Fire Brad!

[Roy H.]

What happened with Ime ultimately was an unprecedented situation. Not sure what the "right" thing to do would have been considering the timing. Should they have had a coaching search days before preseason and with a meh coaching market? Given how we started the season while missing a key player in Rob, going to Joe looked like the right move.

Is it unprecedented, though?  The specific facts, maybe, but the situation?

The fact is, teams change coaches mid-season all of the time.  Sometimes an internal coach is elevated, but other times a team hires from the outside.  Heck, it happened in Atlanta this season.  Those teams adjust.

It is. How many times has an NBA team conducted a coaching search while their existing coach was suspended?

We didn't fire Ime for almost half a season. I suspect there may have been seem legal stuff there and even if the team believed he would've ultimately been let go, can you bring in a whole new coach with the existing one still with the team? How would the players - who liked Ime - have responded to that? Again, it's easy to play the coulda, woulda, shoulda game in hindsight. I don't remember a lot of calls to fire Joe when we were off to a 20-5 start to the season without Rob.

If Ime's conduct was a fireable offense, fire him and conduct a real coaching search.

If it was conduct that was forgivable, fine him, put him on probation, rearrange the organizational structure so his dating partner is not a supervisee, and move on with the season.

The team was in limbo because management put it in limbo.

[johnnygreen]

Talk about not holding the players accountable. We have threads wanting Joe fired, and now Stevens. I do feel Brad was put in a corner in hiring a head coach so late before the season began, so his options could not have been great. Are we not going to give him credit for assembling, what many considered, the most talented roster in the league?

[Vermont Green]

I don't think Brad is going anywhere.  Brad's real coach hire was IME.  The end of that was not Brad's fault.  The situation around hiring Mazzulla as the interim coach was complicated, not a lot of options and not a lot of time to work through options.  I would be very surprised if the owners concluded that Brad is the problem.

[Roy H.]

Talk about not holding the players accountable. We have threads wanting Joe fired, and now Stevens. I do feel Brad was put in a corner in hiring a head coach so late before the season began, so his options could not have been great. Are we not going to give him credit for assembling, what many considered, the most talented roster in the league?

As mentioned, I'm not really serious with this thread, but I do think Bob Myers is a very interesting option.

But, Devil's advocate...  If you're the manager of a restaurant and buy the finest ingredients and have the nicest decor, but your chef can't cook, who gets the blame?

[jpotter33]

PBS has done a great job constructing this roster imo. We have deep talent. Coaching decision aside, I think he’s been pretty good no?

Yeah, same here.

BUT the coaching decision - both choosing Joe over Stoudamire and then not surrounding him with more assistance - was a major blunder leading to a lost year. If he’s going to stick with Joe and this philosophy, I think it’s fair to question his judgment abd whether he should remain here.

[RJ87]

I don't think Brad is going anywhere.  Brad's real coach hire was IME.  The end of that was not Brad's fault.  The situation around hiring Mazzulla as the interim coach was complicated, not a lot of options and not a lot of time to work through options.  I would be very surprised if the owners concluded that Brad is the problem.

And with how we started the season, the Joe decision seemed like it would work out. We started 20-5 and were the #1 seed for half the year down a starter. It's not like Joe was struggling from the start and management just decided turn a blind eye.

[Goldstar88]

Talk about not holding the players accountable. We have threads wanting Joe fired, and now Stevens. I do feel Brad was put in a corner in hiring a head coach so late before the season began, so his options could not have been great. Are we not going to give him credit for assembling, what many considered, the most talented roster in the league?

As mentioned, I'm not really serious with this thread, but I do think Bob Myers is a very interesting option.

But, Devil's advocate...  If you're the manager of a restaurant and buy the finest ingredients and have the nicest decor, but your chef can't cook, who gets the blame?

So the players in this analogy are inanimate objects? 

But then again, They have been playing really poorly… So that may be fair. Hmmm

[angryguy77]

Talk about not holding the players accountable. We have threads wanting Joe fired, and now Stevens. I do feel Brad was put in a corner in hiring a head coach so late before the season began, so his options could not have been great. Are we not going to give him credit for assembling, what many considered, the most talented roster in the league?

As mentioned, I'm not really serious with this thread, but I do think Bob Myers is a very interesting option.

But, Devil's advocate...  If you're the manager of a restaurant and buy the finest ingredients and have the nicest decor, but your chef can't cook, who gets the blame?

