Jeff Van Gundy won't be brought in to be general manager. He will only be coach (assuming he is hired). Jeff Van Gundy is 54 years old snd in good health. Rick Adelman is 70 years old. Also, Van Gundy doesn't go out of his way to make sure that all his incompetent children receive employment with the organization he is working for. Rick Adelman was a very good, but not great coach, for a very long time. He is old, and at this point wants to run an organization. He got his chance and it was a disaster.
That is fair enough. I have concerns over Van Gundy as well. My point is just that Adelman isn't a viable candidate for many, many reasons.
Either way. Were F'ed. I don't see any free agent coach or roster moves that will make us legit contenders within the next 2 seasons before Harden is a free agent leaves us to go home and play for the Lakers(Durant aint coming here,neither is Horford). The more i think about it, the more i see it as a very possible scenario where Durant, Westbrook, Harden all reunite with the Lakers. 2016-Durant, 2017-Westbrook-2018-Harden + probably Ben Simmons, D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Jordan Clarkson.
hmm, considering that quote from Durant, my list: Adleman (always my first choice) Ollie JVG Luke Walton
Continue to bleed that Rockets red out of your booty hole for mediocrity all the way up to the moment Harden officially signs the dotted line on his new contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. I bet you can't wait to watch us compete for that #14 pick til 2020 and beyond. Just as long as we can make it to the playoffs!! Anything can happen once you're there!! AWW SHUCKS GUYS! BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR! LETS GO ROCKETS!
I always wanted Adelmans offense blended with JVG's defense. But we don't have the personnel for it. Harden would respond to the Princeton about the way McGrady did.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/lakers/2016/04/25/ettore-messina-luke-walton-lakers-coaching-search/83522986/ The Los Angeles Lakers are wasting no time in their coaching search. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, the Lakers have received permission from the San Antonio Spurs to interview their lead assistant coach, Ettore Messina, as a possible replacement for the recently departed Byron Scott. It is unclear how soon the team plans to interview Messina, the widely-respected Italian coach who won four Euroleague titles and was twice the Euroleague coach of the year before spending the 2011-12 NBA season on the Lakers coaching staff headed by Mike D’Antoni. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the search. While many names have been mentioned, Messina and Golden State Warriors assistant Luke Walton are believed to be on the Lakers’ unofficial short list. Messina, who is also being considered for the Sacramento Kings’ head coaching vacancy, joined Gregg Popovich and his San Antonio staff in July of 2014. Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie and former Houston Rockets and New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who is now an ESPN analyst, are also expected to receive consideration. The Lakers opted against a return for Scott, who went 38-126 in his two seasons as head coach and had team options on his contract for the next two campaigns
with brooks agreeing to join the wizards, both of our tier 1 candidates were gone before we even got a chance to interview them. another consequence of this playoff appearance. however, it could be for the best (i prefer many coaches over brooks). with so many updates from the coaching market, i think its time to examine our options again. but first, the emergence of JVG as our target means that the rocket’s search criteria might have changed: THE SEARCH CRITERIA has it changed since losing out on our top 2 choices? i still believe les and morey are looking for the same things they always were in a coach: les - big name, up tempo morey - open to analytics, safe choice to avoid getting canned however, i think they are giving more weight to coaches who are big names and safe choices, otherwise they wouldn’t have been so interested in thibs and JVG. this also means there will be some movement on our candidate list to reflect more interest in bigger names THE MARKET TIER 1 - Contenders JVG - i originally thought JVG was just a pipe dream. spent years away from coaching. seemed to love his broadcasting gig. also seemed to have burned the bridge here with les and morey. it didn't look like he filled the rockets ideal search criteria (up tempo / open to analytics). however, with thibs and brooks off the market, JVG has become the biggest name and safest choice BY FAR. at this point in the game, the drop off to tier 2 is big. this is still a long shot. there are reports and rumors that he wants the job, and that he doesn’t want the job, and now the lakers are interested in him. he’s no guarantee. right now he’s the only name currently linked to our search, so he’s all by himself in tier 1. TIER 2 - Dark Horse Walton - if morey loses out on JVG he could be in trouble. walton is the next best option based on the rockets search criteria. he's a big name, he's open to analytics, and he plays an up tempo style. however, he's not a safe choice. in fact, he's very high risk / high reward due to his less than 2 years of coaching experience. if it comes to this, morey would basically be going all in. if walton pans out morey looks like a genius. if walton flounders, morey will likely be fired. he’s linked to the kings and lakers jobs, but not ours (yet). if we lose out on JVG for any reason, we will start to hear a lot more about walton. Messina - originally i thought he didn’t match the up tempo style les wants, and that he might be seen as undervaluing analytics by morey... however, he’s moving up on our list as we see more emphasis put on big names, and defensive minded coaches (thibs/JVG). he’s been linked to a few other coaching searches and is proving to be a hot name on the market. i wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the our “poor man’s JVG” fall back option. TIER 3 - Long Shots Ollie - back on the list! i took him off the list after failing to go deep in the tourney. 2 major things happened to get him back on the list. 1) the lakers being interested in him legitimizes him as an nba head coach candidate. this helps in the “big name” and “safe choice” categories of les and morey’s search. 