My guess is that Brown and the Rockets are trying to come to a meeting of the minds about money (his contract), it's length (contract), how much control he'll have over player and draft moves (contract?), who his assistants will be and if Les is willing to pony up the bread to have the number and quality of assistants Brown had with the 76'ers (this could be a very big deal with Brown), and the direction and commitment Brown has in mind... things like that. Just my opinion. I think Brown is the target.
The more this goes on, the more confusing it gets. If I knew Dunleavy would bring discipline, I'd say he'd be a stronger candidate. But he was ridden out of Portland by those headcase Jailblazers; then again, unless you step up to the microphone and help a struggling teen girl finish the National Anthem, what can you do to keep a head coaching job in Portland? (And Mo Cheeks f****d himself out of the 76ers job, at least for a year, in the process.) Larry Brown did have to meet with Sterling to at least see if that guy wants to open his wallet finally. But Brown will seek a huge contract, will want Sterling to re-sign Odom and Brand at least (more big $$$), so I don't know if Brown will return to LA just now. As a coach, I'd prefer Brown, but I don't for the life of me remember if Dunleavy is a good coach who maybe has not find the right niche (team). But if he's another Rudy ("that's OK, Cat; you'll pass it to Ming next time"; "that's OK, Mooch, you'll remember to pass the ball TO ANYBODY the next time"; "that's OK Yao, I understand, you don't want to get hurt"; "that's OK Steve, you da man, you can do it all yourself, but if you can pass it to the 7'6" Asian guy under the basket sometime this week, that'd be great? yeah? OK, and did you get the memo on those TPS reports?") then I say No.
How did Mo cheeks screw himself out of the Philly Job? The Philly team that Brown left is soon to be on the outside looking in even in the weak east. The raw talents they acquired by being sorry, Brown traded them. The Philly team will miss the playoffs for the next couple of yrs and then Iverson will be traded before his contract extension. Brown got out at the right time and Portland did the right thing getting rid of Whittsit and keeping Cheeks. Now all they have to do is trade away some of those players they have and they could really be a major player.
Heh....I don't want that either. Paul Silas is kinda like that too... But we better hurry up and choose our coach! Larry Brown goes to Los Angeles or Denver.. Jeff Van Gundy goes to Cleveland.. WE'RE SCREWED!
Larry Brown is the best available coach and Jeff Van Gundy is a close second. Both have the fire, intensity and basketball knowledge to help the Rockets reach their potential. But Mike Dunleavy isn't a bad consolation prize, either. He's probably not a long-term solution, but coaches don't usually last more than 4-5 years anyway. Rudy T is an obvious exception, though you could make the case he should have stepped down 2-3 years ago. Any of these three guys would do well in Houston, but I'm curious why Paul Silas hasn't gotten any notice.
Latin: Quod Erat Demonstrandum "which was to be demonstrated" Basically, to quote T_J (never thought I'd do that ) "CASE CLOSED"
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout, All is quiet in Rocketville, everyone is hoping and wishing, Les Alexander please hit one out of the park already! Sorry for the cheesy Casey at the Bat stuff, I just have a feeling that this weekend is when Les steps to the plate...
Anyone got Dunleavy's coaching record? I would like to see his stats at Portland in the regular season and the post season. I'm not sure with coach I would want, I guess I could live with any of these, JVG, Brown and Dunleavy. Maybe Dunleavy could bring his son too.
Dunleavy--discipline? Are you kidding, he did an even worse job controlling the blazers on the court than Cheeks. Forget about that example, in general, Jeff is right. Dunleavy is another player's coach like Rudy, and we really, really do NOT want that. I have two main concerns with Brown. 1.Will his impact last on the players beyond his few years? 2.Will he clash too much with the players and completely lose them? If CD wasn't BSing, he said that this is for the long-term. I don't know how you could say Brown is a long-term option. Why can't we get Paul Silas, who cares about whether he's "exciting" to the general public.
This is an old article from ESPN about the conditions when MD left his last job with the Trailblazers. It's insightful to say the least and you can take what you want from it. Personally, after reading the article, he was a good coach stuck with a cancerous team. I think he'll do much better with the Rox, maybe even a championship. PORTLAND -- Mike Dunleavy was fired as coach of the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, taking the fall for an underachieving team that failed to win a playoff game despite an NBA-record $89.7 million payroll. "I wanted to come back and try to get the ship righted," Dunleavy said in a telephone interview with ESPN on Wednesday. "As much as we went through, through the 10th of March we still had the best record in the West." Dunleavy met with team president and general manager Bob Whitsitt for about three hours Tuesday, and Whitsitt announced the coach's dismissal during an evening news conference. "Probably nobody had a tougher decision to make than me, because there's a lot of personal reasons why I'd like to see Mike come back," Whitsitt said. "But ultimately I've got to do what I think is right for the franchise." The Blazers, plagued by suspensions and infighting, lost 17 of their final 25 games, including a 3-0 sweep by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. The day after Portland was eliminated, Whitsitt took much of the blame, acknowledging that several of his roster moves had backfired. But he would not give his coach a vote of confidence. After receiving assurance from owner Paul Allen that his own job was safe, Whitsitt spent much of last week meeting with the players, and at least one reportedly said Dunleavy should go. Earlier in the day, after Dunleavy and Whitsitt finished their meeting, Blazers co-captain Scottie Pippen lamented the "tough situation" Dunleavy was put