<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">SEATTLE -- The Seattle SuperSonics fired head coach Bob Weiss on Tuesday after a disappointing 13-17 start to the season. Assistant Bob Hill will take over for Weiss, the team said. Seattle opened a five-game road trip with a 115-96 loss to Indiana on Monday and plays in Chicago on Wednesday night. Weiss was promoted from assistant to head coach on July 18 after Nate McMillan left for Portland. Weiss was a popular choice of All-Stars Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, but the team has struggled. Seattle has not been above .500 this season, after winning 52 games and the Northwest Division title last year. Weiss, 63, was previously a head coach in Atlanta, San Antonio and with the Los Angeles Clippers and has an overall coaching record of 223-299. He was an assistant in Seattle from 1994 to 2005. Weiss is the third coach fired by Seattle during the season since 1992. In 2000, Paul Westphal was let go after a 6-9 start, replaced by McMillan. In 1992, K.C. Jones was fired after an 18-18 start and later replaced by George Karl.</div> Link Sund and company have seen enough. And to be honest I think that they've made the right decision. Losing lopsidedly to a depleted Indiana team shows me that this team has real internal issues. Bob Hill is a much stronger hand to lead this team and I'm optimistic that we will compete harder on the defensive end with him running the ship. 2006 has started off with a bang--literally.
Wow that was quick. Even though I've been callling for it I didn't think they'd do it. It was obvious he wasn't the guy, but on the other hand they've known him for 10 years + so what did they learn in 30 games they didn't know already?
When your team is by far the worst defensive team in the league, I definitely think a lot of responsibility needs to fall on coaching. Seattle wasn't a great defensive team last year, but the dropoff is so drastic you'd think Jerome James was on the same level as Bill Russell.
i wasn't surprised to see him packing but i thought it would be near the end of the season...considering they just hired him not long ago anyways...he doesn't have the toughness in a coach that seattle needs and not enough respect for players to listen to him hopefully his replacement (not the interim one) will be a high calibre coach to lead seattle back into playoffs...hopefully that is
Wow, Sund and Walker show some cajones for once. The question is, were they being aggressive this time or was the situation just so bad that they had no choice?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Casual:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, Sund and Walker show some cajones for once.</div> You mean like when they traded GP? Maybe Nate's old rules weren't so silly, no sweats and cell phones on the bus and all that. It wasn't so much about the rules as it was about doing what the coach wanted. Last year Ray said that sometime coaches act strict so that the whole team will be mad at them and they will come together as players. Weiss was just too nice.
Well I was shocked initially when I read the headline, but only because I didn't expect it to happen so soon, and because I really like Bobby as a person. But to be honest, it's hard to argue with the decision, and at least management are prepared to admit that they made the wrong choice now and cop it on the chin, rather than delay the decision. We're still in real contention for not only a playoff spot, but a top three seed (stupid I know) so I guess management had to be proactive and try and get this train back on it's tracks while it's still in the right time frame. My analogies rule.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Sir Desmond:</div><div class="quote_post">We're still in real contention for not only a playoff spot, but a top three seed (stupid I know) .</div> LMAO.
That is pretty hilarious. Weiss had to go, he was obviously the biggest change since last season and it shows in our play.
^ Yeah about time, I didnt expect it to be so sudden hahah, it just happened quick. I thought this thread was a joke at first, but Im glad we got rid of him, now lets see how Hill does. Oh yeah, Hill also said that he will start Johan and Vladi...
Saw the interview with Bob Hill. Man, at least he looks like a coach, and talks like a tough guy. Worrisome, though, that he talked about getting the Sonics to play an 'up-tempo' game. Where have I heard that before?
Even though you had the feeling heading into this year that Weiss was a bit of a lame duck, this was a surprise so early in the year. This team desperately needs consistency and defense. I know that the roster is designed to run, but I think that Sund and Co. have to start thinking about trading for a legit big man if they still feel that they can win this season. You can't really expect to win in the West if you're relying on guys like Robert Swift and Johan Petro down low. Collison is a real nice building block, but the frontcourt needs help. You have to think that at some point the team starts dangling guys like Flip Murray and Vlad Radmanovic. It seems like if they can't get help down low and/or on defense, this team might be heading towards rebuilding. I don't know what else you can call it when a successful coach leaves and you turn to raw, young players. It's not too late, and with guys like Allen and Lewis, the team has potential to turn things around real quick. The front office has shown today that they will make moves when they need to, surprising or not, and now they need to keep doing that to get the team back on track.
