Stotts Steps Down

[Karsenmitsche]

Call it an overreaction but this is such a bad sign for what’s to come. In the most important year of Giannis’ career there’s no way out but to ride with AG.

It was obvious from the start that Atkinson was the better hire and who Horst wanted. But AG was able to win over Giannis with words and the front office had no option but to throw their hands up and hire him. Almost all of the coaches he’s worked under: Skiles/Nurse/Thibs/Donovan have been known as not so good leaders.

13 head coaching interviews. Zero teams hired him. We got the hire wrong and this is the first sign of it.

[yannisk]

I will speculate,

there was a big difference in philosophy between the two coaches. AG being the head coach was enforcing his view. Stotts being most experienced and accomplished felt bad folowing orders from someone he felt was a worst coach than him. Furthermore Stotts took the job with the dea that he will have a lot of input in the offensive scheme, which was not the case since AG was vetoing his ideas

whatever the reason it does not look good.

I think hiring a rookie coach was a mistake. We have an old team, we don't have the time to find out if AG is good or not. We should have gone for a safer option

[MVP2110]

going to let this play out. people treating this like the world is crashing needs to take a step back. yeah it's a week before the season, but the bucks have teh entire season to figure crap out. This isn't mid season or end of season, its one week before. This team is filled with VETs and unless Giannis, Dame, Khris all of a sudden become Divas or James harden, I have confidence they will figure it out.

I get this, but logically speaking here, Stotts was a guy who was universally praised as a great hire, so it would make sense then that losing him would be considered a bad thing. The season isn't over or anything and we still have the best roster in the NBA, but it's OK to be positive when good things happen and negative when bad things happen

[Fotis St]

Fire Horst and AG and hire Stotts imo

[MickeyDavis]

going to let this play out. people treating this like the world is crashing needs to take a step back. yeah it's a week before the season, but the bucks have teh entire season to figure crap out. This isn't mid season or end of season, its one week before. This team is filled with VETs and unless Giannis, Dame, Khris all of a sudden become Divas or James harden, I have confidence they will figure it out.

Hot takes are overreactions are the norm here (by me too, I have plenty of them), and on every other message board on every topic. It's fine, we're a relatively small bunch of Bucks fanatics. Looking forward to real games starting next week.

[theFireBlanket]

Call it an overreaction but this is such a bad sign for what’s to come. In the most important year of Giannis’ career there’s no way out but to ride with AG.

It was obvious from the start that Atkinson was the better hire and who Horst wanted. But AG was able to win over Giannis with words and the front office had no option but to throw their hands up and hire him. Almost all of the coaches he’s worked under: Skiles/Nurse/Thibs/Donovan have been known as not so good leaders.

13 head coaching interviews. Zero teams hired him. We got the hire wrong and this is the first sign of it.

[chonestown]

Gotta say, you're doing a great job of showing why people should be excited in Griff other than blind optimism lol

I'm not giving a reason for people to feel anything.

The post you originally quoted me in was me asking why anyone should be positive about Griff other than blind faith so it was certainly implied otherwise what was the point of responding to it

2 EARLY 2 JUDGE.imo

NOW IMAGINE ME HOLDING UP TWO (2) FINGERS AND THEN POINTING TO MY WRIST AS IF I WERE WEARING A WATCH JUST LIKE THE NEWLY ACQUIRED DAMON (SP?) LILLERD (SP?) AND THEN ME HOLDING UP TWO (2) FINGERS AND THEN I'M PANTOMINING THE HON. HARRY P. STONE (RIP GOD) BY SWINGING AN IMAGINARY GAVEL AND ALSO IMAGINE THE BACKING TRACK FROM HAMMER'S (NEE MC) HIT "TOO LEGIT TO QUIT" IS PLAYING IT DO PAINT A PICTURE DO IT NOT. ALSO THIS SEQUENCE REPEATS HELL OF TIMES, JUST LIKE THE SONG.

Draw your own implication tho.

[fan230]

On topic of the offense, I will say I was not happy with how uninvolved Dame has looked with on offense so far. I'm hoping the fit issues doesn't have anything to do with that.

Yes Dame has looked uninvolved.

[MickeyDavis]

Worried about how this affects our ability to win the in-season tournament

Best take so far

[crowhead76]

We will probably never know what played out behind the scenes, but if it was in fact internal strife between Stotts and AG, then I would assume some of that is the head coach vs assistant coach dynamic. AG was an incredibly hard working and thorough assistant in the past and may have demanded that same approach from his own assistants. He has always been big on knowing your opponent better than they know themselves and was known for the amount of time and effort he put into scouting opposing teams. Stotts, as a former head coach may have not taken to this and maybe was not on board with the responsibilities that AG asked from his assistants. If this is the case, then it is better for the team that they part ways. AG views preparation as incredibly important to the teams success and if not all assistants are on board with his desired level of preparation, then adjustments need to be made or his success as a head coach is in jeopardy. Pure speculation on my end, but I could see this being an issue that both men knew they could not come to an agreement on.

