dobrojim wrote:in emails with my ticket rep yesterday he said EG thinks highly of TT
and he is definitely on the radar.
I understand that doesn't mean a whole heckuva lot
Well the fact that he was almost hear last year does.
Not hard to read those tea leaves.
We have one peak into who EG would bring in and we have one peak of who he would have leave.
Tapps was another peak we got. He choose an interim coach instead of locking into something before he had all the coaching choices available to him so he choose a player development coach that wasn't overly expensive and who had close ties to him and the organization. Some may not think Tapps to be a good head coach but he was a solid choice for the job he was given.
I would be real surprised if Tapps and EG aren't in constant contact regarding who to play and when and how to loose. I'm pretty sure they don't want to waste all this loosing for nothing. Initially, the really wanted to win and they tried but we really just didn't have the horses.
From EGs side, it was a great selection for several reasons not least of which is there will be no problem moving him back to his old job once he is done with this one.
My guess is that EG will want to bring someone here who have the credentials of a championship coach. Someone with much more then what EFJ brought.
I doubt it would be anything like Lambier. He could be an assistant but he wouldn't be a head coach. This team needs someone big enough to manage Gilbert. Someone who has already earned their strips.
It's interesting to go back 5 or more years and remember the state of this team. The culture of losing was so ingrained. I remember what a hard time MJ and Collins had dealing with that. It was kind of crazy to think you couldn't bring in a coach that would be to tough because the players couldn't handle it and had to much control. Back then even Haywood was a goof.
Well, we still have some of that but I think we are in a much better situation now. For the most part, I think our core players ( the ones that are going to be here longer term ) are ready for a top notch coach.
This team has a good opportunity to put itself on a good course for the next 3-5 years. This is all part of the same plan to turn this franchise around and get us on solid stable footing that can be sustained.
I see it all as one steady course of recover from the day MJ showed up and put us back on the map. It's been about 7-8 years since that day. I always saw it as a long term plan. Way to many people got to excited after EFJs second year. 20 years of sucking doesn't get cleaned up in 3 years for several reasons. For starters, nothing is going to go perfectly as planned. 2) The things that stop the bleeding don't necessarily get you to the top. There will be bumps and mistakes. One was we held onto EFJ at least 2 years to long. Personally, I think it was 3 years to long. It's hard to move forward without the right head coach.
Well, this is where we are now. That is the good news of this season. New coach. Top pick. Young players developing in the wings. That is the 2008/09 season. It was a needed step.
We have young talented players. We have a center/ power forward of the future and a solid every day center who has his best days still ahead of him in Haywood. If that was all you had, that would be a solid place to start. You would trade a team of talent to get 2 top 7-0 centers. But we have more then that. We have top scoring machine in Gilbert. We also have a solid young PG prospect and a bevy of other young talent to pick from. We have a good core with options. I'm not so sure AJ and CB will be here in the final configuration though. One ore both could be gone but they are good value for a trade. Plus we are getting a top draft pick.
That's an nice offering to attract a top coach. My guess is we will have our new coach before the draft. With EG as GM and the talent and pick this team will have, I think just about any coach would want to come here short of like a Phil or Pops.