Did Pete Buy himself some more time?

[Lrenfro]

Did Pete use his backup plan to make sure he makes it through yet another season. Think about it. If we don't make the playoffs he can say that he corrected his mistake midway through the season. Now since we had a coaching change. We would have to understand that it takes time to get used to the change. Now he is behind this four year old shield that the team is rebuilding ("Gelling" if you will) Do you think AOL would buy this. Does he get another chance to get a new coach. Does he make it to yet another Draft. What do you think. IMHO he has BS'd us once again.

[Diesel]

It's interesting when you look at recent moves made by Pete and contrast them to the teams' performance?

I think you hit the nail on the head. Pete has bought himself some more time with a calculated coaching change.

The reason I say that is first... Pete has did a good job of bring in talent. There is no way I would have not done the Big Dog deal or the Reef deal. I too would have signed Ham to a contract and Pete was a master Negotiator with Ira (I mean some of you wanted to sign Ira for the mid level exemption over 3 yrs.). Pete has done that portion of his job.

The question is.. Does the pieces fit. Unfortunately, AOL came aboard after JT's draft. To the fans, JT's draft was a promised change... We were finally out of Snake's contract. We had 4 1st rounders on the way and 2 large exemptions. I think Babcock messed up. Part of the reason was Scouting. The other part was Blueprint.

Scouting was bad because Pete didn't know enough about Cal B. When we picked Cal, I said... "It's a mistake. We should have picked Foster or Tmac or some other C in the second round." When we traded Jumaine Jones... I said "that's a mistake". I don't know how it would have turned out with Jones... However, I felt that he was better than we traded for. However, the saddest thing that happened on that draft night was Cleveland selecting Andre' Miller. My insides felt like I had been kicked. JT was the best pick at that time... however, we didn't have a real PG to compensate.

Blueprint because a few days after that draft, we trade Smitty for JR, JJ. Now I understand 2 for 1 and I understand Youth over age. However, it's stupid to trade both Backcourt Starters at the same time and bring in a rookie to play PG. I really believe had we kept Smitty, JT would be a much better PG right now.

So we are paying the price for previous sin.

However, AOL missed all of those promises. Since they have come along, we have amassed more talent than this franchise have ever had (save, Nique, Malone, Rivers, Theus, Willis). We have more quality depth than ever.

What Babcock needs is for Grob and SAR to stay close to 20 ppg and 9 rpg. If he does that, he can easily point to both of them and say... "well, the players I brought in are doing their jobs, It's coaching. What I have tried to do is change coaches midseason without upsetting the players familiarity." Blah blah blah...

And that's what he did. They didn't bring in ONE NEW coach. They promoted English... they moved Stotts up. In the offseason, if we are not a playoff team, Babcock will probably propose paying a good coach...

Like I said before. "Calculated". Babcock knew that Lon was not the answer. He wanted Lon becauase Lon could teach and he was not a threat. This summer he brought in Stotts. He brought in Stotts just in case he was to replace Kruger. NOW, he will probably look to bring in an experienced winning coach (Memphis example). I guess Fratello or Van Gundy might get a call. And Babs survives one more time.

[Playmaker0017]

Diesel,

I watched an interview with him last night. He shouldered the majority of the blame for their performance. I was suprised.

He said, it wasn't Lon Kruger. It was the players failing the coach, and worse yet... me failing the players and the coach. I made the selections, I put them together. So, if anyone is to blame for our poor performance it would be me.

That was paraphrased of course, but that was his general sentiment.

Play.

[jaywalker72]

I said it in a previous post, but Pete looks like a dead man walking around Philips these days.

His selection of Lon was a risk, and as many of us said at the time, it was a risk that likely held his job in the balance.

Judging from the overhaul of the offense that needs to be done, and the apparant lack of effective preparation this team was given, the Kruger era is looking like 2 1/2 years of wasted effort.

For these things, Pete will likely pay with his job.

[TheDude]

i knew babcock did some screwy things before but most general managers have a move or two they wish they hadn't done...i think pete's done a pretty good job minus the hiring of lon..

i mean i still look at our team now and wonder how the h.e.l.l. we are so bad. I know we don't have super defensive players but like pete said, we should be right in the middle of the pack at .500 or above. I just can't get it. Now it's like they've lost their confidence. We NEED some wins. And we need them now for their confidence.

Maybe, just maybe we can gather enough effort to beat Dallas and gain some confidence from that. I don't know. I'd hate to trade some guys with the talent we have but maybe that's the case. But I don't think it's Terry we need to trade. We just need to put him back at Sg and get a tall Pg like Crawford or Kenny Anderson maybe.

[jaywalker72]

I just wrote an article "Hawks Begin, Yet Again" which enlightens us to just how far they now have to climb to be a consistent winner.

Kruger's lack of NBA acumen has set the team back, and Pete is likely going to have to pay the price for selecting Lon, especially when you consider the avaliable options at the time (McMillan, Cheeks, Scott, Thomas, Carlisle) and the amount of skepiticm that college coaches were getting even then.

[Playmaker0017]

JayWalker,

As I watched the game last night, I listened to our announcers. I forget their names, but the black guy that always says "Indeed."

Well, he said some things last night that I am going... "DUH! How come our coach isn't saying that." And I wonder if he wouldn't do well as a team motivator. We need someone.

I really believe Stotts is NOT the answer. I like Jeff VanGundy... of course, I think he is a boozer.

Play.