So the players in this analogy are inanimate objects? 

But then again, They have been playing really poorly… So that may be fair. Hmmm

Just think about this..........He put a 34 year old coach with very little experience on a team that's ready to win now, not later.

When your window to win is open, you don't use that time to provide on the job training.

[boscel33]

I'm still not convinced that Wyc didn't have a heavy hand in all of this.  He said they had the green light to spend but didn't.  I think it was pure publicity!

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

I'm still not convinced that Wyc didn't have a heavy hand in all of this.  He said they had the green light to spend but didn't.  I think it was pure publicity!

so wyc lied?

SHOCKED!

[Neurotic Guy]

Only question I have is how many mistakes are allowed? 

Obviously, every GM makes mistakes.  Mistakes on draft day are universal.  Mistakes on trades and FA pickups also common.  I think Brad blew the coaching hiring. But in his defense, Ime put him in a tough place, having to make a change at a tough time and with a team that built a rapport with the guy.  Bringing in someone from the outside would also have been a gamble.
Turned out to be a bad move.
Let’s see if he rectifies swiftly with a quick firing of Joe and hiring of an experienced coach (Nurse?).

I like what Brad did with the roster and I think he can improve it, but move #1 is coaching change.

JKBS

[bdm860]

One of the things I think is a big strength of "Heat culture" (and I just threw up in my mouth a little saying that) is long term continuity.  And I thought this had been a big strength for the C's under Wyc's ownership too.

Heat have had one GM (Riley) and 3 coaches (Riley, Van Gundy, Spoelstra) over the last 25+ years.

The Celtics (during Danny's regime) could say they had 1 GM and 2 coaches (Doc and Stevens) over almost 20 years.  Spurs too.  And Warriors have been trending that way as well (still to be seen if that's just riding the Curry/Kerr hot streak or not).

I always thought this was a huge strength for those teams.

Sure players don't care that much, they're more about who's hot right now, but I think it could factor in a little, and is at least a selling point (not just for players, but personnel like coaches/scouts/trainers/etc.).  When you don't have the glitz and glamor of some other markets, you got to make sure you're strong everywhere else.  Nobody wants to go work at a place with constant upheaval and regime changes.

Not that the Celtics shouldn't move on from Stevens or Mazzulla if they think they're not doing a good job, but just be very careful with it.  Don't be a team that has a new coach every 2-3 years, a new GM every few years.  I like being one of the teams that's not like that.

So if you change the coach and/or GM, make it count.  Don't let it become the low hanging fruit you keep going back to.  Hire the next coach/GM with intentions that person will be here for the next 20 years.

[boscel33]

I'm still not convinced that Wyc didn't have a heavy hand in all of this.  He said they had the green light to spend but didn't.  I think it was pure publicity!

so wyc lied?

SHOCKED!

Giveth a TP I shall!

[boscel33]

Only question I have is how many mistakes are allowed? 

Obviously, every GM makes mistakes.  Mistakes on draft day are universal.  Mistakes on trades and FA pickups also common.  I think Brad blew the coaching hiring. But in his defense, Ime put him in a tough place, having to make a change at a tough time and with a team that built a rapport with the guy.  Bringing in someone from the outside would also have been a gamble.
Turned out to be a bad move.
Let’s see if he rectifies swiftly with a quick firing of Joe and hiring of an experienced coach (Nurse?).

I like what Brad did with the roster and I think he can improve it, but move #1 is coaching change.

JKBS

They originally suspended Ime though.  Maybe they could have stuck with that.  BTW, did the other party get fired?  #askingforafriend 

[angryguy77]

Only question I have is how many mistakes are allowed? 

Obviously, every GM makes mistakes.  Mistakes on draft day are universal.  Mistakes on trades and FA pickups also common.  I think Brad blew the coaching hiring. But in his defense, Ime put him in a tough place, having to make a change at a tough time and with a team that built a rapport with the guy.  Bringing in someone from the outside would also have been a gamble.
Turned out to be a bad move.
Let’s see if he rectifies swiftly with a quick firing of Joe and hiring of an experienced coach (Nurse?).

I like what Brad did with the roster and I think he can improve it, but move #1 is coaching change.

JKBS

They originally suspended Ime though.  Maybe they could have stuck with that.  BTW, did the other party get fired?  #askingforafriend

In the interest of equality, of course not.