Sabonis said Dunleavy Should've Been Fired Earlier

Does anyone have a link to the article that quotes Sabonis saying this?

Seriously, I don't think it's fair to judge MD on whether or not he could "control his players" in Portland. I don't think Bob Knight could control those thugs. Sabonis needs to look in the mirror before judging his coach.

On my sidenote, I don't think we have a team that's completley out of control as some would suggest. I think it was more the team not having a clear game plan.

 

I don't like VG's style or the iso he will likely run if he's hired, but he held his players ACCOUNTABLE while he was in NY.

I remember my days living there and all of the controversy over him benching his stars if they didn't give 100%.

I don't know if he maintained that attitude the entire time he was there but his discipline took relatively goofy NYK team all the way to the finals.

 

LOL, I was kidding, but thanks.

 

"There aren't players on the Portland team, just names earning millions," Sabonis said Thursday while visiting his hometown.


Five Blazers made at least $11.2 million last season, including Sabonis, who earned $11.25 million in the last year of a three-year contract. The 7-foot-3 center averaged 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds

Hmmmm....interesting to see him call himself out like that.

I can't get that image of Sabonis attempting the final shot in either Game 3 or 4 in that LA conference finals a few years back. Him totally losing the ball then flailing desperately and crying for a foul when no one was even near him. That was probably Dunleavy's fault though.

 

Listen you guys can try and spin it anyway you want, but Dunleavy lost control of that team, period. Is it MD's fault that Sabonis doesn't understand english, or that Sheed is a knucklehead??? No. Is it MD's job to work around and through those problems?? Yes. Did he do that?? No. It is also debatable that MD might have lost control of the Lakers to. I have a friend who lives in LA that says that Laker team he coached lost total respect for him, whether this is true or not I can't say for sure, but it wouldn't suprise me. Both of these coaches have shortcomings. I like Van Gundy, but I will admit that he has offensive limitations. MD lovers need to quit spinning his shortcomings in Team discipline and chemistry and just admit that he lost control of that team, and possibly another. Oh by the way I think Cheeks has started to rein in guys like Sheed( especially the end of the year), so the "Nobody can coach Sheed" argument doesn't fly either.

 

Sabonis should've been fired too! BFD!







no jvg please

 

this is awesome, we have a young Sabonis and a young Rasheed in our team, now we gonna have MD!

 

Here is an interesting article from ESPN.com:

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/nba/cancers.html?contentType=Page2Story

The List: NBA's biggest cancers
Page 2 staff

The ongoing saga of Latrell Sprewell and the New York Knicks inspired Page 2 to come up with our list of the biggest cancers in the NBA.

After checking out our list, see how our readers ranked the biggest cancers. And be sure to vote in the poll to pick the NBA's biggest cancer of them all.

1. Dennis Rodman

2. Isaiah Rider

Talk about trouble. He has been North (Minnesota). He has been South (Atlanta). He has been Northwest (Portland). He has been high (in Denver). He has been in sunny L.A., with the Lakers. A great talent, a 16.7 ppg scorer, wasted everywhere he went. The 2000-01 season, with L.A., provided a recent sampler of a 30-year-old who'd never grown up.

Things didn't start out well -- Shaq made it clear he wasn't happy that the Lakers had acquired Rider. Rider proved Shaq knew of what he spoke, continuing his old stuff. Lateness (showing up 15 minutes tardy for one practice, he gave Phil Jackson a note from a hotel manager, saying it was the hotel's fault for missing his wake-up call). A suspension for violating the NBA's drug policy. A missed flight. For nine NBA seasons, Rider proved again and again, with team after team, that he was nothing but a kindling of talent that could ignite a blaze of bad news.

