Doc is the Celtics new coach...

[CHORO44]

Hey gusy. According to ESPN Doc is now the Celtic's head coach. Any thoughts on this? Could Kenny Smith, my choice, be the new head coach or does Stotts stay?

[Boondocks]

Crap, the celts?

[Traceman]

I was really hoping Doc was going to come in here next year for a lot of reasons. Now, honestly, I'd just as soon see Stotts come back. At least I know he likes to coach an uptempo game and the team should be fun to watch under him. Unless Byron Scott can bring us Kobe, I say we just keep Stotts.

[chillzatl]

Doc sure as heck wouldn't be my choice anyway...

But yah, Give Stotts a chance. We all saw what he got when he had a group of players that would play hard and play like they were taught to play. I think he could do very well if he had a similar team with a star who also played that way.

[TheDude]

yeah, saw it on cbssportsline.com... well there goes that.. i say keep stotts...that's my vote...

[Boondocks]

Heck I like Stotts too, just thought a "big" name coach would help getting marquee FA's.

[KB21]

....would be Mike Fratello.

Other than that, Terry Stotts deserves to keep this job.

I do believe that if they keep Terry Stotts, they have to give him a commitment. That means, they have to give him an extension. IMO, the Hawks can't go into this season with a coach that has only one year left. If they keep Stotts, then commit to him and his system.

Billy Knight was supposed to meet with Terry Stotts sometime this week, so we may know something soon.

A name I'm going to keep throwing out simply due to the connection he has with Billy Knight is Chuck Daly. I could see a situation where Daly comes in, brings in Eric Musselman as his top assistant, and leaves in 3-4 years with Musselman taking over. Of course, I could also see Atlanta going after Eric Musselman as the head coach as well.

[pathway23]

Thats exactly what I was thinking when I heard Doc took the Celts gig, that the top choices are now Fratello and Stotts. I vote for Stotts, give him a chance...although I wouldn't mind Daly coming back, seeing how Hubie Brown has done.

[KB21]

The question about Daly is if he would run the up tempo style that Stotts is currently employing, which is the style that Billy Knight wants to see?

[KingOfKrunk]

Terry is a great guy and a decent coach, but the point of bringing in Rivers was to lure in free agents (T-Mac, etc). I do not mind Stotts being our coach, but I think signing Doc might have been better. But hey, hopefully I'm wrong.

[skaughtybee]

Quote:

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The question about Daly is if he would run the up tempo style that Stotts is currently employing, which is the style that Billy Knight wants to see?

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up tempo style...and you propose Fratello?

I'd love to see Fratello as the coach, but if Billy Knight is employing any "up tempo" coaching criteria, Fratello is no Paul Westphal!

Skaughtybee

[pathway23]

Can you nail down a style for Fratello though? his late 80s hawks were explosive high scoring uptempo team. his 90s cavs were slow plodding halfcourt take the air out of the ball team. I think he adapts his style to the personnel he has.

[OGRat]

I think that is the advantage Fratello has over Stotts. At the same time, I can not justify letting Stotts go.

But hey.... its the Eastern conference. Who said you had to justify letting a coach go.

[Diesel]

I would agree with that....

However mostly, I say that we would need to pay attention to which coach teaches the best. More than likely, we will get a player who will be very young. One of Fratello's best traits is that he can teach young players. Can Stotts? JT hasn't progressed, I don't know about Diaw? Hansen seemed to get better.

I wouldn't mind keeping Stotts for another year, but I don't want to see our draft pick become Darko.

[pathway23]

I think it might be too late to "teach" JT....remember Lenny buried him on the bench and let him be 2nd or 3rd PG, and under Kruger what was he? SG or PG? He wasn't taught by them his first 3 or 4 years...

You couldn't really tell how Hansen and Diaw learned Stotts system because of the huge changes during the season, but imo both improved. Diaw seemed to play better off the bench later in the season than he did as a starter. He put up similar numbers in less minutes off the bench as he did starting.

And the only reason Diaw came off the bench was our surplus of guards on our roster after the trades.

[dj_me]

That and the fact that Sura & Jackson were tearing sh*t up! My vote is for Stotts to stay. I've been on the Stotts bandwagon since he came on. I was sort of upset when he couldn't get things going with the roster we had, but, IMO, we're now heading in the right direction and he deserves a legitimate chance.

[Diesel]

Well, Lenny tried to mold JT into a PG and wasn't going to play him big minutes until he learned the position. Kruger let JT be a OG. I think Kruger's approach was more destructive for JT becuase JT doesn't have the ability to be Allen Iverson. His defense sucks. We have spent 4 years trying to make JT work.... We have gone through such great Surrogates as Toni Kukoc, Boris Diaw, Email, and Bob Sura. These guys have helped a lot but the truth is that what would have been much better for JT was the approach that Lenny took. It was not as fast as many of us wanted, but at least we wouldn't have a "Guard" who cannot perform without a specialized Surrogate by his side.

[Diesel]

My problem with Stotts earlier was his messed up rotations and gameplans. Obviously, it was a personnell problem?? Or was it?

I think that Stotts needed a team without a strong post game because he doesn't coach a Post game. I thought about it and I had to look over his mentor Karl. Karl was never big into the post game either. Karl's best teams....

Milwaukee with Big Dog, Allen, and Cassell. The year they brought in Mason to play in the post, they didn't know what to do with him. It was better for them when they had Scott Williams and all he did was set picks.

Seattle with GP, Rainman. You say Rainman was a post player, I say he was a transition PF. Either way, when they traded Rainman and got Vin Baker, they destroyed Bakers career because Baker was a true post player and they were trying to do everything but play him in the post.

Finally Stotts gets Reef. Reef is a back to the basket post player, Stotts was playing Reef everywhere but there and then when he did play him there it was conflict on the floor. Moving Reef helped the team because now, CC comes in play PF and runs with the rest of them and doesn't need the ball in the post.

So how does this affect our draft. I say We focus on getting either Howard or Smith. If we don't get Howard, we take Smith and we take our chances with another PF. I say we say never mind to the thought of getting Kwame Brown. Brown will be an awesome Post player with the right team. I think if we get Smith, we look for some Pf who can run and especially rebound but having a Post threat is not totally neccessary. IN the draft, I like Kris Humphries. IN the league, I would look to trade for Wilcox at LAC.

[Wretch]

He just hasn't impressed me much in his time here. He couldn't get anything consistent out of the team that we traded away - even though Jack was supposed to come in and somehow be the player that Dog wasn't. And I think it would be a mistake to give Stotts too much credit for what these guys did late in the year.

They were contract players, with nothing but playing time to work in and shots to take. Stotts spread the floor out and created a system to cater to their style of play; however, it was the loose "YMCA" style basketball that caught the league off guard - and even that didn't work consistently. This team continually played up to the better teams and down to the bad ones. This is a trend that did not change during Stott's run.

I think Stotts should stay on, but not because he's so great. He should stay on because he knows our players and because he's expendible. If he proves that he can coach this team to a winning record, then we've got our coach. If not, then just keep him on until we get ready to get serious.

It think that's an approach that's workable for both sides. Stotts gets to show the league what he can do, the team keeps the flexibility to keep him if they want.

[OGRat]

"I was sort of upset when he couldn't get things going with the roster we had, but, IMO, we're now heading in the right direction and he deserves a legitimate chance."

DJ, How do you define the team's direction? I know the team is rebuilding, but how? I do think the coach will have a role in determining the rebuild, and Billy and Stotts seem to be on the same page.

I am waiting to see what the organization's next move will be and to see if the new management will have a marked influence on the rebuild. New coach. Major signing. No move at all.