The Mike Dunlap Thread

[HornetJail]

at the start of the season if you were told that Dunlap will get us 21 wins and that Kemba, Biz and even Mullens would show definite improvement.

Would you guys have been happy with that?

yeah but he could have eased up on the lineup trolling all season

Yeah but then we'd miss out on all the franchise changing talent in the top 5!

[YamiRain]

Fired just like that....

[Stun704]

Wtf this franchise is seriously a joke. Dunlap was a good coach

[fatlever]

i created a new thread for this discussion. please post there. Thanks.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I'm kind of sad to see him go.

[mrknowitall215]

Former Bobcats Coach Mike Dunlap Comments On His Time With The Team

To be trapped in the middle of a historically rough era is probably the worst scenario that you can enter as a head coach. Add that in with the fact that this given organization has a turnstile mentality when it comes to hiring and firing their head coaches, and you’re basically doomed before you even sign on the dotted line.

Life-time assistant Mike Dunlap was hired to lead the young Bobcats team on June 20th, 2012. The hiring of Mike Dunlap was a controversial and interesting move on the part of the Bobcats organization because of the fact that he was a relative unknown name in a sea of NBA head coaches who bounce around from team to team. The fact that Dunlap worked and learned under two of the brightest basketball minds (George Karl and Steve Lavin) was probably the main reason why GM Rich Cho or owner Michael Jordan believed that he was the right man to lead this young team.

As the story goes, Dunlap was canned after a single season despite a clear and notable improvement over the historically bad Paul Silas era. Despite that improvement, there were an abundance of different issues that the front-office apparently had with the way that Dunlap ran the team.

Now that we’re around eight months removed from his firing from Charlotte, I was able to speak with the man himself about his short stint with the Bobcats and potential future as a coach in either the professional or college world.

QCH: When you look back at your time with the Bobcats organization, what are your overall thoughts and memories?

Dunlap: A real positive experience. Learned a tremendous amount and enjoyed teaching and the overall challenge

QCH: Your overall strategy as a coach is to create the type of environment to help your young players grow. How do you think you did with that task with the likes of Kemba, MKG, and Bismack Biyombo.?

Dunlap: In terms of the time that I was with the team, they got a fair amount of opportunity. WIth that opportunity, all of those guys probably were able to refine their game to a degree especially with Bismack. He has a lot of work to do but you could say that we gave him plenty of playing time. Kemba’s way further down the road than the other two because of age and a full compliment of college experience.

QCH: Bismack Biyombo has been one of the biggest project players since he was drafted. What was it like to coach a player who was as raw and inexperienced as Biyombo?

Dunlap: The good thing about him is that he was a “first in, last out” human being. There was nobody who worked harder than him. The person that also did a great job with him was Stephen Silas. Stephen knew Bismack as I walked in the door so I just think that that relationship continued to grow because of the work that nobody saw that both guys did individually. I think Stephen deserves a lot of credit as does Bismack but overall I think Biyombo will always be that kind of guy who’s going to work incredibly hard.

QCH: You can tell by the way he plays. He’s still extremely raw on offense but you can see his overall work ethic by the way he works on the defensive end because he’s always there as a help defender

Dunlap: Yes. The other thing is that for his age, there was nobody rebounding at the level that he was. So you’re right with his work in pick and rolls. His activity took care of other people’s mistakes quite frankly. It’s just that people have to be patient. The only time in the NBA where you talk about an improvement program with any individual or team is where everybody wants everything yesterday. That’s part of the change with Steve and his staff and I think he’s doing a great job. Bismack is willing to put in the work as well as Kemba and Kidd-Gilchrist. MKG is willing to spend countless hours working on his shot which everybody knows needs work but it wasn’t because he wasn’t willing to work on it.

QCH: The team clearly improved under your watch over the previous season. In your opinion, why didn’t things exactly work out with your time in Charlotte?

