Head Coaching Candidates - Finalists Nurse/Atkinson/Griffin - Another New Poll Added

[DanoMac]

Imagine if Horst just reads Realgm and hires whoever we vote for.

Back in the Kohl/Paschke/DukeH/Bucks intern days, I honestly would've believed this.

[paulpressey25]

How would that work if we won it next year with (likely) the same roster/1HOF'er? Has that been done?

Not sure if serious or sarcastic on it. But, there have been title teams shuffling coaches between titles. Boston with Bill Fitch to KC Jones and the Lakers with Westhead to Riley. But again, multiple HOF'ers on those teams.

Think our historical analogue of a similar team to the 2021 Bucks is the 1994-95 Rockets. They got two and while Drexler was there for the 2nd, he was towards the end of his career. And of course that team gets the MJ asterisk.

Or we are the 2016 Cav's with LeBron, Kyrie and Love. That might be sort of comparable to Giannis, Midds, Jrue. Or the 2019 Raptors with Kawhi and a lot of other really good players.

[JayMKE]

where is nurse where is nurse where is nurse

also lue

[jschligs]

where is nurse where is nurse where is nurse

also lue

My guess is with no official word from Shams/Woj they aren't included yet.

[Iheartfootball]

Now that we have a few names confirmed I've added a poll of known candidates. I did not include Nurse, his name has not been linked . I did not include Lue, he's still the HC in LA. I may have forgot one or two but oh well.

[Dick Tate]

Imagine if Horst just reads Realgm and hires whoever we vote for.

You left Nurse off the list and messed everything up.

Watch the Raptor fans coming in and loading up on Mark Jackson

[MVP2110]

I'm going to assume the people voting for Mark Jackson are trolling

[MickeyDavis]

Trolls like that are why I rarely run polls, the results are always skewed.

[emunney]

Cursed list

[Daver]

What in the HELL has KA done in his 3 years of being HC to warrant him being top 3 over lue n monty wtf are we all on crack .Dude goes 42-40 1 year and now hes the next phil jackson.Most of you hate monty n for the most part he has won.KA has never won yet lets hire him wow

[chonestown]

What in the HELL has KA done in his 3 years of being HC to warrant him being top 3 over lue n monty wtf are we all on crack .Dude goes 42-40 1 year and now hes the next phil jackson.Most of you hate monty n for the most part he has won.KA has never won yet lets hire him wow

The Phil Jackson comparisons might be taking it a bit too far.

As for speculated narcotics indulgence, I'm merely high on life. And crack. Sweet, delicious crack.

Great, now all I can think about is smoking crack. Thanks of lot.

[AntetokounmBros]

I just want someone with upside at this point. Quinn and Atkinson I can be optimistic about. Monty might be a good coach and a good guy, but Bud was both of those things and accomplished more. My worst fear was making a change just to a make a change and being stuck with a downgrade.

I'd be OK with Atkinson, but he's older than Nurse, Bud, Quinn, Lue, Monty - basically all the guys we have on our radar including the guy we fired.

Would rather have some fresh, younger blood in there.

That’s true, although the idea of Atkinson learning new things with the Warriors makes me think he could bring something new to the table this time around. Could be very wrong. Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and he’d largely be the same guy.

[Finn]

What an absolute nightmare of a coaching search this has been....literally feels like the end of our almost dynasty and the Giannis era in Milwaukee is about to be be cemented with the announcement. Very sad feeling.

How, exactly, has this been "an absolute nightmare of a coaching search?" Like which guy did we miss out on that has you all hot and bothered? All that matters is the hire. And the team he/she puts into place. And even after that we won't know anything until we play actual basketball games. More specifically, postseason games. Really not understanding the panic here. Unless you wanted Udoka. And he was already off the board before the Budenholzer firing.

The guy we've "missed out on" is clearly Nurse. Best coach available and not a peep of interest one way or another. Pretty clear from that silence that he is not being considered. That said, the Quinn news is encouraging because taking a chance on him (or Atkinson) would be about the best that we could do with the list of candidates that have been made available.

You still mad at Horst if Nurse quietly told him "thanks but no thanks"? No one knows if that happened or not.

[MVP2110]

How, exactly, has this been "an absolute nightmare of a coaching search?" Like which guy did we miss out on that has you all hot and bothered? All that matters is the hire. And the team he/she puts into place. And even after that we won't know anything until we play actual basketball games. More specifically, postseason games. Really not understanding the panic here. Unless you wanted Udoka. And he was already off the board before the Budenholzer firing.

The guy we've "missed out on" is clearly Nurse. Best coach available and not a peep of interest one way or another. Pretty clear from that silence that he is not being considered. That said, the Quinn news is encouraging because taking a chance on him (or Atkinson) would be about the best that we could do with the list of candidates that have been made available.

