[NBA] The 4-Point Play: 3 Coaches who need to go

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I won’t do it with a smile on my face and I certainly wish no actual harm to anyone, however at some point I have to be honest and tell you: Folks need to get fired. This article is about three guys who need to be fired A.S.A.P for crimes perpetrated against their teams and the fans of their team. Sometimes it’s because of a bad fit, sometimes it’s just a worn out welcome, sometimes it’s flat-out incompetence. Luckily, for all of you I’ll decide which it is and let you know…..who deserves to be gone.

And let me just say a quick word here for all the NBA coaches I know who read this article. Listen guys, sometimes it doesn’t work out. U.S. Grant failed at every job he ever had until he got involved in the Civil War. Suddenly a guy who couldn’t hack it selling leather goods in Galena became president 20 years later….which goes to show: things change.

Three guys who need to be fired :

1) Larry Brown-

Where on earth do I begin? First, let’s keep in mind this man is paid 10 million dollars. Now, while that doesn’t have any relevance in why he should be fired, it IS the reason why he absolutely will NOT be. This is one situation where I know fans shouldn’t be holding their breath. But let’s get to the natural disaster that is Brown.

Faults? Well, the offense is worse this year than it was at almost any time last season. The reason for this isn’t why you would imagine. You would think it’s because Brown is one of these ball possession dinosaurs that believe in a mandatory 13 passes before taking a shot. That probably WOULD be why the team would be worse than last year, except that nobody really listens to him in the first place as the offense is a disorganized mess thanks to a PG who hates his style and constant mucking with the rotations to the point where you can SEE visually that players simply don’t know where to go on the court. MSM (main stream media) likes to paint the Knicks as tuning Brown out, but actually most of the players DO try to follow his game plan….they simply lack the cohesion to do so consistently. They don’t know what to do because it seems Brown doesn’t know what he wants from each player at any given time.

Defense? Ok, surely the team improved there right? It’s Browns calling card…it’s what he hangs his hat on. Well, no. The team is worse on defense than it was last year. Now, in fairness to Brown this team lacks the players to play great defense. That’s been a problem for awhile with these Knicks. However, what does it say about Brown that he hasn’t done much (if anything) to fix this problem? What does it say about him that this team still lacks aggressiveness and discipline? That after 70 games they still look like they don’t even know who each other is out on the court? I didn’t expect a miracle, but you would think 10 million would buy you SOMETHING.

Finally, Brown has been horrible for morale and chemistry. He lost his star players mentally a long time ago. His inflexible ways drove many players to hate playing for the man. This is a man who had to be told by his owner to get off his star players back in the media because he was making the team look like a laughingstock. The thing with Brown is that you love him if you can deal with the mental shock of how he deals with his players, but if you can’t then he rubs you raw like sandpaper until your skin rips and you can’t stand him. Especially if you are a star player because he doesn’t like players. Probably because he is a credit whore who can’t stand the fact that this is a player’s league.

At the end of the day Brown needs to be fired. He is only going to leave the team on the lurch anyhow when his list of ailments acts up, or he gets bored, or his GM doesn’t bow to his feet, or he doesn’t get 12 Eric Snows and a partridge in a pear tree. Better to cut your losses before he makes the team look worse than it does already. Some time will improve the team, Brown has shown when he gets his players teams do improve, but by the time this team makes that kind of overhaul Brown will be gone and the team will be stuck.

2) Mike Montgomery-

Proving you can still be a man and not have balls. The rumor about Warrior players going to him and telling him to stand up to Baron Davis can be true or a total MSM fabrication….it means nothing to me. The fact of the matter is that the players know what people who watch Warrior games know: Baron Davis does whatever the hell he wants to at the expense of the game plan and the team. Luckily for the team the one guy Davis SEEMS to care about feeding the ball to is Jason Richardson, but typically that’s only when it’s late in the shot clock or Richardson is so hot that Davis knows it would be too obvious to freeze the guy out.

Montgomery seemly has lost all respect from his players and who can blame them. The team has actually regressed from last year if you only take into account the Warriors record AFTER they got Davis. What is so upsetting about that is that Chris Mullin brought in some talented players and one could easily argue that the team is more talented today than it was at any point last year. There is simply no excuse for this team, who has several players in their prime, to be regressing like this.

