List of coaches who should replace Woody now

[BigDirty]

The reason it most likely wouldn't work is because many players & fans most likely wouldn't respect a european coach, it has little to do with playing style in my opinion, D'Antoni's "european" playing style works rather well, doesn't it?

[KB21]

Mike Fratello doesn't have an aversion to the up tempo game. As you stated, look at the Hawks teams he coached. If you do, you can see that Mike can and has coached an up tempo style of play.

The thing with Mike is that he is a defense first guy, plus he has won in the past with veterans, and he has won with young players. He took Cleveland to the playoffs with four rookies basically starting for him (Brevin Knight, Derek Anderson, Cedric Henderson, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas).

It's funny how people point to Memphis and state that he wouldn't open up things for them. Well, he didn't because he knew they couldn't defend at a break neck pace. Mike does like most great coaches do. He doesn't sacrafice defense for entertainment. Memphis proved him right after they fired him. They proved that they couldn't defend in the up tempo game. They paid no attention to defense at all.

The fact is though, Memphis was a playoff team when they had players like Shane Battier and Eddie Jones playing significant minutes for Mike. Those guys can defend their position though.

People mention Hubie Brown as being the perfect teacher of the game. Well, Mike Fratello is basically a young version of Hubie Brown. Mike patterned his coaching style after Hubie Brown's. He should have. He was Hubie's top assistant for a while before Mike got the Hawks job.

I am very much on the hire Mike Fratello bandwagon. I think Mike would love the opportunity to coach this team. He could elevate the level this team plays at.

[Atlantaholic]

I guess... but they are team that is built differently than any other team in the league. A European coach would most likely have to adapt to the NBA, not Vice-Versa.

But you are right in saying that the biggest thing by far would be the respect factor... especially with the egos floating around in the NBA it would be really, really tough for a European coach to have respect and control of a team.

[bonethugz]

i used to be on that fire woodson bandwagon but i don't mind if we stay. this year, really no excuse. we have good enough talent to make something happen. he seems he's getting better at everything. not exactly good or what i want but it won't kill me if he's still the coach for this season, so far from what i see.

of course i'm cool with getting a better coach and i always wanted fratello. either he had success with us or he had success with other teams.