Stotts Steps Down

[WuTang_CMB]

According to sources who witnessed the events, Griffin wrapped up the shootaround and called the team together for a huddle to close out the day and let the players get to post-shootaround shooting drills. During that huddle, Griffin informed the coaches that he wanted to have a separate huddle with them once they wrapped things up.


When the players and coaches broke the huddle, Stotts went in the opposite direction of the coaches’ huddle and instead started walking toward players to discuss the offense. As Stotts attempted to start a conversation with Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Griffin called to Stotts to join the coaching huddle. When Stotts asked for some time with the players, Griffin yelled for Stotts to join the coaches’ huddle. The incident occurred in front of the entire team, those sources said.


While brief, the interaction highlighted the underlying complexity of the relationship between Griffin and Stotts in their first year together in Milwaukee. Around the situation on Thursday, there were two perspectives surrounding Stotts’ resignation: His potential difficulty adapting to a bench role under Griffin after more than a decade as a head coach, and the other being a certain treatment and level of respect that needed to be shown to someone with Stotts’ pedigree.

Interesting. Sounds like a classic power struggle. Stotts couldn't fall in line and bend the knee as an assistant. Makes sense, I would have thought his role would have been highly communicated pre-hire. Feels like maybe he thought it was more of an associate head coach gig.

Griff just witnessed what Earl Watson tried to do with Nurse (wasn't listening to him / chose to workout guys who were not assigned to him)

[skbucks1985]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

[nagawicka]

My best guess is Stotts wanted a Lillard-centric offense with GA being primarily a screener and off ball mover, and AG wanted to center around GA. Just a guess. Obviously I’m on Stotts side if that’s the case. I do not have a good feeling about AG.

This is terrifying. If we hired a buffoon that fails to maximize an elite asset like Lillard I will stop watching sports

If the Bucks are reduced to "Giannis post ups and Dame isos" [see upthread] why watch at all.

[RiotPunch]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

Dad?

[MVP2110]

I don't buy that we can coast by on offense now. The margins will matter and we still need to maximize our output there.

This isn't what anyone is saying. You're concerned about "maximizing" the offense on the margins but you haven't really described what that means, or how Stotts was so uniquely qualified to do that.

In every year Stotts was a Head Coach he always had an above average offense except his 2 seasons in Atlanta back in 2003 & 2004. In his 9 seasons in Portland he had 4 top 3 offenses & 6 top 10 offenses. He's been known as one of the best offensive minds in the game. One of the big flaws on Griffs resume was his lack of offensive output in places he's coached, they are nowhere as successful as the offenses Stotts led. Stotts filled the hole and I'm not sure anyone on our current staff brings the offensive acumen that Stotts did.

[SupremeHustle]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

I loved the story and the acting is fantastic. I did feel the runtime and honestly, without spoiling anything, it could have been longer.

[Plossum]

Glad this happened now so it didn’t become a festering issue during the season.

[skbucks1985]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

Dad?

Unless your mom works at the Schenectady Best Western, I don't think I'm your dad

[SupremeHustle]

My best guess is Stotts wanted a Lillard-centric offense with GA being primarily a screener and off ball mover, and AG wanted to center around GA. Just a guess. Obviously I’m on Stotts side if that’s the case. I do not have a good feeling about AG

That's a wild guess for sure but the one part I definitely agree with is not having a good feeling about AG.

[skbucks1985]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

I loved the story and the acting is fantastic. I did feel the runtime and honestly, without spoiling anything, it could have been longer.

Good to know, I'll have to check it out when it makes it way to VOD

[humanrefutation]

Now that I've had a chance to read Shams's reporting, my inclination is to believe that they just weren't a good fit. I know the story highlights the incident at practice in OKC, but I doubt that was the actual cause of him quitting - it was probably a symptom of deeper dysfunction between the two that was taking place behind the scenes. AG isn't yelling at Stotts out of nowhere and Stotts isn't quitting after being yelled at once.

If I had to guess, I think Terry just realized he wasn't comfortable playing second fiddle to a rookie HC. He thought he should be treated as 1B to AG's 1A rather than as the #2 guy.

[MickeyDavis]

Man, you can miss a lot when you go see a Martin Scorsese movie in the afternoon!