Unlike Brown one would have a hard time faulting Montgomery for his rotations or his starting 5. The problem is credibility. The man seems to have lost his team and I don’t see where or how he’s going to get it back. In a league where the players rule the coach’s job is to identify when the team is having problems, where it’s having problems, and then getting the problem players to tweak their games in such a way that it benefits the team. The players see Montgomery won’t reign in Davis and thus all the rest of his yapping and yelling and pointing do him no good.

The team doesn’t need a disciplinarian per se. What they need is a coach who creates a philosophy around the talent and then holds that talent accountable for their results. Montgomery appears to be the worst case scenario: a confused coach who doesn’t create a winning game plan and will not hold talent accountable for their underachievement. Only the stubbornness of Chris Mullin will save him. I predict the writing is on the wall for Montgomery and I would not be shocked if at this time next year he is not in the picture.

3) Rick Adelman-

I really don’t have much of a problem with Adelman. I’ve always felt the guy got the most he could out of his talent and let’s face it….when you’re best player is Christina Webber you have no shot to win a title anyhow. I don’t blame him for that. I also think he has done a great job of coaching in light of how the league has changed. That is to say he has had an ability to stick around the league and be a low-key coach who let’s his players play because he realizes it isn’t a coaches league anymore. Most of these guys who have long careers tend to forget that (see Sloan, Jerry and Brown, Larry). However, it always seems like the Maloofs are worrying about him and wondering what to do with him, and bitching about his playoff results. Then they make up and things seem ok….then it’s not ok again. Back and forth this goes. It just seems like two parents who are staying together for the children.

The problem here isn’t performance. Let me put this another way. You have a girlfriend and she’s pretty hot. The sex is good, she makes a great chicken parmesan, and your folks really like here. But over time stuff happens. You fight about why you’re non-communicato all of December (for NFL playoffs) and then all of March (for the Tourney), finally having the annoying fight about why in the hell the NBA playoffs really do last THAT long.

Nothing big, you never fight about the big stuff, but it all accrues. After awhile you just get tired of the parmesan and you get tired of the same naked body. Your mom calls up and asks why you aren’t married yet. You tell her you don’t know why, but really deep down you DO know. She then casually mentions how it doesn’t seem like things are going anywhere and you tell your mother to f*ck off and worry about her own crumbling life. Thing is…..poor old mom is right. It ISN’T going anywhere. Your chick is pretty hot, but it’s not exciting. The sex is fine, but she won’t dress up like a skanky stewardess. Finally, it’s March again and you don’t have the stomach to get into all that shit all over again.

Sometimes it’s just time to move on. Nothing personal, but I’m just getting sick of the same crap with these guys every year. The team clearly wants to move on and Adelman deserves to go to a team that appreciates him.

Clearing out the notebook

Just some observations:

1) Mike Dunleavy has done a solid job this year. Look this wasn’t an overwhelmingly talented team to begin with. And I think people underrate how hard it is meshing Sam Cassell with a team like this. They took the Maggette injury in stride and are now melding him back with some success. One of the few re-tread coaches who seems to be doing a very good job. “Playoffs?!?!…we talking about playoffs?”

2) Chris Wilcox. Not that I want to keep talking about Clipper related topics but it’s nice to see Wilcox finally go to a team that can use him. I always felt like he was a prime candidate to break out. Why the Nets couldn’t get this guy is beyond me as he would have been PERFECT for them. Credit the Sonics for landing him and throwing him in the fire right away.

3) Yao Ming….or Ming Yao if you roll that way. What has THIS guy been eating? Dog? No seriously Ming has been very very impressive since the All-Star break. Maybe it’s that he has developed a mean streak, maybe he is just learning how to use his body more effectively in a pro game where speed is such a commodity. Whatever the case if he can do this for a whole season you’re looking at a multiple MVP award winner.

4) Jerry Sloan came very close to making my “Must get fired” list. Does anyone look less happy about coaching an NBA game? I don’t know from minute to minute if I’m watching him berate Carlos Boozer or getting an enema. I mean look your teams are boring and you aren’t much of a factor Jerry….if you hate the job do us all a favor and hang em up.

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(Any stats used were from 82Games.com and ESPN.com)