Because he's not coming off a strong year I suppose.
This comes from feeling as if they need to do something, but having little flexibility with their roster.
The Knicks are not a very well organization. But if Kanter opts out, there is almost no chance that they turn around offer him 60 million and tie up their cap for another 4 years. Similarly, no rebuilding team is going to give him 4 years to put up empty stats when there are so many other flawed bigs who can offer similar value for much less money (Monroe, Thad Young, Dedmon, Lopez, Favors, etc.)
I'm not shocked. I said this to my friends that he would pay the price for being swept.
Word on the proverbial street is Budenholtzer is getting it. Which is funny, another coach who has done well in the regular season and struggled in the playoffs. Doesn't feel like an upgrade to me
Is this real or a joke? I suppose he could try to swing a few of his buddies’ coach votes, but getting a significant number of the 100 media member voters of the real award to forgo any sense of duty to the process seems a stretch. He’s winning that fair and square.
If they already had conversations with Budenholzer and had a sense he’d accept the job if offered, then this move makes a lot of sense. I agree it’s basically a lateral move (both are considered above-average but aren’t close to the Pop-Brad-Kerr trinity), and I personally would’ve stuck with Casey, but I can understand why they might think a new coach could get more out of their complementary players.
I'd guess that they think both they need a change, but also Casey is really good at many things, but he's a below average in-game and in-series coach, he's slow to make adjustments, afraid to mix things up and he's gets crushed by coaches/stars in the playoffs who just ruthlessly exploit flaws which he never fixes.
You're welcome. I mean I can take solace in the fact that Brad will better exploit small advantages and turn them into big advantages than Casey was able. That said, the Cavs really do do a great job of getting the exact matchup of what they want on the offensive end and will BEAT it to death. The Sixers sucked at doing the same.
The flip side of this is that the Raptors roster has those flaws built-in. In a seven game series teams need two way players who are flexible enough to take advantage of the weaknesses of opposing players and to make it hard for the other team to create dangerous mismatches. Lowry and DeRozan are basically the exact opposite of that kind of player.
Pau Gasol takes to the Players Tribune to make a detailed case for Becky Hammon as a coach and HC candidate, having played for her for years, and explicitly counters the notion of, among other things, her candidacy being viewed as "a PR move".
It is a pure PR move because Hammon was a 4th assistant this past season. 4th assistants coming up through the ranks do not get head coaching interviews. She is not a serious candidate for THIS particular job but that isn't to say once she gains greater experience and responsibilities as a 1 or a 2 assistant over the next several years that she won't be a qualified candidate in the future should she succeed in these future roles. My point was that Hammon was not a qualified candidate for a Head Coaching job at the present time for the bolded reasons regardless of sex.....no matter what Gasol says.
I did read it and it's good stuff. I like a lot of what I hear about Hammons and don't disagree with anything Gasol says. I'm not being dismissive of it at all. I stand by my position that a 4th assistant, the ones who typically coach your summer league team (like Shrewsberry and Jerome Allen the past two summers for the Celtics), are not yet serious NBA Head Coaching candidates without experiencing the rigors of additional responsibilities of being one of the top assistants on your team. With the Spurs losing their two top assistants the door will really be open for Hammons this winter to where next summer she should have a much stronger resume.
I specifically used the term "coming up through the ranks" of the NBA as Hammons and many others are doing. Ex-players who had long NBA careers such as Kerr, Kidd, Fisher (even Stevens and other college head coaches do not apply as comps here) as their background/resume is far different than Hammons and other assistants starting at the bottom and working their way up. Not only are their situations not identical to Hammons......they are not comparable in any way.
Hammons is considered to be one of the best WNBA players of all-time. Doesn't that count for something?
I know this is the argumentative equivalent of willingly walking into quicksand, but . . .
