I actually do like Kevin McHale... I loved him as a player, and thought he made the excellent choice of drafting KG, while some teams were skeptical. He could have surrounded him with some better talent, but a lot of that was influenced by the largest contract in NBA history (this was pre-lockout.... or many say it actually caused the lockout), and the market they play in. I think he could be a good coach if he puts the effort in... but seeing as how drained its made some of the former greats (Magic, Larry... even Rudy now), I hope he doesn't suffer from early burnout. One things for sure... he won't put up with anymore of the babies that are on that team... McHale was one of the TOUGHEST players I ever watched.
I don't think the Celts will fire Doc Rivers so quickly, but I think Orlando needs to jump on this quickly. Johnny Davis isn't going to take them anywhere.
Not sure where Flip would go, but McHale's move might give Isiah Thomas ideas - which, for the Knicks' sake, would be a very bad thing.
Saunders is a top drawer coach - good attention to detail. He will find work soon.... Unfortunate they chose to lose him-he really is good...
I don't understand why ya'll think Flip was a good coach. He's had one good season the whole time he was with the pups and he had tons of talent the whole time. I predicted that he was going to get fired last year until they turned it around after the first couple of months. I even predicted that Rudy should replace him before he went to LA. Flip is a good guy like Rudy but he doesn't have the credibility of the championships.
that's what i'm thinking. the team clearly doesn't give a damn about defense and that is on the coach as far as i'm concerned. francis may suck at D but he was at least trying under jvg. no one on orlando tries. and there's not much else about him that's that good. flip would be a big improvement i think. he won't be a enormous stickler who tries to stifle their offensive talent (you don't wanna go overboard) but he would make them play some D. the wolves got to the WCF and may have gone to the finals if their second best player wasn't injured the whole series. outside of that, i would think most people thought they did as well as they could most years. they generally seemed to run a very efficient offense that got them great shots and played respectable D. being poorly coached didn't generally seem to be a complaint about them. no one's saying he's the best coach in the game, just that he knows what he's doing.
Bird said the same thing in his book about coaching the Pacers. He said 3 years is about the Max that players will pay attention to a coach and that is why he retired after 3 years (even though they were improving).
I agree with Bird in a way, but that doesn't excuse Spre, Cassell, and Kandi -- who have been there for a year and a half.
When your franchise player is Kevin Garnett, your team is doomed for mediocrity. KG is just not the type of player that can win you a championship by himself. He needs at least another superstar alongside him. And because he's getting paid 20+ mil a year, that's not going to happen. Last year Sam and Spree both had very good seasons (one can argue that Sam had a career year) and they finally broke through and became an elite team for a year. Now they both suck and the team is back to mediocrity again. If I were Minnesota, I'd start thinking about trading Garnett if the team misses the playoffs this year. KG's soon to be 29 and he has a lot of mileage on him.
Let's pack MoT and Spoon and other salary fillers to get KG. Minnesota will get their cap relief in 2~3 years.
KG is overrated. Everybody complains that he has no talent around him, but he has cassel,spre,wally,kandi,hudson. Those player are pretty good and KG needs to step up. Tim Duncan's supporting crew has changed but the spurs seem to always be good. Even kobe while he was playing had his team in the 6th seed.
I think KG is an awesome player, but i dont think hes good enough to get it done with these players. I think they should trade cassell and spree and whatever else they need to for another allstar. Thats the only way KG will ever win a championship. Because those 2 are gettin old and are idiots. Imagine if they had done that trade for Vince Carter. Him and KG would be tearing it up.
1995-96 20-42 1996-97 40-42 1997-98 45-37 1998-99 25-25 1999-00 50-32 2000-01 47-35 2001-02 50-32 2002-03 51-31 2003-04 58-24 2004-05 25-26 Thats flips record....not bad if you ask me, he would be a great lakers coach
