Stotts Steps Down

[Epicurus]

Taking a few minutes to address a coachable moment with key players (which I believe can serve team purposes) is insubordiantion? How fragile and autocratic must any hc be!

How fragile must an asst. coach be to step down because of that?

Depends, if this incident is unique in their interactions, doesn't it?

[Matches Malone]

Can we just hire an actor to play Terry Stotts?

Always thought Peyton had some Stottsisms about him.

[soboMP3]

Taking a few minutes to address a coachable moment with key players (which I believe can serve team purposes) is insubordiantion? How fragile and autocratic must any hc be!

How fragile must an asst. coach be to step down because of that?

Depends, if this incident is unique in their interactions, doesn't it?

Honestly, I can see it both ways. On one side you have a new head coach who wants to be in charge, and on the other side you have a well-respected coach not wanting to be a part of this. Either way, I think it was good of Terry to step away without making a big deal of it. Only people making a big deal of this is realgm Bucks forums.

[mattg]

Eh, I was super skeptical of the AG hire and this to me confirms he's not the guy. Not only does he legitimately sound stupid as hell in all his interviews...but we play outdated dumb offense which is embarrassing for our talent level. We didn't need a hard ass defensive minded coach, our best player has always played extremely hard defensively and the entire follows his lead and we have NEVER EVER struggled with defense in the playoffs. Our offense despite being statistically strong from our macro shot profile in regular season, is anemic at best in the playoffs. You cannot win vs the best teams with Giannis just charging in like Westbrook, we have a massive sample size of that failing.

What we needed as a coach was an offensive guru who could hold Giannis accountable on offense. Someone who could get through to him that he needs to adjust his play style for the better of the team. We literally throw away double digit possessions every single game for years with trash shot selection that stems directly from Giannis bad decision making. It's just a simplistic thing but at this point I'm resigned to this season likely being the most disappointing relative to expectation in franchise history. Our roster is stacked and our head coach looks like he would get out coached offensively by high school coaches and our best player is confirming he isn't smart at all as an offensive player. 7ft Westbrook is legitimately who Giannis is. Stotts was the hope that we could have a legitimate offense based on what he has done. Instead we have homeless man's insecure Doc Rivers out there about to crap his pants as we get memed all season because we can't utilize even basic ball screen action effectively despite having one of the best ball screen guards in league history.

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[El Pooch Grande]

One day later and I still don’t feel good about this

[RiotPunch]

Can we just hire an actor to play Terry Stotts?

Always thought Peyton had some Stottsisms about him.

[Fotis St]

A coach manages personalities trying to get the most out of anyone .

Was Stotts a good personality ? I believe so
Does he has the knowledge to succeed at his task ? Yes, for sure.

Then, losing a guy like this from your rookie head coach season is a failure no matter the way you spin it.

To me, its a clear sign of covering your limited knowledge with authoritarianism. When you see an "inferior" employee has more knowledge than you, others respect him more than you cause he knows more ... the weak "superior" always throws him under the bus. I have lived this so many times at work. It all starts with the lack of knowledge that starts to become visible compared to your inferior.

I hated the Griffin hire, ... it was sweetened by hiring Stotts , predicted the conflict of interest on Draft Day ... cause Beauchamp on paper can't hit a 3 playing against starters and this contradicts to the surround Giannis with shooters to take down the wall approach. So I hated the pick too, prefered the Slashing 3p specialist Serbian Center Vuksevic. It is all about what fits with Giannis all these years. We hide our awful 3p shooting with very high volume ... we should stop hiding and play the best shooters available.

[JayMKE]

If Griffin felt undermined by Stotts then there are obviously better ways of dealing with it than screaming and getting your lead assistant to quit a week before the season, its Griffin's responsibility as head coach to manage personalities & to smooth things over when things go awry. Doc Griff must of have been sleeping during that UofPhx leadership lesson. Stotts quitting and going straight to Woj like that is a mega-f*** you, it should have never gotten to that.

I don't think our issues last year were because Budenholzer wasn't blaring music or allowing fights during practice enough, if Nick Nurse was considered too toxic of a personality to be hired than it shouldn't be a big surprise his top underling is also an a** hole but I'm afraid Griff doesn't have the same basketball mind as Nurse. I'm getting the creeping feeling we're not going to have much of any system at least on offense and that we'll try to ISO & out talent other teams with Giannis & Dame, Griff is more of a vibes than x's & o's to the point they felt the need to bring in a guy like Stotts. Feels like we're back with Jason Kidd.

