The Coaching Thread/SF76 Update: Page 54

[steveb21]

No Mark Jackson? No big loss. It's not like he actually had a shot at the job anyway. Stefanski wants a coach with experience and Jackson has never been a HC on any level.

He may turn out to be a decent coach but I don't want to find out the hard way. Let him cut his teeth with the Nets or the Clippers.

[Philly KDub]

No Mark Jackson? No big loss. It's not like he actually had a shot at the job anyway. Stefanski wants a coach with experience and Jackson has never been a HC on any level.

He may turn out to be a decent coach but I don't want to find out the hard way. Let him cut his teeth with the Nets or the Clippers.

Yeah, I do agree with you but you know you got a problem when an unproven guy who never had any coaching experience doesn't want to coach your team. Suppose someone is unproven as a coach, wouldn't that person jump on any ship and try to show what he he can do regardless of the situation? If Mark Jackson doesn't want to coach here then what do you think those proven coaches want to do? It's pathetic.

[The Guilty Party]

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/six ... ixers.html

Screamin' A brings up a couple of solid points in his column in which he talks about how undesirable this job is compared to the other openings out there. However, he also mentions that the Sixers do not have a PG which tells me either SAS didn't pay attention to the 19 year old who played solid ball over the final two months OR he just doesn't believe Jrue Holiday is all that good. I think it's a case of someone who is writing about something he didn't watch.

[BringBackKorver]

Screamin' A is too big time now to watch the Sixers. How is he supposed to know who is on the roster other than Iguodala & Brand? Everything else he said was pretty spot on though, and I was hoping nobody would bring it up so we can keep our pipe-dreams alive.

[steveb21]

Yeah, I do agree with you but you know you got a problem when an unproven guy who never had any coaching experience doesn't want to coach your team. Suppose someone is unproven as a coach, wouldn't that person jump on any ship and try to show what he he can do regardless of the situation? If Mark Jackson doesn't want to coach here then what do you think those proven coaches want to do? It's pathetic.

I guess I'm looking at it a little differently. IMO it's not so much the he thinks the job is undesirable it's that he knows he has no shot at landing it. If someone wanted me to interview for a job I knew I wasn't going to get I wouldn't waste my time either.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Read my quote, he's utterly clueless when it comes to this basketball team. Shame as he's supposed to somewhat cover it.

[tk76]

The only thing wrong in what Steve ASSmith said that was wrong was that the Sixers have no PG. Otherwise he was pretty much on the mark about the state of the Sixers.

[Kobblehead]

What's wrong with what he said about our PG situation? When has Holiday put together a full game of running the offense and impacting the game?

- He's been a situational defender at times.
- He's gotten to the rim off the dribble at times.
- He's hit a few three pointers off assisted attempts.
- He's played off the ball at times.

All of this usually goes on throughout a game. He's never settled into running the offense for a full 48 minutes. And some games, he isn't effective in doing anything other than defending. I need to see more on a nightly basis before I can have faith in Jrue Holiday being a dependable QB for the offense.

[The Guilty Party]

I totally disagree with your assessment of Holiday and I'm one of the guys who has been preaching to the masses that we need to keep our excitement about him in check. If by "at times" you mean "he did very little in the first half of his rookie season and then played strong ball over the final two months" then sure. However, his scoring from both dribble penetration and ability to pull up and knock down the outside shot was really impressive. Equally as impressive was his playmaking ability that set his teammates up for easy buckets. I don't know where the "situational defender" comment comes in. He was asked to D up some of the league's best players down the stretch including Kobe Bryant. If we were looking to contend for a title next season, then I'd have concerns about him starting. That's not happening though and so unless this team lands the #1 pick and takes Wall, I suspect Jrue Holiday is the starting PG for the foreseeable future and for good reason.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Why did Mark Jackson decline an interview here? Not that he's hurting financially but he seems to be looking for a job that mainly requires experience. Jackson has none yet he must see himself as an incredible coach. Oh well it's fine by me if he doesn't want the job but he could have atleast came and did the interview instead of just saying "HELL NO"! It's kind of funny.... I could actually picture his reaction upon reading the email or whatever invite he got from the Philly front office. I sure the look on his face was priceless.
Overall it's a slap in the face from Mark Jackson but it doesn't hurt. I look at it as where we should be setting our standards. While it won't be Mark Jackson or Avery Johnson, somebody out there has the balls to coach this team and you can rule out Pat Summit because while she has balls she is staying at Tennessee.
BTW... Whats Mike Gminski doing these days?

[tk76]

Yeah. I'm not saying Jrue is (or even will be) a star. But Stephen A.'s #1 point is "It is a team that has no point guard..." Well I'd say having Jrue at PG would be the last thing keeping a coach from taking this job. I could list a dozen problems with this team and franchise that I would put ahead of their situation at PG.

It just gives me the impression that for a local basketball writer, Stephen A. comes off like someone who has watch little or no Sixer basketball. Anyone who actually follows the team knows that Jrue is one of the few selling points this team has moving forward.

[Kobblehead]

I was talking about throughout the course of a game. He never had the same role throughout a single game. He would have close to 5 or 6 assists in the first half and then we'd come out in the second half and he would be off the ball. He would finish off a quarter scoring a good chunk of points in a mere couple possessions and then he'd be primarily a defender in the next quarter. Before I put all of my trust in him running the offense for good, I want to see him put people in position, be the primary ball handler, and continue to defend ontop of all of this. Instead of playing multiple facets at different times throughout games, I want him to consistently package it up in one. How many games can you point to and say Jrue Holiday quarterbacked the offense for the full 48 minutes?

