[hide]Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result NJ 1996–97 82 26 56 .317 5th in Atlantic — — — — Missed Playoffs NJ 1997–98 82 43 39 .524 3rd in Atlantic 3 0 3 .000 Lost in First Round NJ 1998–99 20 3 17 .150 7th in Atlantic — — — — Fired Career 184 72 112 .391 3 0 3 .000
why would we get rid of McHale when he's clearly done a really good job this year? Kind of like, why would we get rid of Adelman when he clearly did a great job last year? Kind of like, why would we get rid of Van Gundy when he clearly did a great job and got us to the playoffs every year he coached us?
Rick made a ton of bad decisions in Boston. Overly loyal to his former Wildcats, Ron Mercer and Walker. Botched the development of Billups and traded him out for the twilight of Kenny Anderson's career. Pulled a similar cents on the dollar trade for Mercer (Danny Fortson). Constantly snarky and demeaning to his own guys through the media, and found out the hard way you couldn't scream at and treat NBA millionaires like s*** the way a college coach can. Jim O'Brien immediately took over and the Celtics won 50 the year after Pitino quit. He had reasonable talent, but was poor at developing young guys and worse at keeping the team motivated and willing to play hard. Reminds me of Steve Spurrier's ill fated reign with the Redskins. A god complex doesn't translate well.
I don't think McHale has done a great job, just a decent one with a hard working team, but I see a whole bunch of small details that he and his staff miss on a nightly basis. DD
This^^^^ Not a rhetorical.....Why on earth would we want another coach? Lurch is the right man at the right time.
If you looked at the level of play along with the playing time of the big three compared to last year and the roster changes, I doubt that on paper this would look like an upgraded team. Parson's stats don't adequately reflect the positive impact he has had either. I think an easier argument would be that McHale is doing more with less. If we had been healthy and lucky enough to win just a handful more games, we would be fighting for third and the whole narrative about this team here would be different. Discounting all that, I prefer to be a fan of a team with some fight to it rather than a finesse team. At this point, the list of replacements for McHale would be pretty short.
McHale has done a good job. Much better than I expected. I don't think any of his detractors from before the season would have predicted we could be vying for a playoff spot with the injuries we've had to our starting back-court, the offensive struggles of our two top scorers, and the utter non-production we've gotten from the 09ers (save Budinger, for stretches).
I'm wondering if Calipari might be tempted by the Charlotte job (currently held by Paul Silas) because he could get his Wildcat big man Anthony Davis with the first overall pick. Who was making those Bill Russell comparisons?
lol. And Rick Pitino was so certain he'd get Duncan with the Celt's #1 pick. Until the ping pong balls came to a rest.
I knew someone was gonna bring up the heat but I would say that was more of Lebron and Wade doing the recruiting they had that planned for awhile it seemed like to me
No. For starters, McHale has done about as good a job as one can expect with the roster he has been given and all the injuries they have had to deal with. Even if the Rockets were looking for a new coach, though, I'd want them to pass on Cal. His biggest skill as a college basketball coach is his recruiting acumen. You can do some of that in the NBA, but it's tougher to do and you are limited by the salary cap and the need to be more rigid with positions (i.e. you can't as easily take on five guys at one spot and move them around). I don't think he'd be a disaster as a head coach because he wasn't a disaster his first time around with some pretty mediocre Nets teams, but I don't think he would be an upgrade in any way.
