Jeff Van Gully wrote:i went from "iono about that deal" to "OMG we finally have locked in a true star!"
i hate to say it, but merry pills called this one. they didn't have the environment to materialize his development, but they had the right guy in mind for once.
That's key. And maybe it was luck that Dolan fired Mills out of "no KD/Kyrie pique, but it worked out that a FO came in, seemingly with a plan to maximize the talent and mindsets of Randle and RJ.
I wonder to what extent WWW/Calipari were doing some backchannel talking to Dolan, encouraging him to not only out Fizzle and eventually Miller, but also the ineffective half of management.
Because in Thibs and Kenny Payne, they brought in the exact kind of coaches Randle and RJ would respond to - and also Johnnie Bryant.
Again, the FO hasn't been perfect, and Obi was a giant whiff, but they've been very solid, but especially on the coaching staff assembling level, and I think the other parts of the FO too - with Zanin, Perrin, the rest of the scouting department etc - though that stuff needs to be judged over a longer period of time.