[The Guilty Party]

It's now been three weeks since the end of the season and Eddie Jordan was fired and what do we know?

- ES interviewed two candidates with help from DiLeo and Gene Shue

- Mark Jackson doesn't want to coach here

That's it. We don't know what's up with Larry Brown although I suspect the longer we go without hearing anything, the less and less the odds are that he's coming back. We still don't know if ES is going to be the GM since some columnists seem to think he could be canned.

I just feel like we're being pissed on by the Sixers and they don't even have the decency anymore to tell us that it's rain. I saw Ed Snider on the HBO special about the Flyers. You can tell how much he cares about the hockey team when he speaks about them. At the same time, that enthusiasm only further highlights the lack of interest he has in the basketball team. The hockey team is his baby while the Sixers are the red-headed step-child that he didn't want but unfortunately had to take. We need someone at the very top who cares about the franchise in order to succeed. Otherwise, we'll continue to have bad GMs controlling the fate of the franchise for far too long.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I think Holiday did a great job in that mess of a zoo that Eddie Jordan led. What could have been expected from any of our players in such an environment? The season was total chaos in my mind. Jordan had about 90 different starting lineups a week into December, and then it just goes downhill from there... We sign Iverson, Iguodala is going to get traded, then he's not, then we trade for Meeks but don't play him, then Iverson leaves, then he gets released, he's drinking and gambling everywhere, Dalembert is showing up late, Speights is fat, players are trying to flex on EJ in the locker room....I mean things just got out of hand last year. Holiday really seemed to be one of the constants on our team though. I want to see him in a controlled environment and then i'll have a much clearer opinion on him.

[Mojo7]

I was talking about throughout the course of a game. He never had the same role throughout a single game. He would have close to 5 or 6 assists in the first half and then we'd come out in the second half and he would be off the ball. He would finish off a quarter scoring a good chunk of points in a mere couple possessions and then he'd be primarily a defender in the next quarter. Before I put all of my trust in him running the offense for good, I want to see him put people in position, be the primary ball handler, and continue to defend ontop of all of this. Instead of playing multiple facets at different times throughout games, I want him to consistently package it up in one. How many games can you point to and say Jrue Holiday quarterbacked the offense for the full 48 minutes?

Towards the end of the year, he was almost always running the team during his time on the floor, especially if Lou wasn't on the court. Now, how that measures out as far as game flow varies on a lot of things, one of which was how little PO Jordan had them running. There were multiple games where he controlled the flow at the point(most notably his 13 pt, 12 assist 7 steal game against ATL). He is the least of their issues at the moment.

[steveb21]

According to the Wiretap the Sixers are not interested in Byron Scott. Did Ed learn his lesson about hiring retreads from the NJ Nets? *sigh of relief*

IMO I still think Scott has his eye on the Lakers job once Phil Jacskon retires.

[The Guilty Party]

IMO I still think Scott has his eye on the Lakers job once Phil Jacskon retires.

I think that job is Brian Shaw's and not Byron Scott's. I think it's that reason that Rambis left Jackson's staff last year and it's also the reason Brian Shaw doesn't interview for any opening that comes up.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/six ... ixers.html

Also, it looks like Sam Mitchell will be getting interviewed this weekend. Slowly but surely, this process is moving.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/six ... _list.html

On Monday, Stefanski, who has been joined in the interview process by assistant general manager Tony DiLeo and team consultant Gene Shue, will interview Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Monty Williams.

Nothing against Monty Williams, but let's say Stefanski goes through this process and hires Williams. How is the casual fan base going to react? My guess is they won't because they probably won't even care. Now fast forward 9 months when the Sixers are once again, in all probability, playing under .500 ball. Isn't there going to just be more pressure building from talk radio and the casual fans to fire Stefanski?

If Stefanski is still here, there are only two ways a coach can last more than 12 months...

1- The coach has big enough star power that the casual fans will buy into his idea of building a winner. I think only a handful of guys would be given a vote of confidence right off the bat and almost none of those guys are going to be here; Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Greg Popovich, Jay Wright (casual fans know him), Jeff Van Gundy, and John Calipari

2- If you are not one of those coaches then you have to win and win now! The new coach can't afford a rebuilding year because should this team win between 25-35 games then that building will remain mostly empty, talk radio hosts will discuss how pathetic this team is, and the GM will most likely be canned and the new GM brings in his own guy.

I honestly fear what Stefanski may do this summer is SF76's report is accurate that he has been told he one more season to turn this around. If that's the case, then he can't afford to wait on a 19 year old PG and a 19 year old big man (Favors or Cousins) to develop hence we are hearing the report of "Evan Turner or Bust" in the draft.

[The Guilty Party]

http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/m ... _blogs_NBA

Sounds like Pritchard might still be on his way out of Portland. What sense does it make that a guy like Kevin Pritchard would be fired and yet Ed Stefanski would keep his job?

[Sixersftw]

According to the Wiretap the Sixers are not interested in Byron Scott. Did Ed learn his lesson about hiring retreads from the NJ Nets? *sigh of relief*

IMO I still think Scott has his eye on the Lakers job once Phil Jacskon retires.

thats good. The 2nd part of the WT is a little scary. Sam Mitchell got a raw deal in Toronto and deserves a second shot. I just don't know if I trust him getting that shot here.

[tk76]

http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/21595862?source=rss_blogs_NBA

Sounds like Pritchard might still be on his way out of Portland. What sense does it make that a guy like Kevin Pritchard would be fired and yet Ed Stefanski would keep his job?

This team needs to get Pritchard here ASAP.