Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan said until the organization hires a general manager, he is "putting everything on hold" regarding his efforts to finalize his coaching staff for next season. "I'm still working on it, but we first have to get a GM,'' McMillan said Tuesday. McMillan said he will have final say on whom he chooses for his staff, but the general manager negotiates the salaries and contract details. Multiple sources have confirmed that McMillan has been asked by ownership to shuffle his staff before next season. Assistant Monty Williams left to become the head coach in New Orleans and the team allowed the contracts to expire of lead assistant Dean Demopoulos and second-year assistant Joe Prunty. Also, Maurice Lucas will not return because of health reasons. It is unknown how many assistants McMillan will hire, but it is believed his former coach in Seattle - Bernie Bickerstaff - will be his lead assistant and former Blazers assistant and longtime NBA coach Jim Lynam has been interviewed. "I've been talking to guys, and I will continue to talk to guys when we are in Las Vegas,'' McMillan said. Blazers president Larry Miller is searching for a new general manager, and has interviewed former Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry and is expected to interview former Miami general manager Randy Pfund. -- Jason Quick http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/07/mcmillan_wont_complete_his_sta.html
Sounds about like what you'd expect. I know this is going to piss a lot of people off, but: "patience"
I have all the patience in the world, if Nate is indeed hiring Bickerstaff and Lyman. Sounds like a whole lot of suck to me
Nate probably feels pretty handcuffed right now. Come on Miller, help your team out. Who the hell is coaching the SL team this year btw?
Maybe instead of keeping Larry on the phone "all weekend", Paul should have called him Saturday morning and said five words, and then hung up the phone. "Find me a fucking GM!" <click> That might have pulled Larry away from the grill long enough to do his job, eh?
The headline really says, "Nate won't hire Bernie until after NY/NJ hire their GMs because he's on their lists" By the way, Bickerstaff will make an EXCELLENT Assistant Coach. Let's stop hearing this nonsense about old retreads. The guy was an assistant for about 3 teams for 12 years before becoming Sonic Head Coach, and he was a GOOD Head Coach. Then he was Head Coach for about 2 more teams and a GM. He is now qualified to be considered for the job of OWNER. We'll be very lucky to get him and I think we will. He was the most charismatic Sonic coach in their history, and that includes the young Lenny Wilkens. McMillan is known as a motivator, but Bernie is better because he knows tricks like Don Nelson does. He used to charm the opposing star while standing next to his bench. The star would be laughing with Bernie as the star ran by him, distracted while trying to play.
It makes sense. Perhaps our new GM can talk another coach not on our list into sitting on the bench with Nate.
To be honest as each day passes I'm more thankful I appear to be the opposite of you. Reread your post and consider deleting it before more people read it. "Bernie Bickerwilliams makes the other teams players laugh. He'd be a great hire." Brilliant.
