Tom White mentioned this article in another thread, and I orignally posted it there, but after reading it (hey, if you people don't read what I post, why should I), I figured it deserves it's own thread.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...coaches/1.html
Smooth moves
Pacers, Magic make good decisions on coaching hires
Posted: Friday June 1, 2007 12:30PM; Updated: Friday June 1, 2007 1:22PM
ORLANDO -- Hubie Brown wasn't available for Indiana, so Larry Bird did the next best thing: He hired Jim O'Brien.
Hubie wasn't available to Orlando, either, so the Magic did the best they could for their market by investing in Billy Donovan.
Donovan and O'Brien look much like opposites -- the former a collegiate newcomer, the latter an NBA blue-collar disciplinarian -- but each was an inspired appointment.
I especially liked Bird's decision to revive O'Brien. A lot of people will be shaking their heads at both of Thursday's moves, just as they did when Jerry West brought in Brown a few years ago. I bet O'Brien will be almost as successful as Hubie was, depending on the roster moves Bird makes over the coming months.
Bringing in O'Brien means that Bird isn't going to rebuild the Pacers with lottery picks and youth. On the eve of this hire, Bird said he was going to use his new coach to invoke an entirely new approach.
"We've had three years of bad luck, and some things happened that we felt shouldn't have happened,'' he told me Wednesday at the NBA predraft camp. "So we're trying to change our culture and go back to the basics. We're going to work 'em hard, going to learn how to set picks, do all the little things, the fundamentals, and just start all over. When I interview these guys [as coaching candidates] that's what I tell them I want, and that's what we're going to do.''
Here's how it will go next year. O'Brien and assistant Dick Harter will make defense the priority, and they'll persuade their best players to buy in. O'Brien will allow them freedom at the offensive end so long as they work hard defensively. He will prepare tirelessly and the Pacers will win every game they can -- as opposed to a "rebuilding'' team that is willing to sacrifice wins in order to develop its young talent. And, health permitting, the Pacers will be playing at a much higher level in April than in November. In short, the franchise will develop a basketball identity that long-frustrated Indianans will love.
O'Brien's career took a bad turn in Philadelphia, but then the end of the Allen Iverson era was as toxic as the final days of Nixon (did I say Nixon? Silly me, I meant to say George W.) Better to judge O'Brien by what he did in Boston before Danny Ainge came in. Next season O'Brien won't be looking over his shoulder questioning Bird, who is giving him the opportunity to reclaim his career; and Bird will be there to prevent the curmudgeonly Harter from getting carried away in his complaints when the players fail to meet his standards.
Thus begins a new Pacers era, with Donnie Walsh handing the keys to Bird.
"I have more control with the basketball,'' Bird acknowledged. "I'll still go through him with the owners when we make deals and when we talk about things. But Donnie's sort of handed it over to me since summer started, so it's up to me to get the coach and make the trades that I want.''
It's obvious from this move that Bird won't be afraid to do what he thinks is right, regardless of outside opinion. But he has also learned a lot while working under Walsh the past four years.
"I'm more 'I can't believe they just did that, let's get them out of here' than Donnie is,'' Bird said. "He sits back and looks at the situation and talks about it. He really tries to figure out what's going to happen next, where I was more of a 'Let's get after a problem and get rid of it.' But I learned a lot in the last few years.''
The question now is whether O'Brien will be coaching Jermaine O'Neal or a different star of Bird's choosing. Rumor had it Thursday that O'Neal may be dealt to the Lakers for a package including Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum.
"Jermaine's been very good for us in a lot of ways,'' Bird said Wednesday. "He's very good off the court, he's very good with the public. On the court we expect a lot from him, maybe too much at times. But we're going to look at everything this summer, and we've talked to Jermaine on a number of occasions. And we'll see what direction we want to go with him and we'll see what direction he wants to go.''
So the decision on O'Neal's future hasn't been resolved?
"Not really,'' Bird said. "He's still thinking about it, we've talked about it a couple of times. We're looking and we're talking to people, and he wants to do what's best for the franchise and that's what we'll do.'' Bird added that O'Neal recently has been leaning toward remaining with Indiana.
"That's more of what he wants to do,'' Bird said, "so we'll see what we can do with it.''
As for Donovan, a lot of people will be doubting whether his NCAA skills will translate at the highest level. But the best guess here is that he will not turn into the second coming of Rick Pitino for the Magic. In the short term he will provide a winning identity and hope to revive a moribund franchise. Over the long term, according to a lot of NBA people who tend to look down their noses at college coaches, he will be a winner.
I've come full circle on Donovan. Originally I figured that he would be overmatched, as most college coaches have been, but there are two big differences between him and his forefathers: Donovan has been planning and preparing to become an NBA coach for a long time; it wasn't an afterthought for him as for so many others. And, unlike those others, Donovan isn't taking over a hopeless team. He could build a contender around Dwight Howard over the next couple of years.
Orlando's ownership finished the season with unreasonable expectations -- this is not a second-round team -- but now the program will develop at Donovan's pace. He must be given two years to grow into the job, which is the time that Howard, J.J. Redick, Darko Milicic (if he stays) and Jameer Nelson (ditto) need to mature.
