He was referring to Active coaches. Les is an idiot. I was stunned when he said that, but realized later that he meant Active/available coaches, in reference to their coaching search.
I was not a fan of the D'Antoni hire. I voted "No" in the thread with the poll. But after seeing posts like this quoted over and over, I am starting to change my tune. It was originally posted as a way to show what a fool Les is, the argument being that nobody cares about regular season record and they only care about titles. But after looking at the list, you can understand why the Rockets haven't won a title, and some of it has to do with bad luck regarding injuries (Yao/Mutombo, Dmo/Bev) and some has to do with players not playing as well in the playoffs as they do in the regular season (Harden). And with seven of the of 10 finals won by teams with 3 of the 4 best regular season records during that time, I don't think the importance of a regular season record should be discounted entirely. And since it has been pointed out repeatedly that the Rockets have won nothing in that period of time, why not try something different? They've gone offense (Adelman), defense (JVG), free-for-all (McHale), and they have nothing to show for it. I say let Les have is fast-paced team. We really have nothing to lose. And, surprisingly, it was all of the negative CF posts that have turned me around on this. Thanks guys!
Yep. He's actually correct if you narrow to active coaches, now that Karl is gone. Well, semi-correct - Thibodeau, by the logic above, should be on that list - and was likely the best coach available.
But even if you give Les the benefit of the doubt, as I said in an earlier post, it's still a silly, meaningless stat. Over a third of active NBA coaches are either rookies or have been on the job for only a few years. So of course the number of active coaches who've won 60+ games in a season 2 or more times will be short. If that was the barometer of a great NBA coach, then Les could've easily just extended an offer to Avery Johnson or Mike Brown. Hell, at least those two have actually gotten a team to the NBA Finals. And both have won championships(Johnson as a player with the Spurs, Brown as an assistant with the Spurs).
Well, Thibs didn't win 60 twice, albeit he had a 60 win % in the lockout shortened season. Secondly, he was not available, as his first choice was clearly coaching the last two ROYs, one of which (Towns) is going to be great. He's not really available when he wants to coach KAT, and doesn't give you an interview. Even if we offered him everything, he still doesn't give us an interview until the team with KAT on it turns him down. Agree, it's worthless to throw that out there. That's why I call him an idiot. But I realized he meant active coaches, so couldn't call him out on being horribly dumb.
"You know heypartner, it is my team and I want to win. I don't give a a rat's ass what you or other like minded fans think. Go ^%$& yourself." - Les Alexander
Did anyone else feel a little sorry for Les after that press conference? Or at least feel a little bad for saying or thinking things like "F*** that guy"? He's just a worn down old guy who doesn't seem to completely understand what's going on.
Nope, Leslie L. Alexander deserves your wrath. And let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Leslie L. Alexander doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
I didn't. I think Les has been an arrogant, clueless owner the entire time he's been here. Even a lot of his non-roster decisions have been embarrassing(the cartoon pajamas, firing Murph, firing Turbo, "Animals Have Rights" shirts on the Power Dancers). This is just the latest idiotic move by the guy. Even if you think D'Antoni is still a good coach, our roster doesn't come close to supplying him with the kind of personnel he needs to implement his style of offense. And we have too many holes and far too few assets to fix this all in one offseason. I can only hope the "naysayers" keep piling on him. I did enjoy seeing that he was actually aware of all the criticism the organization has received and how hardly anyone supports this decision.
He understands. He's not stupid. His motives for owning the team have been made crystal clear: 1) Market your team as fast and fun for fans 2) Market Harden as one of the league's biggest stars 3) profit. He's angry because his team has been given a bad name and it tarnishes the product that he uses to make money.
You can read recaps of the presser, but you don't get a real good feel for it unless you actually see it. And see the body movements and facial expressions etc. Couple of thoughts. 1) Yeah, 100% Les move to hire MDA. Obvious. 2) Watching Morey....he looks uncomfortable and not happy. It is CLEAR AS DAY that MDA was not his choice. They TRY to link Les+MDA+Morey together as being "aligned" when they say "pace of play", which is true. But it is clear that Morey wasn't on board with MDA as a hire. I am skeptical about MDA, but what worries me the most is the fact Morey wasn't on board. 3) LOL at bitter Les. 4) LOL that the one time Les gets actually challenged by a reporter question, his PR people shut down the presser. Who was the reporter that asked the question so they can get props? 5) The first time Les turns the mic over to Morey, it almost catches Morey off guard like he is zoning out. 6) LOL at Morey whispering "Brewer" to MDA when he is reciting players. That was like the only thing proactive he did at this presser. 7) MDA handled himself rather well. Spoke well. His transparency about Bzdelik and being the D coordinator was refreshing.
What do you think of his remark, "I bought this team in 1994, so have been watching basketball since then." Maybe he meant watching it much more closely? From my seat of hate for the guy, I took that as meaning he's not really a basketball fan until buying a team. He did want a hockey team, too. It's OK to be an owner who isn't a big basketball fan, just don't meddle. He had one of the champions of offense in the modern era in Adelman who could run Up and Down basketball (see the Kings/Mavs memorable running playoff series in 2003), so why say D'Antoni is what he always wanted. Just seems like a kid in a candy store or toy store, and rather than running a management team and letting them do their job, he wants to pick the flavor of the team with the most fun. "I've always wanted a toy that played this way." And will quickly get tired of his toys when they break, or his candy when it loses it's flavor.
I THINK it was Feigen who kept asking about Les addressing the neysayers. I don't know if I'd read too much into Morey looking uncomfortable. TBH he doesn't really look too comfortable these days in general.
I think he's angry also because he's got a .500 ballclub that the fanbase was disgusted with this past season(and for far more than just their disappointing record) and he knows if they don't get very lucky in free agency, they're gonna have a ton of empty seats at Toyota Center this fall.
Just playing Devil's advocate I think we can all agree MDA was not the best coach available. Even if Thibs wasn't on the market, we had a shot at Vogel and had essentially no competition to hiring a guy like Stephen Silas.
We could've had Vogel, Silas, JVG, maybe even Joerger(did he really want to coach the Kings?). But all of those guys are either unproven or defensive-oriented, which Les wants no part of.
It is hard for Me to think of a worst hire, other than maybe Jeff Van Gundy, Marc Jackson, or worse being extending Bickerstaff. But I thought that the Silas and Hollins combo was the way to go, a fresh new start and identity for the team with two opposite personalities I thought would work well for the Rockets.
I think Sacramento had Joerger pegged within minutes of being fired, at least according to one guy who is close to the owner. Normally I don't cite sauces of sauces as a source but it seems plausible enough as he didn't really entertain other offers seriously. This part sounds crazy, but apparently Joerger's wife is an avid equestrian and Northern California has a ton of ranches for horse riding. At least a couple of news outlets confirmed that bit as well. Anyway, Houston would be a much tougher sell if she's looking for horse riding in nice outdoor weather. You have to think that the coaching job is better in Houston given that our owner is still considerably less crazy than Ranadive. You're right that JVG was always on the table, but I think all of us had just as many doubts about JVG era 2.0 as we do about the MDA era.
First thing I noticed was when Les asked Morey to take over after he finished his opening comments. "Daryl you want to take-over." And Morey reacted in a surprised manner, like they hadn't discussed opening-remarks and when a transition would take place. Have you ever been in a meeting with a client or something, going in not really knowing what the leader of the meeting was going to say and they surprise you with a segue for your thoughts, so you just go "Oh, yeah" and then ad lib with generalities. That's what Morey did. Seemed awkward.