3. Donald Sterling

4. Latrell Sprewell

5. Marvin Barnes

6. Roy Tarpley

7. Jason Williams

8. Rasheed Wallace

Wallace's slew of technical fouls and Rage Against The Refs act is getting old.
There's nothing technical about the foul influence Wallace has had on the Blazers, who he has led to -- how many is that? -- zero championships, despite his great talent and the excellent players who've surrounded him. The Rage Against The Refs act is just old, and it doesn't work. Wallace's technical fouls disrupt the game, give easy points to opponents, and lead to self-inflicted early trips to the locker room. No matter how good you are, when you're not injured, and you're not playing, you're doing nothing but hurting your team.

9. Micheal Ray Richardson

10. Vin Baker
Before he was traded to the Celtics, here's the impact Baker had on Seattle last season: with him, the Sonics were 26-29. When he was out of the lineup, they were 23-4. Enough said? Maybe not. Here's what an NBA scout recently told SI about the Sonics going into this season, without Baker: "There was a bad aura around him that carried over to the other players, plus he demanded the ball and took a lot of time when he got it, which bogged down the offense."

And here's what ESPN.com's Frank Hughes wrote about Boston's acquisition of Baker: "It might look good for a month, it might look good for four months. But I know Vin Baker ... this is his modus operandi on a basketball court: Work really hard for a little while, because he wants to prove people wrong, and then when they are sold that he has changed, start slacking." Hughes' final words on Baker's four-year, $56 million deal: it's "going to cost the C's their soul."

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Considering that Dunleavy has had to coach 3 of those players, I think the guy should be cut some slack.

One of my arguements for Dunleavy has been the fact that he brought those Portland teams as far as they could go considering the fact he didn't have that one distinguishable talent that every other team has. Wallace was the closest thing to that and the guy was a selfish player and a cancer. How could any coach succeed with a player like that leading your team?

 

Bottom line, IMO - MD has never had control of his team. MD has failed to maximize his teams (other than Finals v MJ?).

This team needs a daddy. JVG yes, MD no.

 

xiki, my point exactly!!! I don't give a crap about x's and o's right now, we need someone to install some respect and discipline in some of these clowns, something MD has never been able to do. You want more of the same selfishness and "my stats first" crap that has been going on for 3 years now, then hire MD, because he has never nor will never be a disciplinarian. HE IS SOFT!!!!

 

Yet, coaches like Brown (Indiana/San Antonio/Philly (Iverson specifically), Nelson and Van Gundy lost control of their teams too.

Dunleavy had enough control of his teams to make the playoffs in all 6 years where he had talent. He certainly had more control of the Blazer teams that anyone else had.

 

MD - perfect for Atlanta. Let's not stand in front of McDavid's car, go MD -- all the way to the ATL.

 

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So that I can keep up with your ever changing arguments, takes, and points of views, are you saying that ESPN writers are not qualified to rank NBA coaches, but they are qualified to rank the biggest cancers in the game?

 

Deuce Rings,

Note, I said ESPN was not the gospel when it came to ranking "coaches".

Ranking coaches and talking about players who are cancers are two different animals in their entirety. You will not get everyone to agree that Sloan is a better coach than Rudy, but EVERYONE would agree that Wallace and Rider are two of the biggest cancers in the NBA.

BTW, if you had bothered to read that whole thread, you will notice that I conceded to Riet on some of their rankings and not on others.

 

If it's true,Rox should not hire MD.The Rox will play badly because the coach can not make the players play a team game owing to to failing to hold the palyers together.And ateam will alaways defeat itself not by outside.A present the core player are Steve and Yao,they both respect each other,can go ahead if there are no disunited problems because ball game is a team one.

 

coaching that team in Portland was like babysitting in Romper Room. that team of idiots can't be compared to the team we have now. Rasheed and Scottie Pippen were (and sill are) big A$$ babies. If Dunleavy's our man, it won't be anything like it was for him in Portland.

 

troo.. we got players here that are "angels" compared to the portland roster.. well, anyone you compare to the portland roster will look and sound like they're innocent. lol. dunleavy wouldnt have the burden of disciplinin his players which isnt required in any coaching job.

 

Thanks, munco, for pointing this out!

Dunleavy = stuck in mediocrity.
Van Gundy = playoffs, but more?
Carlisle = bold move, tough coach, what we need now!