Also, if Stotts somehow ends up on the Celtics staff, he will suddenly be touted as the greatest coach the NBA has ever seen.

[Milbucks96]

Not the end of the world but this can’t just be shrugged off. Coaching isn’t as important as people make it out to be imo but it’s hard to win with bad coaching. We’ll be fine but this is disappointing. I’m ready for the season to start.

[glenn]

It’s not great news, but it’s hard to know what the impact will be, if any. I respect the intricate fan fiction though, keeps things spicy.

[MVP2110]

The thing is here we'll likely never know what impact this truly had on the team, it isn't something tangible we'll be able to point to. If our offense finishes 4th or 5th this year that's great, but could it have been 1st or 2nd with Stotts, we'll never know. If we lose a game in the playoffs will that be because we missed something that Stotts would have noticed and fixed or would it have happened regardless? There isn't going to be any tangible evidence either way on this, but just cause it isn't tangible doesn't mean it doesn't matter

[Ron Swanson]

You guys gotta stop with this "13 interviews and no one hired him!" stuff like it means anything. Does Darvin suck because he was interviewing for HC jobs for a half decade before he finally got the Lakers job?

[FrieAaron]

On topic of the offense, I will say I was not happy with how uninvolved Dame has looked with on offense so far. I'm hoping the fit issues doesn't have anything to do with that.

A few minutes of one game, without Middleton. A few minutes of a second game, without Middleton and Brook (and others).

Even when all of the starters are playing together it will take some time for the offense to gel.

Agreed, just saying that whenever it does I hope we aren't playing with Dame off ball as much as we have been. Maybe we figure out a way to make that work better, though.

[FrieAaron]

You guys gotta stop with this "13 interviews and no one hired him!" stuff like it means anything. Does Darvin suck because he was interviewing for HC jobs for a half decade before he finally got the Lakers job?

I agree, but be careful because for some posters here every Darvin failure is because he's a reincarnation of Bud.

[neiLz]

going to let this play out. people treating this like the world is crashing needs to take a step back. yeah it's a week before the season, but the bucks have teh entire season to figure crap out. This isn't mid season or end of season, its one week before. This team is filled with VETs and unless Giannis, Dame, Khris all of a sudden become Divas or James harden, I have confidence they will figure it out.

I get this, but logically speaking here, Stotts was a guy who was universally praised as a great hire, so it would make sense then that losing him would be considered a bad thing. The season isn't over or anything and we still have the best roster in the NBA, but it's OK to be positive when good things happen and negative when bad things happen

100% agree. but it's good to step back and take a look at the situation. I thought Stotts was a great hire. Let him run the offense. But this team is full of vets and if I remember correctly, the bucks didn't run an offense under Bud. It was "random" and you had to stay in your little taped circle. most of the guys are back and familiar outside of dame, payne, and rookies. They have 82 games to figure this out and i am confident they will get it straightened out.

[Wonka]

On topic of the offense, I will say I was not happy with how uninvolved Dame has looked with on offense so far. I'm hoping the fit issues doesn't have anything to do with that.

Yes Dame has looked uninvolved.

I doubt Stotts or Dame have been happy to watch Beasley run things with our new Hall of Famer off ball.

[Fotis St]

As I stated in the OKC game thread.
Giannis needs to give up his "point guard" duties to Dame so he can be himself. Our offense was terrible. The set where Dame sets screens is like 8 years old and I am sure Dame feels uncomfortable setting screens to anyone. Dumbest set play in history ... Giannis plays point and Dame is used like Delly with a back screen.

Time to get serious.
Giannis needs to operate from 45 degrees to the baseline even with the ball in his hand...
Dame operates from top to 45 degrees and has 90% of playmaking duties.
This is the solution. If Giannis wants more playmaking, early sub him out and let him cook with the 2nd squad a bit more.
Play AJ Green at SG. Brook and Pat are too inconsistent with their 3p shooting... add more spacing with an additional 3p sniper. Dame worked great with freaking no defense CJ McCollum , I am sure AJ Green will make his 3s and play better D than CJ. Jesus it is so obvious from preseason that Giannis needs to actually give the keys of offense to Dame. We barely scored 100 points and just saw Boston offense reaching 135 or something.

[jschligs]

Even though it sucks losing the guy running our offense. Whatever offense AG + other assistants put together can't be worse than Bud's "play random".