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Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win-loss %
Post season PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win-loss %
[hide]Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
POR 2001–02 82 49 33 .598 3rd in Pacific 3 0 3 .000 Lost in First Round
POR 2002–03 82 50 32 .610 3rd in Pacific 7 3 4 .429 Lost in First Round
POR 2003–04 82 41 41 .500 3rd in Pacific — — — — Missed Playoffs
POR 2004–05 55 22 33 .400 (fired) — — — — —
PHI 2005–06 82 38 44 .463 2nd in Atlantic — — — — Missed Playoffs
PHI 2006–07 82 35 47 .427 3rd in Atlantic — — — — Missed Playoffs
PHI 2007–08 82 40 42 .488 3rd in Atlantic 6 2 4 .333 Lost in First Round
PHI 2008–09 23 9 14 .391 (fired) — — — — —
Career 570 284 286 .498 16 5 11 .313

Cheeks brings more than 30 years of NBA experience to the Thunder bench including seven-plus seasons as a head coach with Portland and Philadelphia. As an NBA head coach, Cheeks compiled a 284-286 (.498) record.

Prior to joining the Sixers, Cheeks spent three-plus seasons as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers (2001-05). During his time in Portland, he posted a 162-139 (.538) mark, accounting for the fourth-highest win total in Blazers coaching history. He helped the Blazers reach the NBA Playoffs twice, and his 2002-03 squad tied for second in the Pacific Division with a 50-32 record.

Before joining Portland in 2001, Cheeks spent seven seasons as an assistant coach for the Sixers, working under head coaches John Lucas (1994-96), Johnny Davis (1996-97), and Larry Brown (1997-2001). In 2000-01 under Brown, Cheeks helped guide the 76ers to a record of 56-26 (.683) and a spot in the NBA Finals.

He has been polishing his coaching knowledge with a young Thunder team for the past 4 years, and I'd really like to think hes capable of turning around his head coaching career now. We have a young team comparable to OKC, needing a defensive identity (with Cheeks being a part of the All-NBA Defensive team 4 times as a player), and possibly the coach that can mold Brandon Knight to be the projected player he was. He certainly has the tools and the background, so this leads to my question, whats the difference between him and the McMillans, Skiles, Scotts, and the rest rumoured to be the next Pistons head coach? because I personally think he has a resume worth a look.

Is that Mo Cheeks resume or McMillan's? lol

They honestly look the same.

If I knew these were the kind of candidates the Pistons were going after, I may have just said keep Frank another year.

I looked at available coach's like Sloan, JVG, SVG, Larry Brown, Hollins, etc and I thought these are clear upgrades over Frank. We need to fire Frank and hire one of these guys. But looking at most of these candidates that are being floated out there, they aren't clear upgrades over Frank. So I honestly don't know why they even fired him, if they are planning to just hire the same caliber coach all over again to a longer contract.

Its funny because Dumars always says how he's opposed to making lateral moves when it comes to player trades, just for the sake of making a trade. Yet when it comes to hiring coach's, he has no problem making lateral hires every other year, just for the sake for change.

Goldtop wrote:Is that Mo Cheeks resume or McMillan's? lol

They honestly look the same.

If I knew these were the kind of candidates the Pistons were going after, I may have just said keep Frank another year.

I looked at available coach's like Sloan, JVG, SVG, Larry Brown, Hollins, etc and I thought these are clear upgrades over Frank. We need to fire Frank and hire one of these guys. But looking at most of these candidates that are being floated out there, they aren't clear upgrades over Frank. So I honestly don't know why they even fired him, if they are planning to just hire the same caliber coach all over again to a longer contract.

Its funny because Dumars always says how he's opposed to making lateral moves when it comes to player trades, just for the sake of making a trade. Yet when it comes to hiring coach's, he has no problem making lateral hires every other year, just for the sake for change.

They say Franks lost the locker room, and thats really not a good thing. So I understand that change was inevitable. As our cards were handed, I really doub't we can land any top tier coaches unless money talks. So I can see us taking a risk to a unexperienced/ ''got something to prove'' coach. He could turn out a Mark Jackson, a Lawrence Frank or a John Kuester. Joe D has to get this one right, or else his head would be next.

Hollins is going to lose in the first round. So one Cinderella play-off run and all of a sudden he's one of the greats?