You still mad at Horst if Nurse quietly told him "thanks but no thanks"? No one knows if that happened or not.

Yes, because you don't fire a really good coach without a plan on how to get someone just as good or better

[Finn]

The guy we've "missed out on" is clearly Nurse. Best coach available and not a peep of interest one way or another. Pretty clear from that silence that he is not being considered. That said, the Quinn news is encouraging because taking a chance on him (or Atkinson) would be about the best that we could do with the list of candidates that have been made available.

You still mad at Horst if Nurse quietly told him "thanks but no thanks"? No one knows if that happened or not.

Yes, because you don't fire a really good coach without a plan on how to get someone just as good or better

So Nurse couldn't initially express some interest to Horst "if you decide to move on from Bud" & then change his mind for whatever reason?

[MVP2110]

You still mad at Horst if Nurse quietly told him "thanks but no thanks"? No one knows if that happened or not.

Yes, because you don't fire a really good coach without a plan on how to get someone just as good or better

So Nurse couldn't initially express some interest to Horst "if you decide to move on from Bud" & then change his mind for whatever reason?

Are you saying Nurse agreed to a deal and backed or just showed potential interest in your hypothetical? Because there is a big difference

[Ron Swanson]

It's pretty clear that there's going to be a lot of irate posters if we hire anyone besides Nurse, but interviewing lots of candidates and not having a clear list of finalists 2-weeks after firing Bud isn't evidence of the organization "not having a plan". I don't know why that accusation keeps getting thrown around.

[machu46]

What in the HELL has KA done in his 3 years of being HC to warrant him being top 3 over lue n monty wtf are we all on crack .Dude goes 42-40 1 year and now hes the next phil jackson.Most of you hate monty n for the most part he has won.KA has never won yet lets hire him wow

Top 5 in minutes played during Atkinson's Nets career:
2017: Brook Lopez, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Trevor Booker, Sean Kilpatrick, Isaiah Whitehead
2018: Spencer Dinwiddie, Allen Crabbe, DeMarre Carroll, Joe Harris, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
2019: D'Angelo Russell, Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeMarre Carroll
2020: Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie, Taurean Prince, Jarrett Allen, Garrett Temple

Monty Williams:
2020: Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Dario Saric
2021: Mikal Bridges, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, Jae Crowder
2022: Mikal Bridges, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Jae Crowder, Cam Johnson
2023: Mikal Bridges, Deandre Ayton, Torrey Craig, Chris Paul, Devin Booker

Color me shocked that Monty Williams won more games in Phoenix than Atkinson did in Brooklyn.

I don't think anybody believes Atkinson is Phil Jackson; seems like the vast majority of us do not want Atkinson if guys like Nurse and Lue are available. But Atkinson coached a bunch of teams that never should have won games and found a way to win for a year by getting guys to buy into a beautiful brand of basketball. Monty's teams stylistically aren't really what most of us want (granted, as I've mentioned before, it's entirely possible he was simply adapting to his players rather than wanting to play that way). We've also seen Monty's teams blow up in flames two years in a row; we haven't seen Atkinson coach in several years now. I think people are understandably hesitant about hiring Monty when he has many of the same issues as Bud and those issues were apparent as recently as a week ago. Atkinson may have issues too but he did a fairly decent job in Brooklyn and has been sharing the bench with one of the best coaches in the league since then.

Atkinson isn't my preferred choice even amongst the people that we're reportedly interested in, but I can pretty easily understand the allure.

[Finn]

Yes, because you don't fire a really good coach without a plan on how to get someone just as good or better

So Nurse couldn't initially express some interest to Horst "if you decide to move on from Bud" & then change his mind for whatever reason?

Are you saying Nurse agreed to a deal and backed or just showed potential interest in your hypothetical? Because there is a big difference

Either one.

If Nurse expressed interest in a phone call w/ Horst (because he would have to talk with him ahead of the firing if he had "a plan"), Horst fires Bud, places call #2 to Nurse only to learn that he's decided he's not interested, how is that on Horst?

If Nurse said I'm all in but then backed out after the firing, how is that on Horst? He can't sign him to a contract while Bud is still the Coach.

And I'm glad you called it my hypothetical. All of this is hypothetical speculation. It seems to me that people really need to stop getting the vapors over stuff when they don't have all the information laid out in front of them.

[paulpressey25]

[But Atkinson coached a bunch of teams that never should have won games and found a way to win for a year by getting guys to buy into a beautiful brand of basketball. .

Ironically you can say that about Bud and his 60-win Hawk team.