I was listening to Kevin Calabro today and I think that he said it best that this firing is more of an indictment on the players moreso than on Bob Weiss. The players asked for Bob and then didn't play hard for the guy. At some point, as a professional, you shouldn't have to be strong armed into doing your job. A coach at the professional level shouldn't have to be a baby sitter and induce his players to give their best possible effort. If you have supposed leaders in the locker room like Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, the players should be able to police themselves whenever their teammates are given less than ideal effort. But b/c we have absolutely no leadership on this team whatsoever, when guys are giving a half hearted effort, they feel that won't be held accountable by their peers. To be honest there are only three players that I can say have given their best effort this season. Those players have been Rashard Lewis, Reggie Evans, and Nick Collison when he was given minutes. It is a shame that Bob Hill has already inserted Vlad in the starting line up b/c his effort so far this season has been abysmal. He was given an offer that exceeded his market value, turned it down, and then has given a half hearted effort so far when he knows that his financial future depends on his contributions this season. Why would you reward him with a starting spot when it is obvious that his agenda is totally contradictory to that of Sonics management? I'm not excited about the move but I praise Rick Sund for addressing the internal issues that this team has. It is going to be impossible to for us to improve dramatically with a trade unless you include either Ray Allen or Rashard Lewis in the discussion--and I don't think that it has gotten to that point yet. Everyone in this forum can act as though Bob was a horrible coach but the bottom line is that he put the players in a position to succeed and they took advantage of his mild manner nature. It is not his fault that the guards get consistently beat off of the dribble and that we have no legitimate shot blocking presence in the paint. At some point in this season these players need to forget about what happened last year and put forth an effort that is worthy of a multi million dollar professional athlete. I will not go on the record and say that Bob Hill is the right man for this job but I will say that his energy and conviction will be in direct contrast to his predecessor. It is interesting that Bob Hill was out of job as long as he was and then took this job with Bob Weiss. Maybe there were some underlying things done behind the scenes for him to get the endorsement of management for this position. I know that he did his best to take credit for the wins over Cleveland and Indiana earlier in December--citing that his pep talk really motivated the team to play. When Bob Weiss went after the referee in a game versus Golden State Bob Hill did nothing to prevent him from getting his second technical and then seemed more than ready to assume the job as the head coach--making countless comments of what he tried to establish as the coach in Weiss' absence that day. I don't think that Hill completely snaked Weiss but I also believed that he doesn't feel a bit remorseful for Weiss' firing. I'm glad that Sund and Company offered Weiss a job as a consultant and I hope that he eventually can find a spot in upper management. Today is not a good day for this Sonics franchise but it is a day that had to come and hopefully will provide an infusion of energy for this lackluster, self indulgent basketball team.
Yeah Hill doesn't seem to like the way Weiss ran things. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Hill said he can't repeat one of Weiss' fatal flaws -- the inability to find a steady rotation. "You can't rotate 10 or 12 guys. You've got to have 8 1/2, nine guys max. And maybe Robert (Swift's) that half guy. And Robert's got to play."</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Buckets:</div><div class="quote_post">About Time, and Im not even a Sonics fan.</div> That's right, you're a Knicks fan, the team who is paying the most money for a coach out of all 30 franchises and you are still hilariously awful. Anyway, I was going through my old collection of basketball cards the other day (we all collected ... right?) and I found, sitting right next to eachother in plastic sleeves, a Bob Hill 1992 Indiana NBA Hoops coach card, and a Bob Weiss 1992 Atlanta NBA Hoops coach card. If only I had a scanner.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Sir Desmond:</div><div class="quote_post">If only I had a scanner.</div> Who says you need one? Just send them to me and I'll tell everyone that you really had them.
