76ers fans hated Hinkie except for a small margin. I wouldn't take Philly sports opinions as gospel. I wouldn't take most fans opinions as gospel. Only thing that is gospel is Jack Easterby and he will guide us through the dark.
Hinkie was forced to draft Okafor. He didn’t make bad picks. He drafted a franchise player. He found a loophole and turned the NBA into a circus of tanking. He’s incredible and was too good for the NBA.
He didn't really get along with his players, it seems. Reports about him demeaning Tua. That and a high staff turnover rate. Otherwise, he seemed like he got decent results.
Not saying Flores should be the guy, but I think it's a mistake to try to go into the completely opposite direction just because the last guy didn't work out. Ex. hiring a defensive coach after firing an offensive coach. We hired O'Brien in part because he sold us on a game plan offense (that we never saw) that would be versatile enough to change the game plan from week to week to exploit our opponents weaknesses. This was in contrast to Kubiak who just had his offense, which was usually pretty good. We did our thing week in and week out. But in the playoffs, teams could game plan against us because they knew exactly what was coming and when we got shut down, we couldn't do anything else to counter. O'Brien being a hard ass was something the fans loved when he was hired. "This is the guy who chewed Tom Brady a new butthole", was a selling point for many fans who believed the team needed a kick in the butt. If you held that opinion, O'Brien sucking shouldn't really change that. That's more on O'Brien being shitty in general rather that specifically his demeanor. Again, not saying I'm in favor of hiring Flores, I just don't believe you should automatically dismiss a guy just because he's "too much like the last guy".
McClown as QB coach I would be cool with. Not sure I want him to jump straight to OC, but he's gonna be on the staff for sure.
100% in this mindset. It's just that I hear all this smoke about McClown as HC and my butthole puckers up really quick. I'm fine with McClown on the staff, but hearing his name in the same sentence as Texans HC makes just about anyone sound appetizing.
I get the comparisons to O’Brien when it comes to Flores… especially considering how things ended up in Miami. Let me point out a couple things that are big differences between the two, that may be a reason why a Flores hire could be a success. 1) Bill O’Brien quickly gained power in the Texans organization. Bob McNair’s health slowly started deteriorating and there were some rumors of O’Brien and Rick Smith not completely seeing eye to eye. O’Brien won over Bob Mcnair pretty quickly during the interview process after Kubiak was let go. Rick Smith obviously ended up stepping down due to his wife’s health issues(supposedly)… but ultimately once Rick Smith was gone, Bill O’Brien became the most powerful guy in the organization until he brought his buddy Jack Easterby in… and well, the rest is history. Flores has absolutely no shot at ever gaining the power that O’Brien had. O’Brien basically had a perfect storm of opportunity to gain his power. Between Bob McNair’s declining health, winning a power struggle with Rick Smith, being able to axe his handpicked GM(Brian Gaine), Cal dealing with the new responsibilities of being an owner(he was clearly unprepared), etc…. Ironically that same power ended up biting O’Brien in the ass when he brought in Easterby. Flores would be walking into the Texans org. with an established hierarchy of Easterby, Caserio, and Cal firmly entrenched at the top. It’s very very doubtful that any coach or candidate will ever be able to achieve the level of power O’Brien attained. 2) O’Brien arrived under the guise that he was a “quarterback whisperer”. Lol. Y’all remember that? For several years, O’Brien had “de facto” offensive coordinators such as George Godsey and Tim Kelley and on multiple occasions O’Brien took over play calling duties. Brian Flores is a defensive guru. As long as he’s open minded to having an offensive scheme that can be shaped around the skill players we acquire over the next couple years, I think he can succeed.
