organizations that figured out the winning formula based partially on their talent base, and then they asked their star players to allow themselves to be molded into their systems. Case in point, LaMarcus on the Spurs. They haven't changed their game to allow him to run things. He bought into them, their coach, and their system. They haven't won a ring yet with him but they very well could. Rick Carlisle, even though he was a player, isn't a player's coach. And Nowitzki bought into Carlisle. The Lakers with Phil Jackson. Kobe, the strongest, most stubborn player in the league for years....bought into Phil Jackson. Even though PJax has written about how hard it was to get Kobe to co-operate with the Triangle. Still...in the finality of those championships, Kobe bought into Phil. To the point that when Phil was gone, Kobe lobbied hard to get him back instead of D'Antoni. Celtics with both Doc and KC Jones. They ran a system. And the guys bought into the system. Bird didn't choose Jones. And KG/Ray/Pierce/Rondo didn't choose Doc. In fact, Rondo and Doc butted heads on many, many occasions. I'm sure if Rondo would have been given the choice that he would've fired Doc and went and got a coach he liked a lot better. Spurs drafted most of their guys. But is there any question who is in charge in San Antonio? Absolutely none. You either buy into Pops or you're gone. That's just the way it is. And Pops has yelled at every single one of them over the years. Pistons with both Chuck Daly and Larry Bown. Neither one of those guys were players coaches. They had their systems and they molded and fit their players into their systems. Brown, by all accounts, is a taskmaster/perfectionist that has driven many players mad. The Hakeem/Tomjanovich Rockets teams were another example. Tomjanovich was an assistant to Chaney and was appointed head coach after Chaney was fired midseason (uh oh...ode to Bickerstaff.....Please no.). Hakeem wasn't given a choice. They muddled through that 92 season, missed the playoffs, then continued on with Tomjanovich and won a couple rings. In the Warriors case, they fired a guy who had done a terrific job (Mark Jackson), and hired another coach that they thought was better and jived with the front office better. There was no players revolt with Mark Jackson. Steph liked Jackson ok. They didn't necessarily like his systems. But the front office clearly didn't like how Jackson was doing things, fired him, hired Kerr...and the rest is history. Kerr had no coaching experience. And he had no relationship with Curry and the players to merit getting the job. So, I'm having a little bit of trouble understanding the idea of letting Durant/Harden pick the coach. Seems counter intuitive to the way great organizations do things. Just my thoughts.
smoothie, nice call on the Villanova coach!! Regarding waiting on Durant to have a say in a new coach, I can't recall, but aren't most big name coach signings down before free agency begins. Seems you better make your move on coaches before free agency begins. JVG was hired in early June Adelman was hired late May McHale was hired on June 1st Atlanta hired Budenholzer in June OKC hired Donovan in April Celtics hired Steven on July 3rd Cavs hired Blatt in late June
This is ridiculous. It is very rare that you will see a coach get fired during a season and someone from outside of the organization get brought in to take over in the same season and I'm not sure there's ever been a case of a team hiring an assistant off another team during a season. Cleveland would have been able to deny us the ability to even interview Lue during the season. If Les didn't want to spend money he would not have fired McHale with all of that money left on his contract.
They aren't going to go into the meeting with a pitch of "Hey you can choose the coach". That would be extremely naive to think it will go like that. The Rockets will do their homework, and have been doing so for some time. YES its illegal in the NBA to contact the player or their reps, but they can do their homework well ahead (if they haven't already) to know for a fact who they can hire or keep that will give them an edge going into FA meetings with KD. Also it would be much more impactful if that coach was IN THE ROOM with KD & the Rockets during the meeting they get at the start of free agency. More than likely the Rockets and many other teams probably already have a good idea who KD and his reps like and they will ALL go into meetings with who THEY THINK is KD's best match as a coach. If a team goes into KD meetings with a menu on the white board of available coaches and asks him to pick who he wants like he's at the front of the line at McDonalds they will not be acquiring Kevin Durant in the offseason I can tell you that. The Rockets are that stupid.
It may be that to save money, he will keep JBB on as head coach next season and then look for other coaches in 2017-2018.
Mike Malone. He had it going for the Kings. Tom Thibodeau. Great defensive coach and offense too. Luke Walton. Knows how much work to put
Not true. Mchales new contract was given to him as a bonus for his previous job performance and to make him whole for being underpaid the previous 4 seasons. They had no intentions of letting McHale coach out that contract.
What a ****ty list. We might as well punt next year with Scotty Brooks and wait for the next Brad Stevens.
