Head Coach candidates

[LUKE23]

Sloan is the only difference maker out there that I think we have a greater than 0% chance of landing, and I'd say the chances of us landing him are less than 10%. I don't view the rest as major upgrades from Skiles in terms of W-L, even though they have different coaching styles.

[Thunder Muscle]

I'm curious if they pursue a full time coach now or wait until the end of the season. I also thought Moncrief would get the interm nod over Skiles' guy Boylan.

[LUKE23]

Sounds like Boylan will coach the rest of the season.

[coolhandluke121]

I don't know that much about coaching candidates, other than the obvious retreads. You know what you're getting with those guys.

I like the idea of giving a rising assistant a chance. However, I usually cringe at the thought of making a former star player the coach. It seems too many unqualified people get a chance to be coaches or assistants just because they were good players. Of course every individual should be evaluated on their own merits, but I'm not qualified to say whether Cassell or Moncrief would be a good coach. So I rely on my personal bias against making former stars into coaches.

Former players who just flat-out knew how to play the game and fit seamlessly into their roles, on the other hand, are great candidates. Brian Shaw seems to have a lot of supporters, for example. A guy like Kurt Thomas might one day be a good coach. And some of the best coaches in the game, let's not forget, were once players who never really made a name for themselves on the court.

[Lippo]

Flip Saunders – Flip is a terrific coach. He mixes it up at both ends with a ton of offensive sets and a willingness to experiment with the zone defense.

[yoyomayoma]

I'd like to see us give Malone a chance. He seems like he's in the same boat Thibodeau was for a long time. Just needs someone to give him a shot.

[SkilesTheLimit]

Flip Saunders – Flip is a terrific coach. He mixes it up at both ends with a ton of offensive sets and a willingness to experiment with the zone defense.

Enough of the retreads. Flip was horrible in Washington.

Let's give an up-and-coming coach a try...

[Thunder Muscle]

Wickett says nobody is going to want this job right now. Too much uncertainty with Hammond more than likely gone, sale of team, etc.

[europa]

I honestly don't care who the head coach is as long as he plays the players who deserve to play. That's the only criteria I want to see met at this time.

[Diggr14]

Bring back the Stotts/Larry Harris duo.


We can blow up the team and tank for the next Yi Jianlian.

[pe_it72]

Right now i couldn't care a less who our head coach is next year. It is far more important that we fire Hammonds and get his successor in here for the rest of the season. We need a new gm with our "new" plan to make the moves to our roster neccessary to get our younger players better. Meaning we need to be in tank mode/young player development mode. And use our assests to aquire more young talent through draft picks.

We have a large amount of expireing contracts to take on bad contracts/picks.

Our young core is complete enough to start with.

jennings-lamb-harris-henson-sanders/udoh

Make that your core rotation. Take on bad contracts no longer than Drews. They will all expire at the same time. Bring in 2 to 3 first round picks to add to our current pick (can happen with the value players we have, luc, dunleavy, beno, semi monta) and even just our expireings (dally and all the guys i just noted)

Very critical that we have our new gm in place well before the trade deadline.

[jr lucosa]

Sampson or Cassell

[humanrefutation]

Didn't Sloan pursue the Bobcats job pretty aggressively? If that's the case, I'm pretty sure we'd have a decent shot at landing him. Say what you will about Kohl, but he's shown a willingness to pursue and pay for big name coaches.

ETA: The question is whether we'd want him. He seems to be similar to Skiles in that he can wear out his players pretty quickly.

[LUKE23]

Sloan is one of the few major difference makers out there, IMO. A good combination of smart offensive scheme and defensive accountability. He had ONE sub .500 season with Utah in 23 seasons.

He won 42 games in the West starting Carlos Arroyo/DeShawn Stevenson/Matt Harpring/Andrei Kirilenko/Greg Ostertag.

[Steve210]

1. Kelvin Sampson - I know he was interviewed for the TWolves job, I think he did a nice job when given the opportunity to step in for McHale, and he has a history with the organization. As an assistant coach, when we drafted Jennings, it was Sampson who would go the Cousins center and work with him late at night, and I really feel he would be an ideal coaching candidate for the Bucks.

2. Sam Cassell - I love his energy and enthusiasm for the game, he's been an assistant for a few years now, and I'm not sure if he's quite ready for the next step, I think he's a good wild card option. We all know Skiles has his communication issues, and I think Sam would do a good job of communicating with his players, and I think these guys would have a lot of fun playing for Sam.

3. Mike Budenholzer - He's been Popovich's head assistant for a long time, he might not be a real flashy choice, but I could see him getting a shot somewhere soon.

4. Bruce Pearl - This is a total wild card, and a total long shot since he has no NBA coaching history to my knowledge at all but he's about the closest thing to being the opposite of Scott Skiles that I can think of. Bruce has the type of personality that I think the players would like, and he could help sell this team to the casual fans. Total long shot, and I'm not saying he's ready for this, but it would be a huge culture change for a team that needs one.

[SupremeHustle]

I said it before and I'll say it again: Randy Whitman.

[SkilesTheLimit]

I'd love Sammy from a pure entertainment standpoint.

Chances of him taking the team to the next level? 0%.

[LUKE23]

Yeah, I'm honestly baffled at the Cassell love.

[europa]

Yeah, I'm honestly baffled at the Cassell love.

The entertainment value of Sammy confronting a player who didn't want to practice would be epic, though.

[Badgerlander]

Yeah, I'm honestly baffled at the Cassell love.

Cassell would actually talk to the players unlike Skiles, however nobody can understand a word he says so probably a wash there. Our Swag twins would get the green light to chuck on 80%+ of our possessions...