[Sigra]

We are "Giannis Bucks" lets be honest about that. This is his team and he is God in this team. He wanted this coach who will say "yes sir" to him and treat him like God. If Giannis wanted real coach we would hire one. He wanted puppet.

Stotts always had guard oriented offense. So, hiring Stotts and trading for Dame were kind of "resistance moves" by FO. They try to get their team back. But resistance is futile.

And ok, Gianns gave us 1 ring. God is God indeed.

I just wish we kept Jrue if Giannis wants to be PG again. Jrue with his defense was beter fit for that then Dame who will be spot up shooter and maybe PG when Giannis rest. Talk about screens for Dame are BS. Giannis doesnt know how to set good screen even if he wants. And I dont think he wants.

[12 Point Buck]

lol

[Neuromancer56]

Maybe there is a silver lining in this. Maybe Griff will get pissed at Giannis and yell at him and tell him to give the **** ball to Dame and stop chucking **** 3's. He's got a track record of going off on prima donna's.

[Epicurus]

Twas fun participating in a forum here again. I will miss it again.

It, Stotts as member of Bucks' coaching staff, was not a good fit. TS tried to make it work, but it wasn't working. The Bucks will be fine, so much top player talent; Stotts will be fine, assuming he can get out of his downtown Ml. lease, in his new Florida house. Indeed the only one hurting is me who will be out of this forum's joys, not getting some free Buck player gear(I have abnormally long arms and have welcomed the package of gear for each TS coaching stop),and a Milwaukee visit or two.
Ciao, Epicurus

[craig]

In any healthy scenario, people respect each other. I'm guessing the level of mutual respect was lacking, in one direction or both.

I'd imagine Stotts may have had mixed feelings in the first place, about whether to take an assistant role in the first place, and did so assuming his input would be respected. Being part of a coaching staff of smart guys who love basketball and winning, and respect each other, can be super fun and fulfilling. But if there isn't respect, or if your professional expertise isn't being appreciated, where's the fun and the fulfillment in that? Guys moving up in their career need to bear with non-ideal scenarios, obviously. But at Stotts' stage, why grind through if it's not fun and professionally fulfilling?

There could have been this moment, or a million little moments leading up to it. Who knows? Perhaps Stotts felt like post-practice is perfect time before players break apart to quick get a couple of coaching minutes with one or more; and thought having a coaches huddle every day interferes? Maybe every days he's been stepping away to get a couple minutes with players, and Griffin's established the coaches'-huddle practice and has gotten annoyed every day? Dude, you know we have our coaches huddle every day, why are you walking away..., again? Who knows?

But yeah, if their isn't respect within the coaching team, and/or if Stotts doesn't feel like he's being allowed to coach, where's the fun or the professional satisfaction? Or if he thought he was going to be like an NFL coordinator, but his ideas about how to optimize the offense are routinely getting undermined or overridden or unused, where's the fun or the professional satisfaction? He probably doesn't need the money or the frustration; and maybe when he was considering what might be fun versus what might go wrong with taking a position like this, it was already shaping up towards the "this is what I was worried might happen", and he decided to get out.

[Daver]

In any healthy scenario, people respect each other. I'm guessing the level of mutual respect was lacking, in one direction or both.

I'd imagine Stotts may have had mixed feelings in the first place, about whether to take an assistant role in the first place, and did so assuming his input would be respected. Being part of a coaching staff of smart guys who love basketball and winning, and respect each other, can be super fun and fulfilling. But if there isn't respect, or if your professional expertise isn't being appreciated, where's the fun and the fulfillment in that? Guys moving up in their career need to bear with non-ideal scenarios, obviously. But at Stotts' stage, why grind through if it's not fun and professionally fulfilling?

There could have been this moment, or a million little moments leading up to it. Who knows? Perhaps Stotts felt like post-practice is perfect time before players break apart to quick get a couple of coaching minutes with one or more; and thought having a coaches huddle every day interferes? Maybe every days he's been stepping away to get a couple minutes with players, and Griffin's established the coaches'-huddle practice and has gotten annoyed every day? Dude, you know we have our coaches huddle every day, why are you walking away..., again? Who knows?

But yeah, if their isn't respect within the coaching team, and/or if Stotts doesn't feel like he's being allowed to coach, where's the fun or the professional satisfaction? Or if he thought he was going to be like an NFL coordinator, but his ideas about how to optimize the offense are routinely getting undermined or overridden or unused, where's the fun or the professional satisfaction? He probably doesn't need the money or the frustration; and maybe when he was considering what might be fun versus what might go wrong with taking a position like this, it was already shaping up towards the "this is what I was worried might happen", and he decided to get out.

