Carroll is gone

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1790220

In a very unsurprising decision Danny Ainge has dismissed interim head coach John Carroll after 40 games as coach. Carroll actually did well as the coach compared to how OB did this season, he was only 8 games under .500(14-22).

Also according to Andy Katz:
Paul Westphal would accept if the Boston Celtics offered him their head coaching job, a source close to the Pepperdine coach told ESPN.com

 

All I can say is goodbye and good riddence. Consider the 100k bonus you got for the team making the playoffs as severence pay.

Finally, the Pitino era and his disciples are gone.

Not to make light of MLK's famous speech, but:

<font size="5"><font color="DarkGreen">"Free at Last, Free at Last. Thank God Almighty, We are Free at Last"</font></font>

 

I wouldn't wish Paul Westphal upon anyone, as a Seattle fan, hopefully Mr Ainge looks elsewhere.

 

Well, I'm not going to lie, Westphal seems to be one of the front runners. I know his Seattle days weren't so hot, but Danny worked with Westy in PHX and they seem to be on the same page.

Westphal and Rivers have both been officially brought in for talks with Dannyboy, thus far. I've not heard of anyone else yet, but rumors are circulating that some of the following others might possibly be getting consideration:

Sichting
Cowens
Dennis Johnson

 

The big problem I, and to be honest most of Seattle had with Westphal, seemed to be his complete inability to communicate with players, to a point where he had standoffs in the locker room and couldn't get guys to respond to him in time outs, etc. Whether or not this is an ongoing problem or just specifically with the Seattle staff back then (particularly Vin Baker and Ruben Patterson, not exactly model citizens). Maybe I am too harsh in judging him?

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Maybe I am too harsh in judging him?</div>

Well, VB and RP aren't model citizens, that's for certain. However, it's certainly pause for concern when a coach can't hold his players attention.

True, this is a past issue and he may have learned from those shortcomings. It's certainly plausible, becuase we all know that Rick Carlisle had some of the same communication type issues in Detroit and he seems to be doing fine in Indy. So if it truly was an issue, there seems to be room to hope that it's been remedied.

Situations are always different, so I'm not going to hold it against him if he's brought in, but will certainly keep an eye on it as he goes. It would be something that Celtic fans would key in on naturally anyways, because coaches of late have seemed to be more concerned with keeping thier job by becoming players friends, rather than keeping thier jobs, by actually doing them.

 

What about Eric Musselman, assuming he is fired by the Warriors which is expected?

 

I have to be honest, I don't know much about Musselman.

<font size="1"><font color="DarkRed">(However, being fired by the Warriors isn't something I'd put on my resume) j/k</font></font>