http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0504/1549172.html NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Hornets fired coach Paul Silas on Sunday. Silas finished the regular season as the team's career victory leader, with a record of 208-155 in three seasons. The Hornets finished third in the Central Division with a 47-35 record, and lost to Philadelphia in six games in the first round of the playoffs. The Hornets said in a news release that Silas' coaching staff also would not return next season. "We would like to thank Paul and his staff for all their efforts and hard work during their coaching tenure and with them the very best in their future opportunities," team majority owner George Shinn said in the release. ------------------------------------------------------ Dumbasses
amen. the franchise doesn't deserve a quality coach: they deserve ML Carr, John Lucas, or even worse... Rick Pitino.
It really isn't Silas' fault for them losing. Injuries, deaths, and sorry play by Baron Davis killed them.
Hornets had nothing to lose. This team needs a change. They have underachieved in the weak ass East. Silas isn't much of an X's and O's guy at all. No one looks more lost on the floor than him.
it's easy to get lost when you got Baron Davis impersonating Francis on the offensive end of the floor. but you're right, they've been underachieving and needs a change.
Exactly!!! It's to bad Mashburn and Davis never really got to play together very much. It always seem one was always injured.
please Davis is a leader, plays Defense, involves his team-mates and knows how to run a fastbreak!!!!!
Tractor Traylor lost a game for them.. he is the one who should get fired. He missed easy layups in last 2 minutes
how do you explain them playing better when he was out than when he was in the lineup? quite frankly, lynch took his spot when he was out and played good game and something that davis never do--defend.
Some people make me laugh. Davis has been in the playoffs 4 straight times despite not playing his rookie yr. His 2nd yr , Bobby phils gets killed and the team still makes the playoffs. The next yr, he's out 20+games ,mashburn is out 40+ games and wesley misses 4 weeks and still makes the playoffs. Nevermind in the playoffs that the leading scorer misses the entire 1st rd because of vertigo. This yr, after knee surgery, and another mashburn injury, the team still makes the playoffs, but Davis misses the 2nd game and Mashburn misses the 3rd game but still was in it to win it. Yet, Houston has a coach who hasn't seen the playoffs since Scottie Pippen was in uniform and keeps his job. Whats wrong with this picture?
Remember the Toronto Raptors making an end of the season run to the playoffs two seasons ago without Vince Carter? Recall how well the Kings started this season with Webber injured? Your logic says the Raptors and Kings play better without VC & CWebb. The players on those teams (as well as the Davis's Hornets) just stepped up their game because they knew they were missing a major component. Glitches like this occur, but are not sustainable for long periods.
That organization must have been looking for an excuse to fire Silas. Granted, his team has not scaled great heights, but its stars have always been injured. Or dead. So he's run into a long stretch of bad luck. Charlotte almost pulled out that Game 6, this with Jamal Mashburn playing with a broken finger. Man, maybe Rudy isn't safe.
"they need a change" as if coaching changes just for the sake of a change bares any proof of working at a higher clip than sticking with the type of stability that Silas provided. I'd say that the New Orleans owners are idiots. Firings like this very often are purely economical. Silas is a big name coach. The owners of Toronto just said this week to not expect a big name coach, and this is what Feigen says about that: <blockquote><hr>Raptors president issued something of a warning that a celebrity coach is unlikely, <b>code for unwillingness to come close to the $5million Wilkens pulled down.</b>"<hr></blockquote> It's a business, and that applies to coaching changes as well. How could it not?
I would agree with you. The difference between New Orleans and Houston is that I think Silas has really gotten as much as he could out of that team. They really got a bad draw having to play Philly this year.
I'm probably too overexubrant to call Silas a "big name" coach. But he's the type who would bring instant respect to a job, and not have to earn it. btw: here is more on Silas's contract, from an updated version of the thread starters link: <blockquote><hr>Silas and Shinn worked on a contract extension before the past season, but were unable to reach an agreement. Once the season started, Shinn and Silas said they would stop negotiating until the season's end. Silas was earning about $1.5 million per season.<hr></blockquote> So, who wants to argue that this wasn't mainly a "business decision" type firing. Who thinks that after what Silas did with that team, that he wasn't asking for more money, and those New Orleans owners balked at that...basically saying, coaching in basketball is not that important.
