Buckets Over Broadway » Nate McMillan

The Fast Break: Should Mike D’Antoni Be Next Coach Fired?

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 03:23:12 +0000

Is it time for Mike D'Antoni to go?

Mike D’Antoni, the mastermind behind the run & gun Phoenix Suns. He was supposed to be the savior of Gotham, the architect behind a resurgence at the Mecca. He failed, and it has fallen on Amar’e Stoudemire to lead a rebirth at the Garden. He was supposed to be the main attraction for the much hyped free agent class of 2010. He failed, and LeBron James went south. He is supposed to be the coach that leads New York back to the finals. I’m going to go ahead and call that a fail as well, since the D’Antoni experience seems to be on the fast track too nowhere.

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Coaches On The Hot Seat With Larry Brown Out

Alex David, aka Short White Boy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:08:43 +0000

With the news that Larry Brown has decided to leave the Charlotte Bobcats, it’s time to check out what other coaches could be ousted during the remainder of the season. Back in mid-September we ran our views on which coaches were relatively safe and which were not. Shortly after publishing it, one of our top picks to get fired, Don Nelson, unsurprisingly was let go. While we put Larry Brown under 95% Bulletproof, we hadn’t thought of his very obvious past in which he always gets frustrated and leaves a job. The ‘Cats have said that Brown’s departure was a mutual decision, and this is kinda one of those rare instances where I believe that rhetoric. Anyway, let’s get on to the top coaches who might want to be making sure their resumes are updated:

Hottest Seats:

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Which Coaches Might Not Make It Through The Season?, Part I

Alex David, aka Short White Boy — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:21:21 +0000

Could Phil Jackson, the Zen Master himself, get fired this season? Of course not, you idiot, but where do the rest of the coaches in the league stand? (Source: Yarbarker.com)

I seem to be in a major ranking/grading/evaluating the whole NBA-mode, so today we’re gonna check out which coaches might not make it through the season. Every year it seems like about six coaches are fired in the middle of the 82 game grind. And a few more who made it through the grist then are shown the exit during the summer. But we just finished one summer, so we ain’t talking about the next one yet. Just this upcoming season. Who’s Bulletproof? Who’s on the Hot Seat? And where does everyone else stand and why? Well, you’re lucky ‘cuz we’s about’s ta answer these questions fer ya.

Bulletproof (again, for this upcoming season only):

Doc Rivers – Celtics

George Karl – Nuggets: He might quit if it’s too grueling, but ya can’t fire a guy coming back from cancer. Ya just can’t. If you disagree, grow a heart, dude.

Phil Jackson – Lakers

Gregg Popovich – Spurs

Jerry Sloan – Jazz

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Fwd: Nate McMillan — Underrated Third Place Coach Of The Year

Alex David, aka Short White Boy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:17:36 +0000

The Portland Trailblazers' coach, Nate McMillan. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

On the front page of FanSided I had the following:

First off, congrats to Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks for winning Coach Of The Year. Without a doubt, the dude deserved it. As everyone likes to point, he took a team that started last year 3-29 and without any real significant personnel additions, turned them into this season’s 50-win team. We all knew they’d be good, particularly since after that 3-29 start they went 20-30, but no one expected them to be this good this soon. The scary thing to imagine is how good they’d be if they’d used their #3 draft pick on Tyreke Evans or Stephen Curry instead of James Harden. I know they wanted Russell Westbrook to remain the man at point guard so they chose the top shooting guard prospect, but c’mon, both ‘Reke and Curry can play the two. At 6′6″, presumed Rookie of the Year ‘Reke is even an inch taller than Harden. I imagine he’d get more than the 13 minutes/game that Harden’s averaged during the first two playoff battles. But I came here not to talk Thunder, but Trailblazer.

The man who came in second place for Coach Of The Year was the Bucks’ Scott Skiles, another well-deserving candidate. In the off-season Milwaukee lost Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions, then only got 18 games out of leading scorer Michael Redd (and in many of those games even Redd’s minutes/abilities were limited due to injuries). Yet Skiles got his team to buy in on defense (which has always been his calling card), and with the late-season trade for John Salmons, brought them to an impressive 46 wins (& they might’ve had even more if not for Andrew Bogut’s season-ending injury at the beginning of this month). Um, however, this isn’t about him either.

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