As teams that were in disarray, Indiana and Orlando have each discovered newfound purpose. My guess is that the Pacers will finish ahead of the Magic 11 months from now. By then it will be clear that both teams are on the right track.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...coaches/1.html
Smooth moves
Pacers, Magic make good decisions on coaching hires
Posted: Friday June 1, 2007 12:30PM; Updated: Friday June 1, 2007 1:22PM
Hubie wasn't available to Orlando, either, so the Magic did the best they could for their market by investing in Billy Donovan.
Donovan and O'Brien look much like opposites -- the former a collegiate newcomer, the latter an NBA blue-collar disciplinarian -- but each was an inspired appointment.
I especially liked Bird's decision to revive O'Brien. A lot of people will be shaking their heads at both of Thursday's moves, just as they did when Jerry West brought in Brown a few years ago. I bet O'Brien will be almost as successful as Hubie was, depending on the roster moves Bird makes over the coming months.
Bringing in O'Brien means that Bird isn't going to rebuild the Pacers with lottery picks and youth. On the eve of this hire, Bird said he was going to use his new coach to invoke an entirely new approach.
"We've had three years of bad luck, and some things happened that we felt shouldn't have happened,'' he told me Wednesday at the NBA predraft camp. "So we're trying to change our culture and go back to the basics. We're going to work 'em hard, going to learn how to set picks, do all the little things, the fundamentals, and just start all over. When I interview these guys [as coaching candidates] that's what I tell them I want, and that's what we're going to do.''
Here's how it will go next year. O'Brien and assistant Dick Harter will make defense the priority, and they'll persuade their best players to buy in. O'Brien will allow them freedom at the offensive end so long as they work hard defensively. He will prepare tirelessly and the Pacers will win every game they can -- as opposed to a "rebuilding'' team that is willing to sacrifice wins in order to develop its young talent. And, health permitting, the Pacers will be playing at a much higher level in April than in November. In short, the franchise will develop a basketball identity that long-frustrated Indianans will love.
O'Brien's career took a bad turn in Philadelphia, but then the end of the Allen Iverson era was as toxic as the final days of Nixon (did I say Nixon? Silly me, I meant to say George W.) Better to judge O'Brien by what he did in Boston before Danny Ainge came in. Next season O'Brien won't be looking over his shoulder questioning Bird, who is giving him the opportunity to reclaim his career; and Bird will be there to prevent the curmudgeonly Harter from getting carried away in his complaints when the players fail to meet his standards.
Thus begins a new Pacers era, with Donnie Walsh handing the keys to Bird.
"I have more control with the basketball,'' Bird acknowledged. "I'll still go through him with the owners when we make deals and when we talk about things. But Donnie's sort of handed it over to me since summer started, so it's up to me to get the coach and make the trades that I want.''
It's obvious from this move that Bird won't be afraid to do what he thinks is right, regardless of outside opinion. But he has also learned a lot while working under Walsh the past four years.
"I'm more 'I can't believe they just did that, let's get them out of here' than Donnie is,'' Bird said. "He sits back and looks at the situation and talks about it. He really tries to figure out what's going to happen next, where I was more of a 'Let's get after a problem and get rid of it.' But I learned a lot in the last few years.''
The question now is whether O'Brien will be coaching Jermaine O'Neal or a different star of Bird's choosing. Rumor had it Thursday that O'Neal may be dealt to the Lakers for a package including Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum.
"Jermaine's been very good for us in a lot of ways,'' Bird said Wednesday. "He's very good off the court, he's very good with the public. On the court we expect a lot from him, maybe too much at times. But we're going to look at everything this summer, and we've talked to Jermaine on a number of occasions. And we'll see what direction we want to go with him and we'll see what direction he wants to go.''
So the decision on O'Neal's future hasn't been resolved?
"Not really,'' Bird said. "He's still thinking about it, we've talked about it a couple of times. We're looking and we're talking to people, and he wants to do what's best for the franchise and that's what we'll do.'' Bird added that O'Neal recently has been leaning toward remaining with Indiana.
"That's more of what he wants to do,'' Bird said, "so we'll see what we can do with it.''
As for Donovan, a lot of people will be doubting whether his NCAA skills will translate at the highest level. But the best guess here is that he will not turn into the second coming of Rick Pitino for the Magic. In the short term he will provide a winning identity and hope to revive a moribund franchise. Over the long term, according to a lot of NBA people who tend to look down their noses at college coaches, he will be a winner.
I've come full circle on Donovan. Originally I figured that he would be overmatched, as most college coaches have been, but there are two big differences between him and his forefathers: Donovan has been planning and preparing to become an NBA coach for a long time; it wasn't an afterthought for him as for so many others. And, unlike those others, Donovan isn't taking over a hopeless team. He could build a contender around Dwight Howard over the next couple of years.
Orlando's ownership finished the season with unreasonable expectations -- this is not a second-round team -- but now the program will develop at Donovan's pace. He must be given two years to grow into the job, which is the time that Howard, J.J. Redick, Darko Milicic (if he stays) and Jameer Nelson (ditto) need to mature.
As teams that were in disarray, Indiana and Orlando have each discovered newfound purpose. My guess is that the Pacers will finish ahead of the Magic 11 months from now. By then it will be clear that both teams are on the right track.
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