Originally posted by DynastyChile:
Originally posted by GameOver:
Originally posted by DynastyChile:
Originally posted by GameOver:
Originally posted by TheHYDE49er:
Originally posted by GameOver:
Still on the Ollie bandwagon. Messina wouldn't be bad either. I would really prefer a young up and comer from the college ranks, though.
No thanks on Ollie, he's Byron Scott 2.0. Not too familiar with Messina.
If we can't get Luke, I wouldn't mind a college coach that knows his X's and O's.
Byron 2.0? lol Jesus...we're all jaded. LOOK AT WHAT YOUVE DONE TO US BYRON
GO why are you on Ollie bw? Have you ever watched UCONN play?
Admittedly, I have not watched Uconn play as of late. Only saw them in their championship run in 2014 and yes, I know the core guys there weren't guys that Ollie recruited. My biggest reason for wanting Ollie is to have someone who can recruit talent (you see the irony yet?). He has good relationships with guys in the league (we've all heard about the KD/Ollie thing) and is from LA. He can sell us and is much more charismatic than a guy like Byron Scott. He's also more aware of the change the league is going through in style of play and wouldn't pigeon hole us in that regard.
Honestly, my biggest thing with Kevin would be, "Can he bring KD?" If I'm Kupchak and Buss and I know I have this deadline of Western Conference contender by next year, that makes this year crucial. From their perspective, I don't want to sacrifice the future of the franchise but I have to go all out to make us a playoff team this offseason. The fastest way to do that would be to ship the pick (if we keep it) and go all out for KD. Ship the pick for a disgruntled star on a mediocre team (aka Jimmy Butler) and you now could try to sell KD on joining a roster of D-Lo, Clarkson, Butler, Randle. It would be a worst team than what he has in OKC and I still don't think he does it, but even if he didn't it wouldn't be a bad core to be left with on our end.
Even if you believe in keeping our pick then going into the regular season with Ollie as HC and a lineup of D'Angelo, Clarkson, KD, Randle, Whiteside and our pick is another decent chance of potentially getting into the playoffs and not sacrificing our future. The most ridiculous component to this is getting KD. Again, I'm not saying so much what I want as I am trying to put myself in the shoes of Buss and Kupchak and think about how they're handling this deadline they've put on their own heads.
If I had this my way, I'd get Messina or Luke, not ship the pick, go all out for Whiteside and bet on other young guys who might be able to grow here and just be patient with what we have. I think our current core + Whiteside + 1st round pick = contender in 3-4 years presuming everyone develops accordingly. I'm in favor of the long play, but I know our management can't think that way right now.
*Edit: There isn't a chance in hell that Lakers brass doesn't have Kobe recruit the s**t out of KD this summer. Especially as he's no longer a player and an employee, he should be buzzing KD and talking shop with him right now as he fights to win with OKC and after. The Kobe/KD relationship has always appeared to look strong to me and be one of admiration from Kevin to Kobe. We need to leverage that. That + Ollie + another veteran (or two? maybe we work some cap magic and can bring in Horford via S&T and Butler via trading the pick) could be a playoff team.
Without getting too deep into detail on Ollie and his X&Os, I don't think he is the right guy for our team right now. We have so much youth, and basically not running an offense last year with Byron putting in his only offensive set in like February, we're kind of starting from square 1 as far as building an offense...I'd feel way more comfortable with Messina...even Luke now that he has been in the GS system, was a student of hte triangle etc. I am way less worried about how good of buddies Ollie is with players.
That's a fair point. I don't know Ollie's Xs & Os well enough to combat that so I trust you. Even with that said, I think an assistant coach could be brought in that his Xs & Os heavy.
For me, talent>>>system. I also don't think anything can ever be as bad as the hogwash offense we ran last year. I can always be proven wrong, though lol.
I can feel the joy you had typing this
I can feel the joy you had typing this