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I'm tired of the suspense. I just want us to get it over with and hire the Celtics guy.

It's pretty impossible to tell who will be a good NBA head coach. Both of these guys come with solid backgrounds and I like the idea of hiring an up and coming assistant over a guy like Fizzdale or Mark Jackson.

At the very least having a new coach will give us something new to watch for the upcoming season. This past year was the hardest for me to watch as a Hornets fan.

James Gatz wrote:It's pretty impossible to tell who will be a good NBA head coach. Both of these guys come with solid backgrounds and I like the idea of hiring an up and coming assistant over a guy like Fizzdale or Mark Jackson.

At the very least having a new coach will give us something new to watch for the upcoming season. This past year was the hardest for me to watch as a Hornets fan.

Any NBA fans in my place always laugh at me when they know that I'm a Hornets fan

Braggins wrote:I'm tired of the suspense. I just want us to get it over with and hire the Celtics guy.

Down to these two I guess. Borrego was the Magic’s assistant and inherited the team as interim head coach for about 30 games. The new HC didn’t retain him, and he went to San Antonio. That’s not much of an audition, but still some experience. I think I prefer Larranaga. Pop has been the standard but give me the sharpest stem from Brad’s coaching staff. That Celtics team is winning without their star.

With assistants you never know how they will play out as head coaches. Even their current leader’s opinion can be flawed. You look for things that show examples of leadership, organization, management. Once they have the helm, how do they handle the leadership, tasking, motivation and management?

This is why the final meetings with Mitch and MJ are so important. Fit, connection, how they handle pressure, sense of hunger and maturity, etc. We will have a new coach this week. Hope it is Larannaga.

Doing a bit of research on Larranaga ( I was thinking of the former U of Miami coach...coach's son) I saw that he is a native Charlottean. He also has spent a good portion of his early years after college in Europe, so maybe he has some connections and/or can implement some Euro style to our team.

He doesn't have that much experience for what would be a good resume for an NBA coach, but I agree that if any of the Brad Stevens knowledge rubbed off on him, he might be a good hire. I do think he was in BOS before Stevens, and not brought in as a Stevens disciple (could be wrong here).

Whatever happened to Messina and the other SAS assistant early on? Did we not like them, or is Kupchak going OCD and bringing in everyone and anyone in order to make a very calculated hire?

Soul Rebel wrote:Doing a bit of research on Larranaga ( I was thinking of the former U of Miami coach...coach's son) I saw that he is a native Charlottean. He also has spent a good portion of his early years after college in Europe, so maybe he has some connections and/or can implement some Euro style to our team.

He doesn't have that much experience for what would be a good resume for an NBA coach, but I agree that if any of the Brad Stevens knowledge rubbed off on him, he might be a good hire. I do think he was in BOS before Stevens, and not brought in as a Stevens disciple (could be wrong here).

Whatever happened to Messina and the other SAS assistant early on? Did we not like them, or is Kupchak going OCD and bringing in everyone and anyone in order to make a very calculated hire?

I think I read somewhere that Larranaga was recommended by Ainge to Stevens because the organization liked him so much. I think he is a great option here.

Jdm think I saw that too. He was apparently a serious candidate for the head job himself.

I wish I knew which one Bonnell didn't like. That would be my preference.

Looks like Jay was dining with MJ today.

MJ: How do you feel about resting players?

Coach candidate: If they're not bleeding or limping they're in the game.

MJ: You're hired.

James Gatz wrote:It's pretty impossible to tell who will be a good NBA head coach. Both of these guys come with solid backgrounds and I like the idea of hiring an up and coming assistant over a guy like Fizzdale or Mark Jackson.

Didn't Clifford come to us with a solid background and as an up and coming assistant?

BigSlam wrote:

James Gatz wrote:It's pretty impossible to tell who will be a good NBA head coach. Both of these guys come with solid backgrounds and I like the idea of hiring an up and coming assistant over a guy like Fizzdale or Mark Jackson.

Didn't Clifford come to us with a solid background and as an up and coming assistant?

He did.

What I didn't appreciate at the time was how tied he was to the SVG tree and how the NBA was shifting away from what those guys were doing. He also had a year in LA with D'Antoni so I thought that would translate into him being more flexible offensively than Cliff ended up actually being.

But Cliff's rep was "good player communication guy" & "defensive guru" as I remember it.

I remember when we actually thought Cliff was a top 5 coach and our staff overall was amazing. Back in the Al Jefferson is better than Cousins and MKG was going to be a stud days.

I object to the use of we there JDR.

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:I object to the use of we there JDR.

Co-sign and I'm sure the posts are buried in here somewhere to prove it. As soon as I stopped being amused by the fact that Clifford looks like a drunk police chief or detective of a gritty crime drama I took note of his warts pretty soon.

The fact is that, whomever we hire, a coach can only do so much to help a team win. Despite the best of efforts, winning at a championship level requires special talents on the court. Toronto is setting this example again with their third consecutive exit via LeBron. Best record in the East? Whoop de do.

Still, gotta have a good coach to get the best out of what we have. I’m ready for a decision. If it Larranaga, that will be tricky timing.

BigSlam wrote:

James Gatz wrote:It's pretty impossible to tell who will be a good NBA head coach. Both of these guys come with solid backgrounds and I like the idea of hiring an up and coming assistant over a guy like Fizzdale or Mark Jackson.

Didn't Clifford come to us with a solid background and as an up and coming assistant?

He did and Clifford definitely had his moments as our coach. Ultimately I think the NBA moved away from his style of play and that long with our young talent not progressing, outside of Kemba, is the reason he was no longer a fit.