BJ, I agree about money not being the issue. I believe LB was coming here until a better opportunity showed up with Detroit. I postulate that when LB resigned it was to take the Rockets job and Detroit called him to work something out behind the scenes. They didn't dare fire a guy like Carlisle until they new Brown would be coming their way. Detroit works better for Brown. He knows the East. He gets a team that was in the conf. finals this year. He gets the second pick in the draft. I have no problem believing that he sees Detroit as the easier road to the ring. He may or may not be right. I don't understand why you disagree with me about Rivers. You have the same view of the situation I do. Why bother to interview and alienate your team when you know you aren't going to get the job. He still declined to interview.
Batman, When I say Brown's priority is money, I don't mean that money is the only thing he considers. Actually, I don't think Brown really knew how much he could get when he resigned. When he resigned, he resigned for basketball reasons, knowing that he could probably get compatible money with another team (probably the Rockets). Yes, he considered the Rockets before Detroit contacted him. It is clear, however, once Detroit gave him an offer, he had already decided to dump Houston. Yet, he still said he was considering Houston in order to cover up the awkwardness of Carlisle's firing. If he hadn't decided to go to Detoit prior to Carlisle's firing, then he must have misled Detroit about it, or else Detroit wouldn't have been so stupid to fire their successful coach without some assurance from Brown. So either Brown pretended to still be considering Houston after the Carlisle firing in order to cover up his involvement in the firing, or he misled the Pistons. Either way, he's a prick.
Van Gundy has denied this. Plus, I doubt it's true. I think Cleveland thought Silas was about as good a candidate as JVG and they didn't like the way JVG was waiting on the Rockets. I don't think it's fair to criticize the Rockets for not bothering with Silas and Rivers. They had 3 interested candidates (Dunleavy, Brown and JVG). I think we can assume they like these 3 better than Silas or Brown and they can reasonably think they could hire one of the top three. Why waste everyone else's time? They are still likely to get one of their top-3.
Titan: I don't really disagree with you on Rivers -- it's a matter of attitude. As I said in my first post in this thread, it's time to re-open talks with Rivers on the grounds that we'd be seriously interested. This was not the case before. On Brown: I'm not convinced there was tampering. Everything I've read indicates that things were not rosy between Carlisle and Dumars. Add to that, I think Dumars knew that Les was being coy with his candidates and that if he just called LB up and said tell me what it'll take, he'd have a good shot. And he was right. He's a shrewd man and a smart negotiator. Les just plays one on TV.
I just did not want to be guessing every year whether LB was going to leave or not. He gets board easily and I just cannot trust his reliability. The two remaining candidates are bright and could be around for a long time. This franchise promotes stability and that is part of the reason why MD and JVG are great fits.
It would only have been tampering IF they contacted Brown before he left the 76ers. I don't think that is the case. Also, I don't believe this was Dumar's decision. It was up to the owner who apparently hasn't liked Carlisle since early last year. I agree that Les got his butt kicked on this deal. Detroit saw an opening and they took it. Good for them. Since this is Les's first big hire lets hope he's learned something from this. A note about Carlisle: From what I hear on TSN Radio right now that Carlisle isn't able to relate to young players and that cost him his job. They support the Pistons view as the right one. They don't feel RC could have developed young talent because he's not a communicator and that now that he's shown his team how to win and pay hard its time for LB to come in and take them the rest of the way.
If this is true, something went wrong in the interview/offer process, which was my initial point. And I don't care if LB's a prick. It's a "business," remember? We learned that from our very own Les. And I don't care if he's a prick either. I just wish he was being smarter about this. Brown's not all about money. He's a sensitive freak who's all about feeling wanted. That's why he threatens retirement every year -- so everyone will ask him not to and make him feel wanted. Problem is, Les has the same flaw. I stand by my theory that that's where this thing broke down.
Well put. I'm surprised so few people are really upset about this. I don't care who you'd want to be coach, I just think this says some bad things about the Rockets organization and about the way this coaching search is being conducted.
[/B][/QUOTE] He may have been Uncle Les' first choice but I can guarantee you that the Rockets weren't his. He talked to Houston only to maintain appearances nothing more. Face it folks, he used us plain and simple. From what I just heard on ESPN Radio, Detroit may have been talking to him while they were still playing New Jersey. It was only AFTER he agreed to the Detroit offer that they fired Carlisle late Friday night. No way I can fault Uncle Les for not opening the vault for a guy with this kind of agenda. As for Silas, he was never a serious candidate here else he'd been interviewed right after the job opened up. Rivers is not leaving Orlando period. There is a great article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about the Beown coaching legacy that you must read: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/basketball/5994421.htm Au contraire, if what you say is true, then why was Rudy negotiating the buyout in secret BEFORE his announcement? I feel that Rudy was waffling on stepping down and that Uncle Les & CD did not go out of their way to talk him into staying on and that's what sealed the deal. Rudy may have been feeling them out and stepped down when he saw that there was not a complete commitment to his staying on as coach on their part. No matter, it was clearly time for him to move on as he was too close to the problem to see that it was his coaching style that had become the problem.
This one has me laughing out loud. The Pistons will be BY FAR the most talented team Brown has ever coach. I see this Pistons team getting to the finals and maybe winning the whole damn thing as soon as next year depending on free agent changes out west (in other words, whatever the Lakers do).
Then that must have been someone other than Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince carrying this Pistons team through the playoffs.
