Will The Big Dog and Kruger get along?

[Blunt91]

I was just thinking will Glenn like playing for a unexperienced coach like Lon Kruger after playing for some one like Karl? I wish we still had Mahorn as an assitant because he definetly gets respect from the veteran players in the NBA today. I know Gar Heard played professionally as well but Robinson probably knows little about him since Heard was playing before Robinson knew anything about basketball. I guess our next order of business besides signing Newble is to bring in another assitant coach.

[BlackHawkDown]

The only thing negative I still have to say about the team is about Lonny. So if its a choice between him and Big Dog, Bye Bye Lonny boy. I am really going to miss Mahorn I wish he was the head coach. He knows basketball. I talked to him at the barbershop and we were in agreement. I think he lost his job because he hates Kruger as much as I do.

[Blunt91]

BHD I know you can't go in to "concrete" details but what didn't Mahorn like about Kruger if you can comment on it.

[BlackHawkDown]

Oops I'm talking too much. But in general he was just unhappy about the way the team was managed. I guess he is gone because he let them know.

[sturt]

who knows what he's doing than Mahorn. I admit I have no way of confirming it, but on the surface of things, one guy's at least got a long track record of successful coaching, while the other guy had our respect mainly based on his on-court demeanor. My suspicion is that Mahorn didn't do what was asked of him... and I'm especially inclined to think that now, given that Mahorn apparently was unprofessional enough to talk publicly about it.

[sturt]

On this board, we've called this team JT's team for a time, then SAR's team... does a *championship team* have to have "a" leader, or can their be three or more "co-leaders"?

It has already been mentioned, and most of us remember too well the off-season that yielded Reggie Theus and Moses Malone to add to Doc, Willis, and Nique... and how that there was immediate friction b/t Theus and Wilkins (...not to mention, that Moses and Nique never equated to the dynamic duo they might have otherwise seemed on paper).

What we'd all *like* to imagine is that all four veteran stars in the starting line-up (JT, Big Dog, SAR, and Theo) will set the standard and set it high. And that they will challenge each other, *and* their coaches for that matter, only in *good, positive ways*.

As I said in an earlier post, Lon's future is staring him right in the face now. Expectations were just raised not just one notch, but two. If he's successful in meeting expectations, he'll likely be our coach for several more years to come... if he's not successful--I suggest, from the very first two months of the season--he's wise to keep that Rolodex of college AD's up-to-date.

[RLHawk]

I tend to agree with you sturt.

We all respected Mahorn because of his toughness on the court. Well lets look at the difference he made on our team.

Toni, Hendu, Nazr, Hanno, Cal all never made any toughness progress. In fact, I believe Nazr was less tough at the end of the season than he was the previous year.

[BlackHawkDown]

I think you guys might have gotten the wrong impression Mahorn didn't go so far as to dog the organization, he wasn't unprofessional in the least. He really just stated some facts. He really wasn't just randomly dogging Lon. But it was obvious He disagreed with Lon taken in context I think any of us would have agreed with what he said.

[Guest]

The addition of another shooter and ego increases our responsibility to bring in an asst. coach that can be respected for his abilities on the court, has had some coaching experience but isn't going to rock to boat too much, and just generally garners the respect of more veteran players due to our having a still relatively green head coach.

I think English really fits that bill. I'd like to have his as the head asst. and someone very stat oriented and bookwormish as the 2nd asst. While toughness is nice to have on the bench (ala Mahorn), I think it's obvious to realize that we're going to be a very up tempo, offensive team that plays defense to the best of our abilities with quite a bit of fast break defensive responsibilites.

We truly need to get those assts hired now, as we're going to have to start somewhat "anew" in terms of team chemistry, goals, and roles.

That being said, I can't wait for the season to start and see some more games being "shifted" to us on national television.

[Guest]

We aren't getting National TV games until we can put fans

in Phillips Arena.Look at the Rockets!considering they have

the most hyped up player(although it has cool off since he

was drafted)they aren't getting alot of TV games.Alot of

it has to do with fan attendence.They don't want to show

empty seats on their games.Honestly,I think the game is

due to curiousally of how we actually do.

Hire English....I'd love to have Drexler(one of my all time

favorites)as a assisant coach aswell.

I hope we play a uptempo game

[BlackHawkDown]

Forget assistant coach English, Mahorn or Drexler should be the Head Coach.

[Nique21]

Isn't Alex English going to coach the Memphis Grizzlies this year?

[KB21]

I don't mind giving the guy a trial run as an assistant, but no way on the head coaching gig.

He headed up the North Charleston Lowgators this past year, and he lost his team at the end of the season. He couldn't control the dissention that was among the players. Several players barked back out at him. His team hit the crapper during the second part of the NBDL season, and while they regained some composure during the playoffs, it wasn't enough.

You can say a lot of things about what Lon did wrong last year, but one thing he didn't do was lose his team at any point during the season. In fact, you can say that Lon got his team more focused during the second half of the season, because the team improved.

As for Rick Mahorn, I think he brought very little to this team. Notice that no one is knocking his door down to hire him even as an assistant. He should have taken the upper office job with the Hawks, because he did not do a good job in coaching our big men last year. The guy that impressed me on the bench is now coaching in Golden State.