RealGM

I saw this on the ESPN rumors page and just seemed so ridiculous I had to share. Here's the LINK which I think is Insiders only, and here's the quote which is mostly about Doc Rivers:

Last week, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports floated Doc Rivers and Nate McMillan -- two coaches who could be free agents this coming summer -- as possible replacements for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra next season.

And Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald also beat this drum Wednesday.

"Although Rivers likes his situation in Boston (where he is in the final year of his contract), two NBA officials said they would not be surprised if he took the Heat job, if offered next summer, for multiple reasons -- his respect for [Pat] Riley and [Micky] Arison; the Heat's talent base (younger than Boston's); and the fact his family lives in Orlando (closer to Miami), among others," he wrote. "If the Heat is looking for a coach next summer and cannot lure Rivers, keep in mind two other respected coaches -- Portland's Nate McMillan and Indiana's Jim O'Brien, who also are in the final season of contracts."

O'Brien has the Pacers primed for a playoff appearance so far this season, and though no extension has yet to be offered, the Pacers may look to lock him up again sooner rather than later.

As for Rivers, he contemplated not coming back to coach this season to be closer to his family, so Jackson's comments here are not to be dismissed.

But for now, this is more speculative dot-connecting than rooted in actuality.

This leads to a lot of questions for me like "where is Jim O'Brien respected?"

If you ask around the league, he's a good coach. We've been particularly hard on him. Coaches receive reverse homerism.

Yeah, I think most coaches get a lot of ****. I mean, the guy came into a pretty ugly situation - team utterly rebuilt, crap contracts like murphy, leavy, ford, only one great player in granger, a number of trades and changes.


Nobody expected us to do anything the last two years. But it seems O'Brien has the team caring, working hard, giving effort EVERY NIGHT, etc.

We criticize JOB because of what we see in games - "why on earth would you sub out Hibbert there?" "What the heck with the rotation changes" etc, etc, but you have to admit that at this moment, right now, we are farther than anyone else expected us to be (maybe we had high expectations, but noooobody else did.) The development of guys like Hibbert, Rush, McBobs, etc, could potentially be attributed to O'Brien. The fact that the team clearly likes each other and enjoys playing every night is probably attributable to O'Brien.


It's possible that we let him go and get our "serious time" coach, but I think the players really respect and like him, all of them do. Obv if we could get someone like Rick Carlisle back, or get a Jeff Van Gundy type, or get a guy who was fired for a bull situation (RICK ADELMAN - if Houston is really bad this year, they may need him to go, even though I'm not sure it's his fault) or Lawrence Frank even.


JOB has done what he came here to do - steer the ship right during some wilderness situations, keep everyone positive, hopeful, and hard-working even when we were a bad team, and create a positive culture where players have been able to grow and improve.


Maybe it's time for him to go, and get the nuts-and-bolts guy like scott skiles or somebody, but frankly, when you look at the head coaches of the NBA, we haven't done terribly.

I actually expect that we'll get a new coach - JOB was the team-building, culture, keep spirits up during hard times guy. Now that we're decent, we need a serious pro to get us to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

I can't give you a cite but I read or heard not long ago that someone had rated O'B near the very top of a list of coaches based upon ability to develop players.

I gotta rate him near the bottom on: utilizing the strengths of his players, style of play, coming up with a play when you need one.
I remember Larry brown would call a time out at a critical time and BAM beautiful play, cue the fat lady.
Now we come out with a disorganized fumble or a lame predictable three brick.
Our best defender of big points doesn't dress and we give up 43 to Westbrook and live in foul trouble.
Our point guard is not a great shooter and he gets more shots than our huge post man who likely on the bench when we need him most.
We play an old three at the four instead of a energetic young developing Hans because he's maybe 5% better at threes of WHICH WE SHOOT TO FREAKIN' MANY anyway.
We sucked at D for years but continually gave big minutes to turnstyle three-ballers.
Basically we just jack um up and win or lose depending upon the luck of our aim. That blows.
What we can control with commitment and effort (boards and D) gets lip service. I acknowledge that those areas seem to be getting better but it's hard to commend JOB for that after four years.

JOB has had some success in the league, and I really haven't minded him being here during the rebuilding process.

However, in order for this team to reach the next level, we'll need to make a switch at some point.

Here are a couple of examples:

Roy's improvement is atleast partially due to hiring consultants.
Granger's improved all around play can be fully attributed to Coach K.
Rush became motivated after the suspension, not by Obie.
Collison is an all-star in the right system; Obie's system ruins pg's.
According to Bird's time table, Obie has run his course.

mostly i agree that JOB had done well with all the rebuilding, and trying to just get us into the playoffs, but after this season, we need a coach that can do more than just get us to playoffs.

He took over a train wreck team. Turned Hibbert into a star and Rush is now a sharpshooter. He has done a real good job with the Pacers, probably even better then most could have done. He still has flaws, which i do believe will bite us in the ass if we see a playoff game next spring or the following year.

I'll say this about JOB - he took over the job not long after the brawl when no one wanted to touch the head coaching vacancy. Now that he's gotten us here, it's time to get a coach that can help us turn the corner.