Nurse doesn't sound like he would be a good fit for the Rockets. If we get extra veterans in, he's going to play them 40 min a night and that's going to make a lot of fans unhappy. We got mad at Silas at times for playing veterans over rookies. Nurse is going to take that to the extreme.
Unlike some, I don't dislike Vogel and the idea of hiring him doesn't upset me. He'd be close on my list after Atkinson. Guess I'm just trying to narrow down who I'd like. Getting Vogel wouldn't freak me out. ;-) As you're well aware, and better informed than a lot of us, it's such a huge decision. I think they really blew it with Silas. He's a nice guy, and a very good assistant coach, top notch, but should never have gotten the head coaching position with our Rockets, in my opinion. If Stone did it mainly because he thought he could manipulate Silas if he needed to, as he clearly ended up doing (in my opinion), it doesn't say much about Stone and he certainly did Coach Silas no favors. Quite the opposite, in my opinion. His job with the Rockets, which as we all know he took thinking he's have Harden and primarily a veteran team, is now a millstone around his neck when it comes to his career. Heck, he'll have a difficult time getting another head coaching position, at least for the next several years, in my opinion. As a assistant, sure, but Stone left the guy with years of dues to pay in order to get another chance at the top job, in my opinion. I don't think a lot of Stone. You might have gotten that impression. I once did. After all, he managed to get both Tari Eason and Alperen Sengun, which is huge, but finding the right head coach is arguably his most important decision, and he's zero for one in that department, in my opinion. Perhaps he should stick to the draft. Were I in Fertitta's position, I'd hire an improvement as a GM, but keep Stone in a less important position in the organization. One associated with the draft.
that article did not portray NN as a fit. nor Ime a fit in Rapland. time will tell who lands where during this carousel; time will tell who won this carousel. (why am I dubious about our Dream franchise???)
Yikes, I'm replying to my own post. FYI I did watch most of these, and I think the Defense and Leadership ones are the best ones to watch. The other two are mostly Nurse doing drills with the (I assume U16?) Hungary team. Useful if you want to know about that stuff (he will likely run the same stuff with us), but not sure it really matters at this stage for most fans. One thing I found interesting is that in the Leadership video, he talks about how he rates his assistant coaches. He brings up one coach that their staff rated as a problem (I think this coach disagreed with team philosophy), and that he was still working things out with him. I then saw this: Based on Raptor fan investigations, it seems this might have been Earl Watson? Anyway, based on what I see here, this seems like another thing Masai bungled, and I don't have a problem with what Nurse did. I'm sure I'd like Udoka and Vogel a lot more if I could watch them ramble for 2-4 hours about coaching, but yeah I'm kinda leaning heavily towards Nurse now. edit: Oh one thing I'm thinking about all of these guys (and most coaches) is that a lot of fans want more "structure" and playcalling from their coaches, but based on what I've seen, I'm guessing all of these guys have a pretty free-flowing, "read and react"-ish style offense (though they often adapt things based on personnel). That, or they just give the ball to an MVP type player and let them go to work, which also seems pretty successful.
I am aware of the Watson thing. But my reaction was different from the Raptors fans. Why does a head coach need permission from the GM, when assistant didn't do well. The head coach is technically the assistant coach's manager. Coach autonomy and empowerment to manage his team.
Wait people are mad that Nick is a hard ass? Isn’t that what we want? We just dealt with a coach that’s the ultimate pushover.
Yeah, that's what bugged me about it. And based on what Nurse says in the Leadership video (assuming this is the same person), this is a guy that the entire staff of coaches pointed out as a problem. Maybe it was for the best that Masai smoothed things over, but I'm not sure if Nurse really did anything wrong (especially if the guy was still being a problem).
More for others who may be reading in case they forgot Earl's coaching record: PHX 2015-16 09W-24L (27.3%) PHX 2016-17 24W-58L (29.3%); that's 2 better wins than Silas this year. PHX 2017-18 0W-3L (fired at the start of season)
If Nurse was brought aboard, it would have to be with the understanding on Nurse's part that this team, in the 2023-24 season, continues to need to develop its young talent (if that is what the FO wants). As far as fans go, I think at least some of them (most?) want to win more than spend another year in development mode. Not saying I agree with this, I think its obvious that all the way from the Rockets top brass all the way down to the players and fans, are sick and tired of losing. So the question becomes, is the next coach going to be pushed by the FO to win or develop in 2023-24?
This sounds a bit absurd. Their roster was not good enough to be a contender and the team was trying to make the playoffs. When exactly should he have taken minutes away from his best players and given it to his worst players? It sounds like Masai is just protecting his draft picks when in reality they weren't good enough to play more. I don't like coaches who overplay their starters - MDA was horrid at that - but you have to give him depth so that he can use the depth. They didn't have a rim protector till halfway into the season. The bench sucked all season. It takes a top 10 defense and top 10 offense to win a title. He finished top 15 in both. You couldn't have asked for more than that. Who gives a F what Gary Trent Jr said? That's an insignificant player talking **** about a championship winning coach. Masai doesn't seem to want to concede that this was a roster missing a rim protector for half the season, depth on the bench and an actual elite scorer. You're not going anywhere with GTJ as your second best scorer on the offensive end and no rim protection on the other. If anything I'm amazed he had them top 12 or 13 in defense with half a season of Poeltl at C.
i’m thinking we don’t make a decision till after draft lottery. not that we’re getting wemby, but if we get scoot it would give us more leverage with potential hires
I posted this from a beat writer from a legit site. Accept or reject at your direction. In brief, I don’t like NN as my choice for my team because the eye test said, YOU LOST THIS TEAM. Good coaching? Look to Utes or OKC. Atlanta after Quin. Coaches make a difference. Ours was a negative difference, likewise in Chitown. Probably Minnie.
I think the beat writer is providing legit info, especially if that is essentially stating what Masai and the Raptors organization think. But I think the point is that this seems more of a slight on Masai than Nurse. I don't know if Nurse "lost" the team, but even if he did, they still did fairly well given their roster. It just isn't a good roster, and Masai can't really decide whether to rebuild or take a risk for a championship. Or maybe he does want to tank, but Nurse is overachieving with a bad roster. I do have worries that players might tune out Nurse, but I worry about that with any coach. And at least with Nurse, he's had plenty of success (multiple championships at different levels), and at least some players seem to praise him. So I'm not sure why I'd be more concerned with him having that issue vs random coach X. Others have touched on this already (including the point that nearly every coach plays vets), but I assume he'd adapt a bit to things with our younger roster (with better "young talent" and lower expectations). But even then, I'm sorta OK with playing vets. I assume guys like JG, Jabari, and Sengun will still get minutes, so we're probably talking about guys like JC, Garuba, TyTy, and maybe Tari (though I think Nurse would love Tari). It would be be nice to develop them, but I'm not that bothered if they mostly sit on the bench until they prove themselves. I do wonder if Nurse would *want* to coach a team like ours, but if he actually took the job, this isn't really a concern for me.
