A guy like that indeed does come on the market every 4-5 years... hell, as a matter of fact THAT GUY will come on the market every 4-5 years.
Ok, you didn't like the skip town scenario, how about girl #1 request that your mother move out of your house? Money may not be important to you, but it just might be important to others. Still, you haven't answer the question... will you tell girl #2, your friends, your co-workder, your relatives that she was your 2nd choice? If 'No', then how can you expect the Rocks to tell the "truth"? Do we know what those incetivtives were? Could it be posibble that it can net him in the neighborhood of 9mil/yr? Even if we did counter with $8mil/yr, what makes you & others think that Dumars won't up the offer? Everyone has a value limit. A Porche may worth $100k, but it does not worth $500k. You maybe willing to spend money on a nice car, but others may be comfortable with a Ford Escort. I think LB would be great for the team too, but if money is such a big thing with him (how much longer does he have to live to need that much money?)... see ya. I will take a gamble with whoever our next coach will be and hope that we face LB in the finals and kick his ass.
to paraphrase joe dumars, sometimes it's not just about winning, sometimes it's about how you win. that was my point and that's what has made the rockets, houston, and cc.net unique. in that sense, MD a better fit than either JVG or LB.
Speaking of which, if this team takes a downward spiral, the Rudy firing may end up being looked at in the same light as the Bum Phillips firing.
I get the felling that Larry would've come here for slightly less than what Detroit offered. I guess Larry contract is something like: 5M guaranteed 3M more if he eclipses 50 wins 2M more if he wins the championship 5M is nothing, you have to believe that the incentives are unbelievable.
I don't think Les is going to jack up the price just to stick it to them if (and I'm assuming Les know's his finances and has a ballpark on Detroits') he can't outbid them.
Are your are still telling the truth, if the next coach was your first choice of the candidates in your price range?
What a shame. This really makes me upset, and not just because Les wouldn't pay up. What pisses me off is that if Les was going to make the decision to let Rudy go, he should have been damn sure he was going to be commited to bringing in the best coach available. Instead, it appears he has just given a half-ass attempt. We should have just kept Rudy. I think a couple of roster moves would have made all the difference in the world for this team. Plus, we would still have a coach who has a great rapport with Yao Ming for when he becomes a free agent, a lot of players would love to play for him, and he has a knack for motivating his players to seriously step up their games in the playoffs. Dunleavy coaching the Rockets gives me no excitement whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, I know. It was Rudy's choice to leave...sure.
According to Clutch, Brown was the #1 choice. It's not a matter of "sticking it to" anyone. It's a matter of - if you want him you're going to pay top dollar market value for him. The PR fallout from losing Brown will easily approach $3m in slowed season ticket sales. Whether you want to admit it or not - the lack of a counter offer is a significant PR blunder.
brown's last team just lost to as many saw a less talented detroit team...so who was the better coach in that series? how many think he will a championship with detroit? i not sold on brown, and glad he's off the list..i think his value is abit inflated right now...his pattern seems to be that he get the alot out of his team initially...but at the expense of team moral...and then his teams seem to regress..so then he leaves... im for dunleavy..keep it in the rocket family....he know the rocket tradition..and what winning means to housotn...
That is true! If our next coach does not work out, we can talk to LB again in a few years. Wait. Won't he be 90 or something then?
I cant believe how cheap Les is that he didnt offer at least $5/year for the top teacher!!This doesnt auger well for the roster upgrades that we need.! This takes Les and his title as Astute Businessman down several notches. If Les cant affoed to do the right thing for our team he should sell to someone that can!! I expect to have more of the same when next season rolls along.
And I bet Rudy would have had a better shot at talking Payton into coming here. Now, look for him to go to LA.
I don't understand your question, because my point is not if someone should tell the truth or not. The point is sometimes the truth it not in the best of interest (Be it right or wrong). We all know that in the business world, it's not wether you do the right thing, but doing the things that will work in your favor. For the Rocks to publically say that LB is their #1 choice has no gains.
I don't buy that Alexander is a penny-pincher. He signed the contracts for Mo Taylor and Moochie Norris. He traded for Scottie Pippen. He's willing to pay good money if he thinks (however misguided) it will help him win. He ponied up $6 million a year to Rudy T. While money may have been an issue in losing Brown, I don't think that equates to penny-pinching. Ricerocket has me convinced. There is paying top-dollar for top-talent and then there is getting raped by top-talent. If Brown isn't worth what he's charging, then Alexander should go with someone else. As I've said in my previous post here, I don't think Brown is the basketball messiah -- he can't do anything another high quality coach can't do approximately as well.