in. "You hate to have to start over, but it was a very disappointing season and, as it always goes, coaches get fired and not players," Pippen told KGW-TV. Dunleavy, 47, had one year left on a five-year, $12 million contract he signed in 1997. He's rumored to be a candidate for the vacant job in Cleveland. Dunleavy has known Cavaliers general manager Jim Paxson for years, and Paxson was Whitsitt's assistant GM during Dunleavy's first season in Portland. Dunleavy was 190-106 in four seasons with the Blazers. He was selected the league's coach of the year in 1999, when the Blazers went 35-15 in the lockout-shortened season and won the Pacific Division title. But like Rick Adelman and P.J. Carlesimo before him, a winning record wasn't enough to save Dunleavy's job. His teams went just 18-18 in the playoffs, reaching the conference finals in 1999 and 2000 before falling to the Spurs and Lakers, respectively. Last season, the Blazers were only a few points away from reaching the NBA Finals. After winning two straight games against the Lakers to force Game 7 in Los Angeles, led by 15 with 10:28 to go but then missed 13 consecutive shots. The Lakers ended up winning by four and went on to capture the title. The Blazers never seemed to recover from that humiliation, but Dunleavy faced incredible pressure this season. The team's marketing campaign, which included the slogan "One Team, One Dream," made it clear that nothing less than a trip to the finals would satisfy this one-sport city. Portland had the best record in the West in early March, but a five-game losing streak precipitated its downfall. The Blazers didn't beat any playoff-bound teams from their own conference after March 22, and they stumbled to 50 victories -- nine fewer than last season. "We have confidence in him, but he can't get out there and score for us and defend," Pippen said. "It's not anything that he did wrong that caused us to have such a bad season, it's just that, as I said, coaches lose their jobs in this game when teams don't perform right, and we didn't perform to the right level." Dunleavy's most difficult challenge was finding playing time for all the veterans Whitsitt acquired. Along the way, several of Whitsitt's maneuvers backfired. He traded popular forward Brian Grant to Miami and got out-of-shape, unproductive Shawn Kemp from Cleveland in return. Kemp was an $11.7 million bust, and left the team in early April to enter a drug-treatment program. Little-used center Jermaine O'Neal also was traded to Indiana for Dale Davis. While O'Neal had a breakout season, Davis scored just one point in two playoff games and was suspended for Game 3 for elbowing the Lakers' Robert Horry. Whitsitt also brought Detlef Schrempf out of retirement and signed free agent Rod Strickland, further congesting the roster. Players griped about playing time, and criticized Dunleavy for calling too many plays on offense. Following a loss in Denver three days before Christmas, the coach and players aired their differences during a meeting. Dunleavy agreed to loosen the reins, and the team won 10 straight games. After they began their tailspin, however, Dunleavy resumed yelling and micromanaging, and many of the players resented it. Dunleavy seemed to lose control of the team late in the season after Shawn Kemp departed to enter a treatment program for cocaine abuse and Bonzi Wells tore a ligament in his left knee. After Rasheed Wallace threw a towel into center Arvydas Sabonis' face during a road loss to the Lakers, Wallace charged at Dunleavy in the locker room and had to be restrained by teammates. Dealing with Wallace was a season-long headache for Dunleavy, who twice suspended the All-Star for his tantrums. Wallace received a league-record 41 technical fouls and was ejected seven times. Dunleavy by the numbers Year Team W L Pct. 1990-91 Lakers 58 24 .707 91-92 Lakers 43 39 .524 92-93 Bucks 28 54 .341 93-94 Bucks 20 62 .244 94-95 Bucks 34 48 .415 95-96 Bucks 25 57 .305 97-98 Blazers 46 36 .561 98-99 Blazers 35 15 .700 99-2000 Blazers 59 23 .720 2000-01 Blazers 50 32 .610 Totals 398 390 .505 Playoffs Year Team W L Pct. 1990-91 Lakers 12 7 .632 91-92 Lakers 1 3 .250 97-98 Blazers 1 3 .250 98-99 Blazers 7 6 .538 99-2000 Blazers 10 6 .625 2000-01 Blazers 0 3 .000 Totals 31 28 .525 http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2001/0505/1191799.html
Whoa, good article, HO. Thanks for pulling it up. Now I am getting the feeling that it will not be Dunleavy. After all, the Rockets interviewed Dunleavy before Brown, and now they are "slowing the pace" of the Rockets' search. I am getting the feeling that the Rockets will not hire a coach at all, and the media is preparing us for that by stating the Rockets are slowing the pace. Maybe Glen Rice will be the player-coach.
1) Larry Brown 2) Larry Brown 3) Larry Brown 4) Mike Dunleavy Larry Brown is one of the most respected coaches in the league, and if you'll look at the last couple of teams he's coached, they really haven't had all that much talent. The Pacers had Reggie, and a bunch of role players and he got the most out of them. If not for the bulls dynasty, they may have gone to the finals under him. The Sixers had Iverson and a bunch of role players, and they made the finals. Imagine what will happen if he could turn our backcourt into players with the heart that Iverson has while having Yao Ming down low. Even if he does leave after 3 or 4 years...the Pacers weren't too bad off after he left. It's Brown or bust...
Brown wants to come to Houston. That's why he keeps talking about LA and other teams, just trying to put pressure on Rox.
I could give 2 sh!ts less if LB stays here for 5 years or MD would be here for 15. If LB gets to the Conf Finals 2 or 3 out of 5 years and MD gets you there only once... give me LB. If he leaves after doing that good, this will be the hottest job opening amongst the available coaches and there will be a good replacement.
With an attitude like JVG is showing it might be best if we get our minds set ,ready to expect Mike Dunleavy! Its uncanny how you got the feeling Yetti and Windandsea!
I never like Brown anyway! But either JVG or MD will do the job! Q: If we sign JVG, I wonder if he will stay with the team,till' he straighten up the team or will he leave Rocks like Knicks!
