I've been meaning to post a similar thread. In this sense: I don't think Nate will coach us to a championship. Commentators have said he is the perfect guy for our team right now. We have young players and McMillian will coach us up on defense especially. But you have to wonder if he'll be around in two or three years from now (or more) when we'll be making consistent late runs in the playoffs. My guess is that he won't be. Then again, if you look around the league who do you replace him with. I'm kind of partial to coach's with proven experience, but it'll be very unlikely to have a guy like Adleman or Dunleavey come back, and Jerry Sloan, Pop and Phil aren't going anywhere either. So then again, I don't know who is out there that I'd particularly rather have right now anyways.
End of year decision. I believe this season is being treated like a training camp, with little to no concern about wins, which is fine by me. We have a lot of talent to sift through. If we're still fixated on Snailball in March, then I'd support a drastic change for future coach.
I'm happy to disagree (I do it most of the time anyway). The way I see it is that most of the team's struggles can be attributed to Nate (and the players) trying to get used to a few new major additions in Batum, Rudy, and when he's healthy, Greg. Put that together with the five teams they've played and I don't see a whole lot of reason for these past five games to be a catalyst for anything. From what I can gather, I think the current complaints about Nate are mostly a reflection of his choice of rotations and they way those rotations are working out this year ... similar to last year's arguments, but with a very different looking team.
I voted reevaluate at the end of the season. I don't think that he's doing a bad job, but if the team finishes sub-.500 AND there is a natural and potentially better option in the coaching ranks, then I would like us to consider shifting directions... Ed O.
I'm not sure why I think this... but I get the feeling that if KP replaces Nate, he's not planning on a coach we know really well. He'll go over a relatively unknown assistant coach (or, less likely, college coach) who brings a very similar approach to the game that KP does. Kind of his final touch of making the franchise over in his image. So I'm not sure if coach availability will be relevant. Though it may be prudent to wait until the off-season for an in-work assistant coach as well... -Tim
I think he is doing fine... He has a very hard decision on minutes, and has us at 2-3 after the first 5 which is amazing, imo... we have shown improvement in EVERY year he has been with this team, and it took him a while last year, but after 17 games it finally clicked and we played some damn good bball... By the time Webster comes back, I think we will be a top 10 team in the NBA... I think we need some consolidation and/or we need to let everyone know what their roles are on this team and try and trim this down to a 9 man rotation.
I still think he's a great coach, and slow ball makes sense for the core starters to play. I honestly think we'll see a lot more fast breaks when we get a better PG and have a (big time knock on wood) healthy, in-shape Oden.