What do you guys think about him, anybody have more info on him? I didn't know much about this guy, but the more I look the more I like so far. He coached a young (and very bad) Atlanta team eventually into the playoffs after a few years. The team's record also improved each year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Woodson And he was an assistant to Larry Brown on the defensive minded 2004 Piston's championship team, here's his profile (written around 2009): http://www.nba.com/coachfile/mike_woodson/index.html?nav=page Anybody know more about his coaching style, or if he's a good or bad fit?
Decent coach, but don't think he is the guy we're looking for. To be honest, if we're not getting the SVG/D-Howard package, then I say go for a 'young-gun' assistant and go from there.
I'd rather chew glass. I know ballerforlife (the other resident Hawks fan) disagree on Woody, but I'd even rather have Mike Brown over him. DO NOT WANT.
Poor fit. Mind you, I follow the Hawks closely. For whatever reason he often gets the label of a 'player's coach'. Why? I don't know. He's notorious for holding grudges, not trusting players and never worked with a bench deep enough in Atlanta to ever have the luxury of a doghouse. What he excels at is keeping things together and coaching defense. He coached a team full of boneheads for six years and it was only until the last half of his final year in Atlanta that he finally lost control and the players quit on him. That's commendable in my book. Offensively? He's not very good. He doesn't have a go-to-offense or system like most coaches do and he allows FARRRRRR too much ISO-ball. In other words: we're talking about the polar opposite of the Adelman motion offense. Pass.
I like him based on the fact that he coached a group of mismatched parts into the playoffs several times, but that's about it. His Hawks teams were never a real contender, and while that's not really his fault, it still counts. His offenses weren't very good, but he could coach a decent defense.
As i've said numerous times...rockets have already been in contact with Woodson. Don't be suprised if hes our coach
Thanks for the other points of views guys. Interesting. I had vaguely heard about there being some animosity for him from the players (I think Larry Brown his mentor experienced some of that during his career as well), but I didn't know that he was also deemed predictable on offense. Maybe they're jaded from their experience with him, but something about that Atlanta roster makes me think they might be a little mentally weak at times. They are talented enough to win 50 games, but they under achieved (regular season wise, they may upset Orlando) and their losses were in the 20-30 pt range a little too often sometimes. When a talented team like that gets blown out that many times, it makes me think that maybe those guys play hard until they think they're out of the game and then they just give up since it's only a regular season game (or go through the motions, or maybe want to avoid injury to keep getting paid) and end up losing by 20-30. I don't know, but that Atlanta team sometimes kind of gave me question marks about it's heart/mentality. So some of that makes me wonder how much was the problem was Woodson, and how much was the player's mentality themselves. I want Stan Van Gundy as my top choice right now (the Spurs Assistant coach doesn't look bad either). I was just curious if Woodson was worth a look.
Haha....yeah, we have had some pretty good back-and-forth's in the past on Woody. I always defended him in Atlanta because he won. I hate to be so simplistic but in a league full of teams that underachieve and never maximize their potential -- Woody was right in the mix of things consistently improving and making the Hawks a perennial playoff team. Regardless of his shortcomings (i.e. offense, ingenuity) he definitely deserves credit for that. I just think the idea of him here in Houston would be a horrible fit. Furthermore, I deplore the idea of stripping down everything we've built for the next 1-2 years to find personnel that suit the type of halfcourt system Woody would run. It's unnecessary and the idea doesn't carry enough upside, IMO.
Seems like he struggled to keep the Hawks team motivated/energetic. They were/have been consistent let downs in the playoffs and regular season.
Well, in the interest of fairness and accuracy: how many playoff series did they lose where they were favored? Sounds like an excuse, I know...but it is what it is. Also, they improved consistently in each of Woody's six years at the helm. It was only when Larry Drew took over this year could it be argued that they were some sort of regular season let down. Again, I'm not advocating we hire Woody. Just playing along with the overall nature of the thread.
