Dunleavy has been out of coaching for a while and I wouldn't say it's all by choice. I'm not a coaching expert, but pretty much everything that's ever been said/written states that Larry Brown is an amazing coach. The same can't be said for Dunleavy or anyone else available. There's a reason why Larry Brown was the most wanted coach...the guy is amazing at coaching. At this point we have to find the next best option.
sheesh, you really buy into coaching resume's. Explain to me how Bird's offense played much differently than Brown's Indiana offense. And if you are going to say that Carlisle actually turned that team around and implemented an offense that they needed, then explain to me why Larry Brown didn't do that the very year before? You're contradicting yourself here in trying to praise Brown and his replacement. It is a widely accepted that Larry Bird did *not* make many systemic changes to Reggie's Pacers. Just because you are an asst coach--offensive coordinator in basketball does not mean you are designing offensive systems...this isn't football. Sometimes your main job is to just prepare certain scenarios and develop game plans of what to do against and expect from the opponent of the day.
There were a few players on the Blazers who just might make it to the HOF, and memory fails, was Sabonis there then? Because if he was that's a for sure one. YTou discount Pippen, who had several years left when MD coached him, but count Issel and Cummings against Brown!?!? That's two...etc. But more than that i disagree with your assesment of talent. Portland was hands down the most talented team in the NBA when Mike was coaching them. Put it to you this way... Larry Brown always went to losing teams, and always got those teams to make it to the playoffs. Conclusion: He improves teams. Mike Dunleavy twice went to winning teams that had talent but hadn't yet won the whole thing...and got them to be winning teams with talent which didn't win the whole thing, and once went to a losing team...and got it to be a losing team. I stand by my two statements; that Larry Bown was head and shoulders above anyone else, and that Mike Dunleavy is a decent coach who doesn't really add or subtract much of anything to his teams success.
Name one besides Pippen. Sabonis will not be an HOFer and he definitely was not playing at a HOF level when he was with Portland. Neither was Pippen. Sabonis is not a go to guy. The only time Pippen was asked to be one, he quit on his team and pouted on the bench. Cummings was 29-30 years old (prime years) when he played for Brown. Issel was 28-30 years old (prime years) when he played for Brown. Pippen was 34-35 years old (past his prime) when he played for Dunleavy. But did Portland have the type of go to guys that Brown had (Miller, Iverson, Robinson, Issel, etc.)??? The total amount of talent is almost irelevant if you don't have that one special player. Agreed. Brown has also gone to teams that had talent, yet had underacheived the season before he got there. So lets not act like Brown built those teams from the ground up. The peices were in place for Brown. Dunleavy took one Laker team that had talent to the NBA finals (they knocked off the team with the best record in the leauge in Portland on the way there) and lost to the beginning of a dynasty that was the Chicago Bulls. Also, I might be mistaken, but I believe both Johnson and Scott missed a few games in the finals due to injuries (hamstrings; that might have been the series with Detroit though). He brought that team in Portland as far as it would go because his best players (Wallace/Pippen), weren't half the players that Shaq and Kobe were. Having a deep talent pool, yet not having the one talent that puts you over the top, does not equal NBA titles no matter who the coach is (the Golden State team of the 70s is the only exception I can think of). He went to a losing team that had no talent that continued to lose while he was there and afterwards. I asked Riet the same question that I will ask you: Could any coach have won with Robinson, Baker and a bunch of journeyman? Well just have to agree to disagree here. IMO, Larry Brown is at the bottom of the 1st tier of coaches, and Dunleavy is at the very top of the 2nd tier. In reality, there is not as much of gap between them as peope think.
Yet in, what, 22 years of NBA coaching, he has still never won it all and only made it to the Finals once, if I'm correct. You're argument is like saying we shouldn't have taken Yao Ming last year, because, based on history, it was more likely that Ming wouldn't pan out than he would. In either case, I can just as easily claim that, based on history, even though the Sixers made it out of the pathetically weak Eastern Conference one year, they were nonetheless a horrible, absolutely horrible, offensive team to watch, they failed to develope young talent (Stackhouse, Larry Hughes, Speedy Claxton, etc.) and there have constantly been arguments between the team's star player and its coach, with threats of leaving by said coach every offseason. Positive, meet negative. How that can be head and shoulders above the rest is beyond me. Because there's a perception that he is a basketball coaching God. Please. Larry Brown is 62. He has just signed a 5 year contract with the Pistons. To me, that means he will be, at the youngest, 68, before he wins an NBA championship. Just my opinion.
MACBETH = Dale Robertson?????? MACBETH = Jon Feigen??????? Come on man. Nobody knows statistics like that and can write like that except a media personality.
Instead of starting new threads, I prefer to pull up older ones. With all the news about JVG becoming the Rockets new coach, how is this viewed as far as up,down,even ?I think as much as i don't like the choice, i think JVG can get this team to the 50 win mark. That 50 win mark is pretty much what its going to take to get into the playoffs for the next couple of yr. The only team i really see sliding is Utah and thats only if they can't get anyone to take thier money. If they get the 2 players i think they'll go after of Brand and Miller, they'll be right back on their way. I hope JVG is as good as people think he is, because even with a talented team like the Rockets, the West is going to be super loaded. NO coming within the next yr won't make it any easier either.