2) since brooks went to the wiz, ollie has become the next best coaching option to recruit durant. his greatest skills is game preparation and management, and he'll immediately earn the respect from the players. however, he might be more of a rebuilding coach and less of a win now option. Jackson - the emphasis on big name coaches lands him on the list. like brooks did, in an unfortunate way he checks off a lot of the boxes on the rockets search criteria. he’s open to analytics and uptempo style. he’s proven to be a good defensive coach (the warriors were among the top defensive teams in the league each year he was there), and he’s proven to be a winner (the warriors improved their record each year he was there). i can also see a scenario where we miss out on our top 3 candidates, he becomes the biggest name / safest choice. he’s low on the list because he’s got some risks involved. for a team struggling with chemistry, he may be a poor choice. a number of the warriors players, coaches, and front office people were happy to see him leave. JBB - he's on the list after taking a 'broken' team to the playoffs. i believe there is a strong chance that if the rockets strike out on their first 3 options they could retain JBB and hire a very good (defensive minded) top assistant. lionel hollins and mike brown have both been on the rockets radar for this very role in the past. another name would be former rocket and thibs disciple adrian griffin. he's already a lead assistant so the only promotion would be if we offered him the title of "associate head coach", gave him a raise, and told him if JBB gets removed he'll be given the interim HC job with a chance to prove himself (just like they did for jbb). OFF THE LIST mcmillan, boylen, and hollins - none of them are linked to any coaching searches, making it less likely that they can somehow end up linked to ours. its a real shame about boylen. also, i wouldn’t rule out hollins from a return to the list. we know they wanted him as a lead assistant in the past. he only turned us down for a HC spot. with none available this summer, he might be a top choice to be the lead assistant if we go with an inexperienced HC such as walton, ollie, or keep JBB. lets take a look at the remaining job market to get a sense of where we stand among the pack of suitors: THE JOB MARKET Positions Filled Wolves - thibs Wizards - brooks Nets - atkinson Suns - watson Remaining Vacancies Rockets - linked to JVG (i expect more names here once we're out of the playoffs) Knicks - linked to rambis and blatt Kings - linked to walton, messina, jackson, mchale, mitchell, del negro Lakers - linked to JVG, walton, messina, blatt, ollie, wright, izzo, calipari My takeaways from the job market my gut tells me that JVG returns to ESPN because i’d bet he wants to hold out for a job with roster control. even if he was interested in a regular coaching spot, the lakers are a few years away from winning, the kings are a mess, the knicks aren’t interested, and he may not want to work for morey and les again. i would also bet that walton is offered and accepts the lakers job. he’s won championships there, its a huge market and a legendary team to coach. they are rebuilding, which would mean they don’t expect him to win right away. less pressure than the rockets would put on immediate results. he’d have a chance to grow with the team. great situation for him. the kings hiring jackson seems destined to happen. he would fit right in with the mess they have there. messina will be seen as too hard of a coach for DMC and rondo’s personalities, blatt and mchale will be seen as too soft. in this scenario we would end up with messina. he’d be a great fit here. harden needs someone like JVG and thibs who is known to crack the whip and isn’t afraid of holding stars accountable. if he can get some of that spurs character to spread into our locker room we’d be all the better for it.
Out of the remaining jobs imo the least desirable for any coach should be the knicks. Because Phil Jackson interferes with the coaching himself and I dont see many established coaches willing to put up with it for long. I believe from the recent choices most coaches have made the most desirable trait for any team isnt the roster unless they are in conention, but the power and control they are given. So if the lakers or kings are willing to give considerable control to the next coach these jobs may become more desirable than ours. Now how likely is that to happen? I can see Divac working very closely with an established coach who has the support of Cousins. The lakers? Dont see Buss and Kupchak doing it.
Thanks for the update. I also expect to hear ollie name mentioned too. But with the way okc is playing durant can very well stay in okc at least for another year. Would love messina and I think he would work well with harden imo.
So we should run the best defense and the best offense at the same time? I think you're on to something. I wonder why nobody else has thought of this. Oh wait, it's because they are 2 completely different philisohies that aren't compatible with each other. You can't have bassline cutters that the Princeton offense requires if you want to take away the opposing teams fast break. The only exception to this is if all of your players are significantly more athletic than who you are playing, in which case you can run anything and win. When the team you are playing is roughly equal to your own in talent, you have to sacrifice offense to gain defense, and vice versa. There's a reason mediocre teams are typically good at one, and not the other. both strategies tend to produce similar amounts of wins, with differing volatility. Offensive teams are going to have significantly higher deviations from the mean, they will lose some games they should win, and win some games they should lose. Defensive teams are more likely to win the games they should, and lose some games they shouldn't. The question we should ask is, are we good enough to win without luck, and furthermore, is 82 games + playoffs a long enough time for an offensive or defensive team to revert to the mean? If the answer here is yes, Your coaching philosophy is relatively meaningless, when controlling for externalities such as attitude and effort(big assumption) If the answer is yes, you go with a high octane offense if you don't have the best player in the league (the biggest indicator of who will win the championship) if you do, you go for a crippling defense to reel in volatility. I'm not sure what morey believes at this point.
Yeah, Mike Brown might be our coach right now if he was hired as "defensive coordinator" a few years ago. :grin:
If JVG is brought in, what are good candidates for Offensive coaches that he would consider bringing in? just curious if you have some names to throw out there