I'm not trying to say coaching is easy or anything or am I trying to underrate the importance of a good coach, but still, the players are the ones that are going to decide the game. Because of this, I feel that we are not going to get any worse than last year because we do have two superstars on our team and the rest are a pretty decent supporting cast. So let's not go as far to say that since we didn't get Larry Brown we are doomed for another lottery year.
First of all, sports is a business. Owners try to do what they can but there's a reason they have the money to be owners in the first place. If we sign Brown to let's say 8 mil a year... and he fails to bring us a championship. Everyone's gonna start jumping on the "we overpay and now we have no money" bandwagon. Les has spent whatever he was able to on hunches that they are the answers to our problems. When Moochie showed some potential, we kept him here. When we were able to trade Shandon and got Rice, he tried to take a chance on him and kept him here. When Webber decided to stay in Sac and SERIOUSLY, Mo Taylor was the 2nd best option, we gave him a big contract. Once Cato showed potential in the preseason, Les took a chance and signed HIM to a big contract. Well, it pretty much blew up on his face at times and now he's being bashed for not being able to outbid someone for a coach... I don't know Les's financial situation year by year, but I doubt that it's that much of a positive profit at some of you might imagine. We recently resigned Francis and Yao's coming up. Maybe Griffin's slow development might help us resign him for less money in the future but seriously... when they weren't winning, how many of us were there game after game to help Les help us achieve our goals? He's spending a hell of a lot of money... maybe not in the right places... but he's spending it. He's surpassed what Adams or Drayton has done by FAR. And although some of you wouldn't care, he has other business issues and ANOTHER pro basketball team in the Comets. This guy's spending money, and he will keep spending it as long as it's a wise business situation. Even if you are a 20 year old with 500 bucks to spare... you'll think twice to spend 40 bucks on a CD
I can't speak for everybody, but personally I think that people are not so much bitter that Brown isn't the coach of the Rockets as they are that, if you trust Clutch's inside info, Rockets' management seemed to not try and do much to obtain the services of a coach who, inside NBA circles, is considered to be one of the top 2 or 3 coaches in the game if not the best. I think it shows that our management is not adequate to compete in today's professional sports environment. Hiring a coach with so many openings available required action and the Rockets management seemed to choose inaction. Rockets management made bold statements about bringing in a proven winner and then we find out his spending limit is at least below $5million/yr, and that just won't cut it for even the Dunleavy's and Van Gundy's of the world. Easy has an old-fashioned view of professional sports. Well in the real world, yes, there are going to be vigorous bidding wars for coaches and if the past 10 years are any indication, it's going to get a lot worse. If you choose the CD/Les approach of sit back and wait, you will have nothing left but skin on bones while the hyenas are dragging off the choice pieces of meat. To address your point that fans can't judge a coach's worth............I would disagree in the cases of Larry Brown, Phil Jackson, and Pat Riley, all of whom have been to two or more different places with incredible success each time and with few if any failures, especially in the case of Larry Brown. Is a coach worth a star player's salary? Maybe not a few years ago, but we seem to be moving that way and yes Larry Brown, Pat Riley, and Phil Jackson are worth a player's salary. If we judged things based on performance alone, I would say that the three coaches I just mentioned have had more impact on the teams they've coached than the players that played for them. I simply look at the same team's performance before and after these coaches were hired to make that conclusion. Finally, no one needed to be more aware of Rudy's salary strapping management than management themselves. If they knew they would have to eat $6million/yr in addition to whatever they paid the new coach, then I can only conclude they were stupid. If you don't feel like Detroit did: that you are pretty damn sure you are going to get a top coach after Rudy stepped down/got fired, then you shouldn't be taking such a gamble. They knew what the market demanded for a quality coach and if they were only going to offer meager salaries, then they were better off waiting on Rudy to either retire or recuperate because any hiring would be a downgrade. Any way you look at the past week's events, the conclusion remains the same. Rockets management got their collectives as--- kicked by their peers and made some pretty poor decisions.
Reasons they think the pistons wanted to get Rid of RC Your response Agreed. Sounds like upper management had a personal problem with RC because things on the court were going just fine. Once again my point is that there were apparently issues with RC off the court and that is why they got rid of him, not because of his coaching ability. If you piss of your players they b**** loudly (didn't hear to much of that), if you piss off the secrataries they gossip about you (we've heard plenty of that) if you piss off the guy signing the checks you get fired (that just happened) Proof positive that the owners make the big decisions and swing the biggest stick.
This forum has turned into who needs Larry. Larry won't win a championship with Detroit. Blah, blah, blah. I think people are just mad we lost out on getting the best coach available and are making emotional posts because of it. The Pistons made it to the Conf. Finals on a team that has no offensive superstar and was probably considered to be a team that would barely make the playoffs in the East. They are now getting the #2 pick who's supposed to be amazing and one of the game's best coaches. On top of that Detroit's payroll is very low. Anyone that thinks the Pistons don't have a great chance to win a championship over the next several years is probably just jaded and jealous. Actually, that might be me. At this point we move on, but who's left? JVG or Dunleavy? Maybe they'll be great coaches for us, but it definitely is a blow to lose out on Larry Brown.
The only thing that worries me is this... Was LB Les Alexanders personal #1 choice for coach of the Rockets. If he was and Les didn't go and get him like Dumars did, then this worries me. I want a guy running the Rockets that is willing to go get what he thinks is going to bring a Championship home to the Rockets. Right or wrong our owner should be passionate enough to go and get us the guy that he thinks is going to hang the banner. It may be that Les thought LB was the guy and after spending a little time with the flaky, sensitive, goof ball he wasn't so sure any more and let him slip away. If this is the case the we a lucky.
