Now as much as I love Nate, and feel he has been severely restricted in his coaching style by the roster he has to work with, is it possible that this team has an even better coach being similarly restricted by his assistant's role? I'm talking about, of course, Dwayne Casey. Highly fancied by Toronto before they went instead with Kevin O'Neill (a mistake IMO), and also linked with Boston before Doc Rivers was hired, he will undoubtably be pursued by other vacancies in the offseason (Atlanta, Charlotte?). My personal belief is that, while Nate has shown a real penchant for being creative, he doesn't have the tools to suit how he wants to coach the game, and I have my doubts as to whether he will ever get them, short of taking apart the entire roster. He isn't especially patient when it comes to coaching, either, although he has done an admirable job in the circumstances. My question is, would it be worth considering letting Nate go and promoting Dwayne Casey. Nate's ties with North Carolina would make him a natural contender for the Bobcats' job, although it is a risk replacing proven with potential.
well it seems to me the Supers are stuck in a quagmire,not really going one way or the other and I think for the type of players they have on their roster a coaching change would be paramount to being a better team. It's no secret Nate likes a hardnose defense and right now this team isn't on par with what he wants. A coaching change could be huge in turning the Sonics back into the top of the food chain.
I love Nate as a coach...Granted I don't know anything about this Casey guy, but if I were the Sonics I would hold onto Nate...But like Dre was talking about, it depends on what the GM has in mind for this team. Are they a soft team by accident or by design? If it's by design, then Nate isn't the right coach
I agree, Dwayne Casey is a great coach and whoever he works for next year is very fortunate but like notmuchgame said, the team's softness isn't a result of Nate's coaching...it is because we have banked on the success of overpaid guys like Jerome James and Calvin Booth to provide muscle. The problem is the front office and even though I would have no objections to having Dwayne Casey as coach of the Sonics, he could be the best coach in the world and the Supes wont go anywhere unless the front office stops screwing around and starts building a winner.
^ Fair call Shard. I am Nate's biggest fan, and want nothing more than to see him succeed. But what I do think about is he only has a year left on his contract (I think - I may be wrong about that) and rebuilding this team will take time. I wonder whether Nate is the best man to stick around in the long run - not for the team, but for himself personally.
I don't think Nate will ever take this team to it's full potential if management keeps trying to build a Mavericks clone. He's a defensive-minded coach, a good one at that, but the Sonics are a horrible defensive team right now. There are too many players on the roster who don't want to play defense or who just aren't good at it for Nate's type of play to work. Either some changes need to be made to the roster, or Nate needs to go. I'll always love him, though.
^ Good to see you joined up, mate What you're saying is sad, but may just be true. You can't be a Sonics fan and not love the guy, he symbolises everything that is good about the game of basketball IMO.
