Coach Woodson's long term prospects

[evildallas]

This is assuming that the ASG decide to go a different direction in the Summer. I realize that Mike Woodson wouldn't be an instant hot coaching commodity as a free agent, but will he ever (ever) get another chance at the NBA level as a head coach?

I'm not doing this to (just) be mean, I am interested in people's evaluations. The first two years of rebuilding (or tearing down) were guaranteed big loss seasons. He took the bullet like a good soldier. It appeared that progress was being made in year 3. This year is obviously the make or break year for a new contract here. If he doesn't get a new contract here is that the nail on his career or has he shown enough promise to get a 2nd chance someday.

What say you?

[JoshB914]

I would say a combo of the two. He'll never get another coaching job, but this also wasn't completely his fault.

[High 5]

Never, he'll coach here until the day he dies. With a 497-3354 career record.

[HMFFL]

^

HAHA

I can't imagine a GM being sold on Woodson now. He needs to find some creativity and start blaming himself instead of his players. It's time for him to go back behind the scenes and put the head coaching jobs behind him.

He doesn't utilize the bench enough and continues to wear down his starters. We have some players on our bench that we have invested too much into for them to warm the pine. Shelden needs to be on the floor and so do others.

I didn't know Joe Johnson was Kerry Wood for the Chicago Cubs. Coach Woodson must be Dusty Baker!

[killbuckner]

GM's absolutely love recycling coaches. He will go in and run the defense of a very successful team and I don't think that the next coach here will do any better with the roster as its currently constructed. When people look back, BK is going to be seen as the problem for lousy drafting and never giving Woodson even a mediocre starting PG.

[Brazilian_Hawk]

^


Yes. And his team will have the following lineup:

PG Chris Paul
SG Kobe Bryant
SF Kevin Garnett
PF Tim Duncan
C Yao Ming

Maybe with a lineup like this he would have a 45-37 season.

[killbuckner]

BH- if I think that if the team has the choice to add Andre Miller or add a new coach there is absolutely no question the team would see a bigger jump in the standings with Andre Miller. To me thats the critical question for whether more blame lies with Woodson or BK. And just putting an actual starting PG on the team would solve most of what people complain about.

[conleyorbust]

I agree with you on that point kb. Adding Miller would help this team more than changing coaches unless you are talking about Phil Jackson.

Still, Woody has done enough on his own to sink himself. The lack of a pg certainly hurt him, but his lack of flexibility and ingenuity isn't going to help. He plays this team like they are the Mavericks, a bunch of isos with our PF on the perimeter like he has a jump shot.

A new GM is going to look at this season specifically for Woody. At this Bobcats game, at the Portland game, at the first Detroit game, at the Jersey and Washington games. Those and all the other games (I can't think of any more but I'm sure there are some) where we had comfortable leads in the 4th that we lost after visibly switching playing styles (the stillborn comeback in the most recent Detroit game was another example). They'll look at the public problems he's had with Shel, Zaza, AJ, Salim, and Smith and then wonder why 3 of the four young guys saw significant statistical regressions under Woody's care.

They'll see that he has admitted to having problems keeping track of which players are on the bench. They'll see that he tried as hard as he could to not play to his team's strengths.

A coach has to prepare his guys mentally for a game, except for Smith and Horford most of the Hawks don't seem like they care too much. A coach has to make in game personnel and strategic adjustments, Woody wears out his starters and mismanages his bench and every stylistic adjustment has been to slow the game down and move away from what had us winning. A coach has to manage personalities, no one has had more problems with more people than Woody. A coach has to develop young players, that had been Woody's claim to fame but after watching Marv, Acie, Solo, Shel, Zaza, and Salim regress or stagnate I can't say he is a particularly effective mentor. Those are a lot of X's. There may be more but I can't see the effects of pregame planning.

Not all of this is entirely Woody's fault but you can watch a young team, successful or no, and see where there is good coaching. I like what I've seen from Theus and McMillan when they coached bad teams.

Woody doesn't seem like a bad guy. I like him more than Knight because while they are equally incompetent, Woody will at least talk to Sekou and tell the fans whats up. Woody sort of acknowledges that he isn't very good at his job whereas BK just says we are too blind to see how good he is at his.

[Brazilian_Hawk]

BH- if I think that if the team has the choice to add Andre Miller or add a new coach there is absolutely no question the team would see a bigger jump in the standings with Andre Miller. To me thats the critical question for whether more blame lies with Woodson or BK. And just putting an actual starting PG on the team would solve most of what people complain about.

Yes. I agree with you, adding Andre would definitely turn the Hawks into a winning team. But I really think the vast majority of the fans really can't stand Woodson (and BK) anymore.

Adding a true PG AND changing the coach could do wonders for this team... But i guess that's too much to ask for...

[LL Cool Scott]

1) I at first thought "no way - Woodson will never find another job after this debacle." Then I remembered that EVERY SINGLE COACH we've had in my lifetime has popped up somewhere else. Fratello, Weiss, Wilkens, Stotts, Kruger (even if it was a college job). If Bob Weiss and Terry Stotts can find future employment, Woodson can.

2) One thing that has been proven time and time again in this league is that PLAYERS win and lose - not COACHES.

[evildallas]

^^^ I realize that he will find employment again, too many college and high school jobs available. That is why I narrowed it to NBA Head Coach for the poll.