After watching the game last night maybe it was just 2 different philosphies n both butted heads.Stotts wanted dame runnibg point(brilliant idea exactly) n AG wanted same ole same ole giannis having the ball n dame watching.
If that was the problem dont blame stotts for leaving.Last nights game sure looked alot like last years giannis shooting those stupid ass 2s running down hill into traffic hogging it

[MVP2110]

I don't want to read too much into one preseason game, but the theory that Stotts wanted to run the offense through Dame & Griff wanted to run the offense through Giannis seems very plausible after last night. And if Stotts was essentially promised he'd get to run the offense but then Griff was overriding him(which tbf he's the head coach so he should get final say) would make alot of sense and seemingly cause alot of tension between the 2.

[jimmybones]

I don't want to read too much into one preseason game, but the theory that Stotts wanted to run the offense through Dame & Griff wanted to run the offense through Giannis seems very plausible after last night. And if Stotts was essentially promised he'd get to run the offense but then Griff was overriding him(which tbf he's the head coach so he should get final say) would make alot of sense and seemingly cause alot of tension between the 2.

Yeah, clashing of personality is one thing but worst case scenario is if the guy with the better ideas of how to run the offense was overruled by the guy with the guy with the bigger title. That's his right as head coach but it's a bad decision if Stotts was offered the offense when he was hired. Bottom line is if this speculation is true and we side with Stotts vision, AG better be right.

[TroyD92]

Udoka is a good coach no doubt. He's also not who I'd try and emulate for our team

Honestly, he’s exactly what I’d want out of Griffin. Stud defensive coach who doesn’t take **** from anyone and holds all the idiots on the team accountable lol. We’ve desperately needed that, Giannis has needed that for the longest time.

Obviously I’d want Griff to be like Ime *only* in a basketball coach sense lol.

Abrasive personalities tend to wear out their welcomes real fast, Ime obviously had other issues but I'm not sure how much longer he'd have lasted anyway

To be fair the window is probably 3 years. If AG is 3/4 the coach Ime is there’s a good chance we have multiple championships by the time AG runs out his welcome

[skones]

I have been and will remain one of the biggest Bud defenders out there, but I don't really see anything unceremonious about his firing outside of the moral quandary surrounding the timing with his brother's death. I do find it interesting that this exact same thing just happened in Toronto with everybody's favorite offensive genius though:

https://raptorsrapture.com/2023/04/24/insider-beef-assistant-coach-raptors-nick-nurse-firing/



I mean, what would have been the better course of action here for the Raptors? Dare I say they should have let Watson go instead of letting this fester all season?

Earl Watson was an absolute terrible head coach though, he had a record of 33-85, that's a winning % of 28%. That's abysmal. Stotts had much more success and was over .500 despite early in his career having to coach some bad teams, plus our new star player loved him, I'm going to guess Kawhi didn't have strong feelings towards Earl Watson

It's almost the exact same situation (coach doesn't get along with assistant who he believes is undercutting him) and you're just gonna excuse it because "Earl Watson sucks" and doesn't deserve input? That doesn't jive with your insistence that this is an issue of professionalism and the importance of a coach maintaining positive relationships with their subordinates, or else it reflects badly on their coaching ability.

By all accounts Nurse has a sordid list of accusations at this point that he's abrasive and tough to work with. But I could care less if I thought he was exactly what this roster needed to win another championship. And again, did the organization not make the right move if this was indeed gonna be an issue between Stotts and Griffin all season?

What about the Watson hire screams hired independently by management to guide first year head coach? These aren't "almost the exact same situation" at all. I missed when Griffin won an NBA championship as a head coach and had a proven track record of success.

[Daver]

I don't want to read too much into one preseason game, but the theory that Stotts wanted to run the offense through Dame & Griff wanted to run the offense through Giannis seems very plausible after last night. And if Stotts was essentially promised he'd get to run the offense but then Griff was overriding him(which tbf he's the head coach so he should get final say) would make alot of sense and seemingly cause alot of tension between the 2.

You know horst doesnt seem like the type of guy to interfere but i can almost guarentee you if he sees his 40 million dollar player he just traded holiday away for being misused or something like thst i dont think he will hesitate to say something with prunty there as his asst he wouldnt hsve a problem finding a new HC.
If AG is that stupid n by all accounts hes not but if he really goes giannis as primary ball handler with the issues this team has had last 3 he deserves to be fired immediately .
Theres isnt any other coach out there that wouldnt let dame be the PG as giannis said he was

[ShootingtheJ]

I think both coaches were at fault in this failure, and it leaves the Bucks shorthanded.