Diesel's December 19th Date Might Not Be Far Off

[Traceman]

As much nonsense as Diesel's spouts out, he might not be too far off regarding Lon losing his job on December 19th (As an old friend of mine often says, even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then). The reason I say that is because the Hawks have a brutal schedule over the next four games after having dropped four in a row. If we lose to Houston on the road (likely), Philly at home (50/50 at best), Indy on the road (likely) and San Antonio at home (likely), that will be 8 losses in a row on December 28th. I just don't know if Lon can withstand an 8 game losing streak with a playoff guarantee on the record and with all the fan apathy and media bashing going on. After San Antonio, we play Miami home and home. If we lose those two to make it an even 10 in a row, I DEFINITELY can't see Lon hanging on.

I hope like [censored] we snap out of this funk and go down to Houston and get a win. If not, we MUST beat Philly on Saturday and that's no easy task. If the players give a [censored] at all about Lon, we should see them play hard over the next few games because at the rate things are going now, he could very well be toast by the new year.

[Diesel]

It might be the 20th at the least.

We lose to Houston in a bad way. Lon gets fired. Stotts, English, or Heard coaches us in Phill... New coach is brought in by Mon. Then Jan 1 against Miami we start a great HOMESTAND. We have never had problems at home and this could be a launching pad for the New coach to get his troops ready. Allstar break, we tune up, make adjustments then after that, we go on the course of winning and overtaking. If we do this, we should end up with the 6th seed in the east and a matchup against the Hornets (who we can beat).

[JTFan31]

Which caoch would you rather see coaching the Hawks? Stotts, Heard or English.

IMO I think Heard would be the best choice. He is an intense coach and will make this team play hard every night. I sure do hope we lose those next 4 games, WHY? because I want to see Kruger get fired. I think he does a [censored] poor job and he is only good at coaching kids, not NBA vets. If you really look at this team, this team is a young veteran team.

Reef - 6 years

Big Dog - 9 years

JT - 4 years

Theo - 7 Years

Ira - 3-4 years

Nazr - 4 years

Dion - 4 Years

Hendu - 8 years

email - 4 years

Ham - 5 years

Maloney - 7 years

Some of these I'm guessing but you guys get the point. Is time for a new coach. This team no doubt can go 10-18 in the next week. If we are lucky we will be 11-17. I seriously doubt we can beat these teams, especially by the way we are playing of late. Bulls and Heat are playing better basketball than us right now.

[Diesel]

I will give Heard the edge when it comes to experience. I think that the players might respond better to English. Nothing beats a guy who led the league in scoring. I like Stotts to. However, Stotts is a clone of Karl. Him and Karl has been together since CBA. He'll be a good coach, however, I just think that Babs will let English take over. English was Denver's premiere player when Babs was GM. The whole idea of head of player development means that he was like a coach... It's hard to say. However, regaurdless of who it is as Interim, neither will be Long term. I say we have already had talks with guys who might be interested.

I'm willing to bet money that:

Van Gundy, S. Jackson, and some others including Fratello has already heard from Babs. I don't have any of those guys as my top 5... However, I could understand Van Gundy. His emphasis is team defense. His teams were usually tough. Two things that our team lacks. If Van Gundy is willing to be like Bird when it comes to allowing someone else to coach the offense, then we might have one of the best teams in the league by March.

I would like to see Danny Ainge and Mike Dunleavy's name come up. I would also like to see somebody consider Daly and both Hill's too.

[Traceman]

probably finish the season. Whether it be Heard, Stotts or English, who knows. After the season is over, the Assistant will probably be given a cursory interview (unless we make an incredible turnaround) and the search for an accomplished coach will begin. I could see Van Gundy (won't happen sooner because the Knicks would want compensation) or Fratello being pursued and I'd be happy with either.

I don't like either one of the Hills and Daly is WAY too old. Dunleavy would be okay but I wouldn't be all that excited about him. What I REALLY wish is that Doc Rivers would [censored] Gabriel off (or vice versa) and then look to get out of Orlando and come back to coach his old franchise but obviously that is a very unrealistic scenario.

[Diesel]

It's not that late in the season. This is the part of the season where bringing in a new guy is a good thing. Look at Memphis. Look at Boston when they brought in Obrien. I don't know if Stotts or Heard will finish out the season?

However, if they do or if they don't 2 major things need to occur.

1. We must increase the number of assistant Coaches we have.

2. We must seriously increase the number of Scouts we have.

I don't know how Babs function with so little scouts. It wouldn't hurt us to have maybe 4 assistants...

I would say the two to add are :

Dominique and Grant Long. Both these guys can be brought in with a mentoring role for our team. Neither is so far out of the game that they can't relate to modern players. That's the problem with Heard. He's an assistant but he's better suited to be a coach. As an assistant he really doesn't relate to players as well as he used to. It works tooo. Look at Paul Silas. Silas spent about 23 yrs as an assistant. However, he's a coach now and all that experience is paying off.

[Traceman]

will be in the mood to increase costs right now but I get your point.

[Guest]

Mike F could be a possibility because he is a Hawk

and always will be.Often he goes into talks about

when coached here and so on...It would be cool

to have him back.

[jaywalker72]

I know what his title is, but trust me and anyone else who attends practice and games, Nique is in the mix.

He is another coach out there, as well as English....Why they didn't give them that title as well as their administrative titles escapes me, but that's what both of those guys are doing, coaching...

Scouting, I completely agree...there needs to be more advisors and scouts....