Kilo wrote:Hollins is going to lose in the first round. So one Cinderella play-off run and all of a sudden he's one of the greats?

I wouldnt say hes a up there with the greats but hes an admirable one. His Grizzlies team has always been the underdogs, and they always end up making 1 hell of a series. What he has achieved with his team and players, you cant help but admire. So if Memphis doesn't extend his contract, hed easily be at the first of my list. What he did to Gasol, imagine him molding Drummond.

No

d still rather have NAte than Mo. Nate can do more with less I feel. I think Mo is an underachiever personally.

Kilo wrote:Hollins is going to lose in the first round. So one Cinderella play-off run and all of a sudden he's one of the greats?

He's certainly not one of the "greats", but he's better than McMillan and the rest of the candidate pool.

He took a team without an identity in Memphis, and changed the culture, made them a defensive juggernaut. Mike Conley also credits Hollins for his improvement as a player, going from a perceived "lottery bust" to underpaid.

Memphis' downfall is that they simply can't score. That's not on Hollins. That's management's short comings, especially as they traded out three guys who could score for Prince and Daye, not exactly stat stuffers.

If they let him walk (his contract is up at seasons end), Detroit should push hard for him. Give him a guaranteed 5-year contract, he could probably recruit Tony Allen to come play in Detroit too.

tony allen is severely overrated

Maker_84 wrote:tony allen is severely overrated

Maybe, but he's better than any guard on Detroit's roster.

i really really hope we can do better than cheeks. articles are saying he could be a good guard coach, but our strength and focus is in our bigs.
just screams out as another 2-3 year coach who is definitely not capable of taking them to the next level. and if he cant do that.. why is he considered? isnt that the guy you should be trying for. whether they do or not is another thing, but at least get a hit or miss.. not someone who is almost definitely going to be average.

dan2314 wrote:i really really hope we can do better than cheeks. articles are saying he could be a good guard coach, but our strength and focus is in our bigs.
just screams out as another 2-3 year coach who is definitely not capable of taking them to the next level. and if he cant do that.. why is he considered? isnt that the guy you should be trying for. whether they do or not is another thing, but at least get a hit or miss.. not someone who is almost definitely going to be average.

Depends on what you mean by "next level". If you mean a guy who can get us back to the ECF then no, that isn't really what we should be going after. We are not a team that needs polishing and finishing touches, we need to build from the ground up. What we need is a guy who can develop our youth, establish a positive learning atmosphere and get us into playoff contention and hopefully the playoffs.

And frankly we couldn't get any of the top candidates without Gores handing out some serious cheddar, and that isn't likely to happen since we're just gonna fire the guy in 2 years anyway. Who wants to pay top dollar for a guy we're gonna can?

I'm not at all enamored with Cheeks, but only a handful of guys would be willing to come here and IF he can develop some of our players before being replaced with an upgrade I'm OK with that.

Goldtop wrote:I looked at available coach's like Sloan, JVG, SVG, Larry Brown, Hollins, etc and I thought these are clear upgrades over Frank.

But most of those coaches publicly stated they have no interest in Detroit, like the Van Gundy bros, and the others have better offers coming their way. Joe can't strong arm them to coach Detroit.

One thing that hasn't been brought up in regards to Cheeks- in his two coaching stints he's taken over a team that's clearly on the decline. In Detroit, it's the other side of the coin, a team clearly on the rise. Cheeks has never been in this situation as a coach. Whether you view that as good or bad is up to you.

We're not going to attract a "big name" coach until we can prove that coaches here have at least some job security. May as well just hire Cheeks and, unless Dumars fires yet another head coach, suffer for a bit.

At least he's a player's coach who gets respect. Good for our young guys. I didn't want him, but I'll reserve full judgement until the season is underway.

Detroit is a great gig... get paid for three years ... only work two :^)

Lionel Hollins is the guy I wanted most. I'm not a fan of Cheeks but I will give him a fair chance. There are two things that intrigue me about him though. First, he is known for defense and rebounding, which fits our personnel and should be our identity, and second, he has had great success with developing guards, which is great for Knight.

I'll give him a chance...As long as we hire a former player who's a defensive minded coach, I'm a happy camper...

not excited about this. id rather gone after a younger coach who can build this team and grow with them for the long haul.