If Rudy's 6/year is an issue here, whose fault is that? Who gave him the contract and who fired him from it? And who said after that that he was going to make a splash and get the best guy available? If this was about money -- and worse, if it was about already having 6 out to Rudy -- Les needs to look in the damn mirror. Confession time: I pretty much agreed it was probably time for Rudy to go, but I never said it on these boards or even out loud to my friends cause I didn't want to believe it. And I absolutely hated the way it happened. But I was very ready to forgive, if not forget, if we got the right guy and started winning. But after they screwed up the firing, they screwed up the hiring too. I'm willing to believe the Brown thing was partly about money, but not entirely. The vibe I've gotten from the start of this process is that Houston's the coveted job BEFORE the interview. Coveted cause of the players, new arena, etc, then suddenly not coveted except to guys like Dunleavy who aren't getting bites anywhere else. Why's that, do you think? Here's my take and, of course, it's a guess. But I get the distinct feeling that Les, in hiring his first head coach, isn't romancing, isn't selling the gig -- that instead he's taking a what can you do for us approach. That he's trying to lay down the law to guys who are coveted all over the league, like having Yao means he can dictate terms. I get the feeling he's turning guys off. Even JVG. I get the feeling he's liking Dunleavy for no other reason than he feels like he can boss him around. I picture Dunleavy in the room saying, oh yes, sir, I agree with everything you say, sir. In interviews he openly begs for the job and I think that's what Les wants. I get the feeling he got surprised that this was suddenly a seller's market (not a buyer's one) and he hasn't made the adjustment. Detroit didn't dictate terms or they wouldn't have got Brown so fast. They obviously said, tell us what it takes and we'll do it. And frankly, I don't think they'd have been as comfortable doing what they did with Carlisle if they didn't smell blood with the Houston situation. Learn a lesson, Les. Skip the high and mighty careful, slow, "confident" process. Do what Detroit did. Make an offer to the best coach available. That's Carlisle now (or Nellie if he'd do it), since you let the last guy get away. Leave your ego at home as well as your careful deliberations when it comes to big spending. The future of your investment rides on this and, as much as you might have liked to think otherwise, these guys (Dunleavy excluded) aren't coming begging. Find out right now if Nellie's available. If not, offer Carlisle what he wants and ask him to take it immediately. If he won't, go back to Doc Rivers and tell him you actually want to interview him for real now that the other stuff's dried up. (I never believed he wasn't interested -- only that he wasn't interested in being a pawn.) If that stuff doesn't work, THEN pick up the least ugly girl that's left when the bar closes down. And by the way, does anyone believe he even TRIED with Silas? Silas seemed like such an after thought I can't even believe he humbled himself to interview. But he did. And then, pretty much immediately after interviewing, he took what appears to everyone around the league (and even to Silas according to his quote) to be an inferior job. Which clearly says to me he didn't feel wanted. This has been a disaster start to finish. Every single selling point at his disposal and he still manages to run off every top candidate. Les: Call Nellie now. Call Carlisle now. They're the last available great coaches you haven't pissed off yet. Oh, right. You're probably waiting for them to call you.
I agree with Ricerocket. Money is not an issue. If it is it is the wrong time to make it an issue. Like everything else LB has his weak points which would have made the team think twice. The loyalty question must have been huge as was the issue about how he handled AI. It is no use we cry for not getting LB because neither Les nor CD are crying. I feel confident that our next coach would be a better fit. There are many good things about this team and the profile of both JVG or MD fits like a glove. We are not in dire straits to justify an unconditional pursuit of LB. Heck, Rudy T is still in the house, so it cannot be that bad. The better fit for us is the one with less garbage.
This sucks. What do you all think Dunleavy would do that is so much better than Rudy? This is supposed to be a coaching upgrade, and that he is not. About trading Mobley, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD why? Maybe a coach who isn't his best buddy will force him to play smart. We already know he has the talent and is very valuable considering how little he is paid. At the least he should be a sixth man. Salary-wise I don't know how many players we'd want that are being paid as much as him.
Pass me some of the good stuff you are smoking. First of all, there are no "Moochie defenders". NONE! No one likes the guy, no one wants him on the team. How the hell are you going to "trade Moochie Norris and someone else for nothing"? If you trade someone making a crap load of money, you have to take back someone making a crap load of money. Moochie makes 4 million I believe, you would have to take back someone making at least 3.85-4.15 million anyways. This is not NBA Live on XBox, where you can just drop a player. This is not even considering the fact that not one single other team will take on Moochies fat ass contract. NONE! How do you know Rockets did not offer $5 million to Larry. They probably offered somewhere close to that, but Detroit offered much more with incentives. Plus the Rockets are paying Rudy close to all of his money for the next two years - close to $12 million. And I must have missed it, but what the hell happened in 1985? Get rid of Moochie Norris for nothing.
