I would love to have Sam as coach one day, but today isn't that day. I'm not willing to hire a rookie HC unless they come from an elite coaching tree and have won a title as a lead assistant. Sam's whole coaching experience is with Doc Rivers and that's not good enough. I want an elite HC to hire him as lead assistant before considering him. I want to see him go work for Pop, Kerr, Budenholzer or Spo for at least 1 season of playoff success. Glad they gave him an interview though, he deserves it. However at the moment I'd rather have a mediocre heavily experienced coach than a hot shot rookie coach. This roster needs someone who has seen a lot of successful wars as coach. We're too young, our actual rotation is younger than OKC. Rookie HC's can do well with vet squads (Stevens, Mazzula, Udoka, Lue, Nurse, etc.) but it has practically never worked well with young teams. I don't want to fire Sam for a predictable and unfair thing like that.
My concern is how much Doc Rivers taint he has. Cassell clearly likes something in his system if he stuck with him for almost a decade.
I see that some people are still butt hurt that Kenny smith has been 100% correct that we won’t win the nba title for the last 20 years @Rocket River @AroundTheWorld @TimDuncanDonaut
I like Sam and want an experienced head coach, but Doc Rivers is a HOF bound head coach, who's had winning records for years. That's elite to me and he would be up there with Nurse for me if available. I would absolutely take him as HC. Sam should however get a shot with another team or create his shot another way.
Kenny Smith is still bitter that Houston Fans got off the K. Smith bandwagon and in droves, and hitched their hopes onto a young Sam Cassel. Smith could shoot a decent 3, he could bring the ball across half court, and that was his job. Cassel on the other hand created excitement by creating his shot, and taking pressure off Hakeem. Or perhaps because Houston as a whole said, who the heck is Kenny “the Jet” Smith? Honestly the first I ever hear of Kenny Smith being called “the “Jet”” was on TNT. I still can not remember seeing a Houston chronicle or Houston Post article that referenced the “the Jet” nickname.
I respect many of your posts, but this lacks substance imo. Can you share why and provide an example of an elite HC?
I understand that a lot of people have reservations about Sam as a head coach. The experience with Stephen Silas has soured me a bit on the idea of hiring a guy without head coaching experience, but Silas failing should not be the reason Sam isn't given an opportunity. All great coaches are rookie coaches at some point in time and Sam she be evaluated on his own merit rather than the failures of a guy that came before him that he is nothing like. All that being said, the Rockets have to get this hire correct. Jobs and careers are on the line.
Well, I didn't like the implication that I'm moving goal posts to deny Sam Cassell - a Rockets legend. An example of an elite HC is one who has won a title as the non-favorite or one who has won many titles. Doc Rivers I don't know what he does well, perhaps you can tell me? Is it defense or offense? Is he a players coach? Tactician? What is he? Other than his rookie season has his team ever performed better than expected which is the only thing a coach can achieve? He should have won 2 easy titles with the Celtics but somehow fumbled one away. For his lone title he needed the most games ever in playoff history to win a title almost giving away 2 different series that he was absurdly favored to win. Celtics title team: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen, PJ Brown, Sam Cassell, Kendrick Perkins, James Posey Lakers: Kobe, Gasol, Odom, Derek Fisher, Chris Mihm, Jordan Farmar, Trevor Ariza without a 3pt shot, Ronny Turiaf, Luke Walton This is a joke of a lopsided talent advantage. Sorry but even Stephen Silas would have won that title and that series. Any elite HC would have gotten more than one title out of that Celtics squad. It's the least impressive coaching win of all NBA Finals series ever. It's actually a shame it extended his career because as a result the Clippers wasted a CLEAR 7-year championship window and now the Sixers are at his mercy just because he stumbled into winning that one title. Finally of course two of the most infamous coaching choke jobs in NBA history are attributed to Rivers: the Rockets demolition of the Clippers was 99% Doc Rivers choking on the job + T-Mac's Magic choking after being up 3-1 against the Pistons. In 7 seasons with the Clippers he never advanced to the Conference Finals which was his only goal when arriving and no one can say he didn't have the roster to do it. 7 seasons they gave him. A couple of minor disgusting things about Rivers: he used his front office role to get his son on his team and he used his coaching role to give him minutes over more deserving players. This was reported by Clippers players. Further, the only reason Tim Duncan didn't join T-Mac in Orlando is because Doc Rivers stubbornly refused to allow Duncan's family to travel with them on the plane. He's never developed a young player in his life. A zero or negative there. Really his best season ever was his rookie season and it's been all downhill from there.
Meanwhile we got Vogel Bubble Championship and Nurse injured Warriors championship I don't want Rivers . .. but I think Cassell is not Rivers People love Nurse but he was under Casey (whom alot of people don't like) Nurse Rocket River
Thanks for your response, I appreciate you sharing your perspective. You mentioned in other threads Stone should sign Atkinson for his player development, I like Atkinson and would take him as a coach. But say both were available and we could choose a coach, here is Atkinson's record and here is Doc Rivers: Atkinson: https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/atkinke01c.html Doc Rivers: https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/riverdo01c.html Doc basically blows Atkinson and many coaches in the league's records away with a record I consider better than Nick Nurse's since it's almost 25 years of winning records. Different teams, talents, situations, and eras. His current 76ers team is a title contender, many coaches Never win championships in their career. Doc has a better record than some coaches in the HOF right now. His current team has a top 5 offense and top 10 defense, there is even a Netflix movie about his coaching. We can agree to disagree but that seems pretty elite to me.
I simply would never decide by head to head record without context, which is why I provided the context for both in this thread. All those coaching wins in the regular season did nothing to stop him from finishing seasons poorly. I don't see an elite coach there and it's because of all the details in my previous post which displays what happens after his regular season wins.
I get what you're saying but it's not really time for "I think" coaches. It's time for the "I know" coaches. Organization has said same. I don't know why you're conflating me with "people". Vogel is just ok to me and Nurse has the 2nd most wins in the NBA in the past 10 years to go with his title. He finished with 53 wins after Kawhi walked for nothing.