Dunlap: The bottom line is that everybody wanted more progress on that and when you’re establishing a culture, your standards become bigger. It was always going to be difficult but I ultimately enjoyed the challenge despite the fact that I was fired after one year.

QCH: Before landing in Charlotte, you had a lot of experience coaching in the college world. Would you ever consider taking a gig in the D-League? And what are your overall impressions of the league?

Dunlap: Obviously because of the places I’ve gone, that is something that I have considered or might consider. That challenge is one of many because of my ability to move around or with what your resume says is more factual than anything else. The D-League or the NBA (was an assistant under George Karl in Denver) would be different options if they make sense at the time.

http://queencityhoops.com/blog/2014/01/ ... -the-team/

[fatlever]

dunlap always gives a great interview. glad to see he isnt bitter about his time here, like sam vincent.

[vorbis]

i've followed him on twitter. he posts interesting things from time to time. still a very thoughtful kind of guy. maybe he's a bit cliché prone but he articulates things clearly as well.

[fatlever]

Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN 1h

Loyola Marymount targeting former Charlotte Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap after parting ways with Max Good. Story: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... h-max-good …

[Liver_Pooty]

Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN 1h

Loyola Marymount targeting former Charlotte Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap after parting ways with Max Good. Story: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... h-max-good …

Good for him.

[gehenherzog]

Dunlap was not a good coach. Even other coaches noticed it.

[JDR720]

Dunlap was not a good coach. Even other coaches noticed it.

I think its fair to say he stunted the development of our players

[fatlever]

i'll be rooting for dunlap if only for the fantastic interviews he will give if his team ever makes any noise.

[yosemiteben]

Hopefully his team plays a zone, because he has certainly demonstrated that he is not an elite defensive mind.

[LamarMatic7]

It's hard to judge Dunlap as a coach based on his one year in the NBA. He seemingly was over his head and wasn't ready to coach NBA players as evidenced by his falling out with Ben Gordon and practices that were too long. That doesn't change the fact that the man is a great basketball mind.

Maybe, he isn't suited for the pros. Or maybe he would do better second time round with a better roster and some experience under his belt. Because, in my opinion, you can't really measure the impact of most coaches that have had the job in NBA history. There are a few select great ones who clearly could get their teams to over-achieve and there are some who clearly were clueless about rotations or rubbed players the wrong way. And even then it's hard to call the guy a bad coach. For all we know, his first stint (whether it's a experienced NBA assistant or a college coach like Dunlap) might have ended badly because of his lack of experience and he would have proven everybody wrong if he had the second chance.

[HornetJail]

Dunlap was not a good coach. Even other coaches noticed it.

I think its fair to say he stunted the development of our players

You think? I thought Kemba and Hendo both progressed quite well under him. He was terrible for the bigs, giving Mullens the green light to shoot from deep even when he bricked all of his previous 24,000 attempts, even making TT stand on the perimeter and shoot 3s, etc. but I thought the guards were alright under Dunlap. Nothing exceptional, but still I doubt he stunted the growth of our players.

To be fair to Dunlap, our roster sucked last year. But his rotations were the worst in the league and couldn't draw up an inbounds play if his life depended on it.

[KembaWalker]

I have no issues with Dunlap. Its a shame that you can get kicked out of town by professional players for asking them to work on their craft 4 hours a day. His rotations were bad though, even with how bad the front court was.

[LamarMatic7]

What do you expect out of a coach who has such a roster? Perhaps, the rotations are supposedly bad because the material he has to work with is bad?

[catch20two]

Dunlap seemed like a beautiful basketball mind that was beyond articulate but I don't think he's made to be a NBA head coach. It don't look like he related to the players well as if what he said either went over their head or came off as direspectful in a disciplinary tone. I wish him the best tho but I'm happy we fired him.

[amcoolio]

Dunlap just got a ring. Looks exactly the same. Apparently he was part of the Bucks coaching staff last year

Also read around page 20-23 and then don't open any pages of this thread after that