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

I loved the story and the acting is fantastic. I did feel the runtime and honestly, without spoiling anything, it could have been longer.

Scorsese's first script ran over 4 hours.

[ABucksFan]

Here's what I think happened from everyone's point of view

Stotts: He probably thought that Griffin being a first time HC he would be more of a pseduo coach than AC. He was probably pitched this way too from the FO. Being a long time HC and transitioning to AC though wasn't what he envisioned and then getting blasted by AG he probably felt like "Bro, I'm a long time HC, show me some respect". Probably woke up and was like I don't need this, I'm old and seasoned.

Griffin: Probably was pitched by the FO "Hey, we're brining in someone to help out potentially with experience" Enter Stotts. What is Griffin going to say? "No", nah you say yes sure then deal with it later. This is your first gig as HC you do whatever it takes to secure your job and keep it moving to the season. Once Dame gets traded you def feel threatened given his relationship with Stotts. This is your first HC gig you need to assert yourself, everyone at this level has a huge EGO, and he probably wanted to set the tone from day 1, hence out burst at Stotts

Front Office: Wanted their cake and to eat it. Probably thought hey Giannis signed off on Griffin, but we need to protect ourselves given his first HC gig and uncertainty because we are in win now. Enter Stotts, probably were pumped someone with HC experience and could help Griff too. Misclcaution on their part that Griffin would assert himself and Stotts would not back down given his coaching history/ecpereince.

Lol, at least that;s what i think went down.

[paulpressey25]

Since we're on a "script theme", it would appear that we hired Oscar Madison to be our head coach and Felix Unger as assistant. And it wasn't working. Personally I would have rather had Felix as head coach, but Giannis felt otherwise.

[MVP2110]

I don't buy that we can coast by on offense now. The margins will matter and we still need to maximize our output there.

This isn't what anyone is saying. You're concerned about "maximizing" the offense on the margins but you haven't really described what that means, or how Stotts was so uniquely qualified to do that.

In every year Stotts was a Head Coach he always had an above average offense except his 2 seasons in Atlanta back in 2003 & 2004. In his 9 seasons in Portland he had 4 top 3 offenses & 6 top 10 offenses. He's been known as one of the best offensive minds in the game. One of the big flaws on Griffs resume was his lack of offensive output in places he's coached, they are nowhere as successful as the offenses Stotts led. Stotts filled the hole and I'm not sure anyone on our current staff brings the offensive acumen that Stotts did.

This isn't apples to apples because obviously Griff has never been a Head Coach but I checked the rankings of his offenses as an assistant

The only 2 times Stotts ever had a below average offense were his 1st 2 years in ATL(2003 & 2004). Griff has had a below average offense in 7 years as an assistant. Griff had 3 top 10 offenses, topping out as high as 5th, Stotts had 3 top 3 finishes including as high as 2nd. Griffs worst year was 28th while Stotts was 23rd in ATL(if you take out ATL the lowest he ever finished was 15th). If you take the average of Stotts as a HC his offenses averaged finishing 10th while Griffs as an assistant averaged 15th.

Now again this isn't apples to apples because Griff never ran his own team, but it's clear Stotts had a lot of success in this league and I would much rather have him running the offense that Griff.

[SupremeHustle]

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

I loved the story and the acting is fantastic. I did feel the runtime and honestly, without spoiling anything, it could have been longer.

Scorsese's first script ran over 4 hours.

LET'S STICK TO THE STOTTS SITUATION IN THIS THREAD

[MickeyDavis]

I loved the story and the acting is fantastic. I did feel the runtime and honestly, without spoiling anything, it could have been longer.

Scorsese's first script ran over 4 hours.

LET'S STICK TO THE STOTTS SITUATION IN THIS THREAD

[RiotPunch]

How was it? I was thinking about going to see it but saw the runtime and neither me nor my bladder can sit and do one thing continuously for 3.5 hours (yeah I know a little TMI there)

Dad?

Unless your mom works at the Schenectady Best Western, I don't think I'm your dad

[MVP2110]

The Shams article likely depends on how the other assistants viewed it. Do they think Griff needs to respect them more or do they think Stotts was trying to do too much? Stotts was the only one on staff secure enough to be able to walk away so we'll likely never know

[PG Graveyard]

We are going to have the fully operational Death Star tomorrow. That’s all that really matters