Before his stint at Kentucky, Pitino served as head coach of the New York Knicks for two seasons. In his initial year there in 1987-88, the Knicks improved by 14 victories and made the NBA Playoffs for the first time in four seasons. The Knicks won 52 games in 1988-89 and swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
We don't want coach K. Our future is Yao Ming. Coach K has a terrible record of developing big men, with the exception of Brand who only spent two years there. And it's not like he hasn't recruited talented big men over the years. He's had numerous McD's all-americans come in and fail to develop in his guard oriented system (eg. Casey Sanders). Hell, he has Wojo coaching his bigmen! No wonder Kris Humphries wanted to be released from his LOI.
A. coach k has a pretty sweet deal there in durham. i doubt he would leave it for any nba job. B. Coach k hasn't won more titles than any two coaches combined since wooden. He's "only" won three. C. year in and year out, especially lately, k has recruited the best high school players to duke. the talent level in the last ten years has been among the best, if not the very best, in all of college basketball. check out the number of mc donald all-americans he's had in the last 15 years if you don't believe me. his 99 and 02 classes were thouht at the time to be among the very best classes of all-times. the last 5 years he's had the most talent bar-none. you use the argument about nba success, but imo, that just points to his lack of player development given that he's had the best hs players in the country to work with. d. not so sure his coaching would translate into the nba game. e. he's had his own severe health problems lately too
Coach K would be great, our players are young and would respect him without NBA head coaching experience. His health and the fact that he is a God at Duke will prevent him from coming our way. He's probably a couple seasons from retiring. I've always been a big fan of his, he coaches players instead of just relying on their talent. He knows how to call a game and make adjustments. Sure he always has great talent but I don't think its as significant as it once was. There are so many more good basketball players now that talent level is evening out. Besides kids aren't will to sit two years before they get a chance to start for Duke when they could be a star at Kansas, so this has cut down the level of his talent, regardless of perception. I don't have an answer for our next coach. It has to be someone who coaches good fundemental basketball within a set offensive system that involves ball movement. He or his assistants must be accomplished teachers capable of honing all the young talent on our team into consistant performers. He must be able to command respect and discipline from SF and CM. He doesn't have to be a fan favorite but he does have to be effective.
Actually, Coach K's talent level right now is pretty insane. I'd have to say that it is much higher than has been at any other time in his career. Coming in next year he has Luol Deng, who is the #2 ranked player in the country. Kris Humphries just got out of his LOI, but he was ranked in the top 15. Both were projected to play 3/4. The fact that both committed to Dook illustrates just how much he can literally pick and choose recruits. Dook already has a logjam at 3/4. They have Shavlik Randoph (top 5 recruit), Shelden Williams (also top 5), Lee Melchionni (top 100), and Michael Thompson (top 25, but more of a 5) who will only be sophomores. They also have senior Nick Horvath playing the same position. Chris Duhon was the #1 high school point guard coming out of high school and he committed to Duke despite the fact that they already had Jason Williams (who was the #1 hs pg the year before). JJ Reddick (top 10) committed his junior year to dook despite the fact that Coach K had just signed Daniel Ewing (top 35). I don't think that you could possibly question Duke's talent level with so many McD's all americans sitting on the bench.
There is no way Les is going to hire Coach K. What would be the reason to? Did Les just basically fire the posterboy for the Rockets organization for the past 30 years to bring in some college coach with no NBA experience? K is a great college coach which is undeniable, but how many great players from Duke are in the NBA? I can only name 2 - Brand and Grant Hill. For all of the talent and great teams that Coach K has had at Duke over the last decade, he can only produce a handful of serviceable NBA players - Ferry, Laetner, Brand, Hill, Hurley, Boozer.
That means talent. Coach K's teams did not have the same level of talent as many of the teams that were not able to produce as much. That means talent.
Coach K's big men consistantly perform at a very high level while on his team. Christian Leitner, Cherokee Parks, Elton Brand and Carlos Booser all performed at a very high level while playing for Coach K.
I think you are smoking crack when you say that K is good at developing big men. Most of the players you mentioned performed well college. Besides Brand and maybe Boozer, everyone else you mentioned in an underachiever in the NBA. What is K's record for quality NBA players? Not too good. K has a good record for college players but not NBA.
I can see it now.... Pitino comes to H-town and runs this team into the ground the same way he did the Celtics, by being a terrible talent evaluator (Travis Knight, Ron Mercer, etc.), failing to develop talent (Chauncey Billups) and trying to run the same system he used in college. Best part would be his news conference prior to being fired... "Walter Berry isn't going to come walking through that door! Hank McDowell isn't going to come walking through that door! Chris Jent isn't going to come walking through that door!"
You lost all credibility the second you tried to compare Kenny Smith to Coach K. Besides my point was that Coach K got a lot more out of his talent than other coaches. Most of the big men that Coach K had did not have NBA talent, which is why they did not make it in the NBA. They quite often outplayed other players that turned into great NBA players precisely because of coach K not despite him.
Totally agree, he gets the most from them at the college level which makes him look good. He does not develope the talent to be good at the next level, how would that benifit him?
Tell me again what any of that has to do with this thread? If you want to ramble please do it in someone else’s thread but if you are going to post in this one please stay on topic. The reason I brought up Pittino's time with the Knicks was because so many were trying to use him as an example that college coaches can't coach in the NBA. Pittino is a very poor example of a college coach that failed in the NBA since he had two very outstanding seasons as the head coach of the New York Knicks. Pittino clearly proved that a college coach can have very good success in the NBA. If Pittino can have success in the NBA then I have no doubt that Coach K could have even better success then Pittino did when he was with the Knicks.
crash5179, we will just have to disagree on this one and I will get out of it. You seem to think "K" is a great coach and I think he is good coach and gets the most out of his players at the college level, he has not yet developed players for the NBA. Not a run down of him, some coaches teach players for the next level and some teach for the level they are at, which makes the coach look better. As for Pitino being head coach of the knicks, I believe it was assistant coach. You might want to check your facts on this.
WHOA! sorry. I didn't realize I was in the presence of the thread police. I was actually responding to someone else's post in this thread about what a great pro coach Pitino had been. So in fact I wasn't the first person to digress to a discussion of the abilities of another coach. I'm sorry i spoiled your party, and I hope you have notified everyone else in this thread that no rambling is allowed.
NBA teams draft talented undeveloped players and allow them to develop because they have NBA talent. A lot of the players drafted out of Duke do not make because they simply do not have great talent for the NBA not because coach K did not develop them for the NBA. As for Pittino...he was the head coach of the Knicks. There is nothing to check.
You were not responding to someone else’s post you were responding to mine. Go back and see for your self. As I explained, I was simply showing that Pittino was not a good example of a college coach that did not make it in the NBA. I did that because so many were trying to say that Pittino is an example of why not to hire college coaches. Further more they were saying that we should not hire coach K because he was a college coach. That is why Pittino was mentioned in this thread. No one ever mentioned that Pittino should be the Rockets next coach. You came to that conclusion all by your self.
