Pelicans Choose Gentry As HC

Rumored Candidates:
Alvin Gentry
John Calipari
Jeff Van Gundy
Scott Brooks
Fred Hoiberg
Sean Miller
Tom Thibodeau
Scott Skiles


https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/600408365395619840

This really needed its own thread?

Did "Collins Survivor Blog" really needs its own site?

Got a lot of hits in the weeks of its existence, just couldn't keep up with it

Didn't answer my question tho

I've been kind of thinking on it, and obviously when Monty was let go I gave a list of six guys and said one of them will be the next Pels coach and Gentry was on that list, and as I said I'd be happy with him. But I read comments about people not wanting him and they point to his record. That is so lazy and silly, to point at someone's record as the reason they aren't a good coach. We jump on "poor" coaches with good records all the time, why is it frowned upon to do the same just the other way around?

AD under Thibs would be so much fun to watch, but not if he's playing 41 minutes per game.  If they do end up with Thibs, I would hope he's learned a lesson or two from his tenure with Chicago.

I think the minutes per game thing is kind of overblown with Thibs, I think it has more to do with the daily struggle, the daily grind. He ran some of the longest and toughest practices in the league, even his shootarounds were grueling. By the end players just had nothing left to give. I'm not sure how much that would effect or change the Pelicans, because Monty was very Thibs like in this manner.

It's not really lazy, but rather the most important thing

As a head coach, he was 3 winning seasons, and one of those is only over 30 games. Another is over 50. He had one really good season as a head coach. His defenses have always been towards the bottom of the league too as a HC.

I don't care what crazy analytic you are about to pull out towards me, like you always do, but I just cannot fathom how you can want a coach who in his career as a HC has just as many seasons below 40% in win% as having a winning record. If you think Alvin Gentry is the guy that ends up taking you far in the playoffs, you're mistaken. I can guarantee you-- if the Pels hire him, it will be another Monty Williams situation. You'll like him early on, and then slowly start to hate him as he doesn't push the team forwards at all

And my feelings have nothing towards the Pelicans in this situation. I thought Gentry should have been fired earlier when he was in Phoenix

No it's lazy, I'm sure you make these claims with nothing but a record to back it up. Gentry has had four head coaching opportunities, three of them via an interim status. Right off the bat you can say that's toxic.

The only head coaching job he's ever truly gotten was with the Clippers. Listen to this lineup. He steps in two years after they busted on Michael Olowakandi, his starting center and fifth most played player on the team. Jeff McGinnis was his starting lead guard. He gets babies in Lamar Odom, a 19 year old Darius Miles (yippie!), Corey Magette, and Quentin Richardson. His third most active player on that team was a 30 year old Eric Piatkowski. They acquired a third year Elton Brand that next season but that's all she wrote. Pop couldn't have coached himself out of a box with that personnel. He had stops as the interim in Miami and Detroit in the mid to late 90's.

He then takes over for Terry Porter as the interim in Phoenix and leads his team to the WCF that next season. This is the season I look at as the only time he's been a head coach with something to truly work with. Unfortunately that team falls apart after that, they lose arguably their best player (Amare) when he heads to New York. Channing Frye leads the team in minutes that next season, who lets just say wasn't a good player. They add Vince Carter who was even worse. They tore that team down after a playoff run and losing Amare. The one constant you see during Gentry's head coach run is him leading a whole lot of mediocre talent, and a lot of poor luck in general. The one year he had something to work with, he did very well.

Offensively, you have a coach in Monty Williams who leaves a little something to be desired, but the offensive talent on this roster still carried it to be the 8th best offense last season, and that's with Davis, Gordon, Anderson, and Holiday missing a combined 98 games. Bring in a guy like Gentry, someone who is known for his offense, the sky is the limit for this team.

I get where you are coming from defensively, but I don't necessarily agree. I could easily argue that the biggest upgrade coaching wise that's made this offseason isn't going from Monty to Gentry/Thibs/Hoiberg etc but it will be going from Randy Ayers to whoever those guys bring in to be their lead assistant. It's the one thing that would push a guy like Gentry or Thibodeau over someone like Mike Malone is that the coaching channels those veteran guys have. It's easier to bring in a top notch defensive assistant than an offensive one, IMO. I could see a scenario where a guy like Gentry could bring in Malone as his lead assistant for defensive purposes, and you kill two birds with one stone. You bring in a young coach, a Hoiberg, Miller, Atkinson, who does he surround himself with?

http://www.nola.com/pelicans/index.ssf/2015/05/john_calipari_interested_in_pe.html

Given the opportunity to reunite with star forward Anthony Davis, Kentucky coach John Calipari has made it known to New Orleans Pelicans officials that he's interested in the team's vacant head-coaching job, a source close to Calipari said Tuesday.

There have been exploratory conversations between Calipari and the Pelicans, the source said, but it doesn't appear the team would be willing to meet his financial demands to leave Kentucky.

https://twitter.com/UKCoachCalipari/status/600712120418840577

meh i still think he could go even though he said that.

idk if id wanna give cal $8M+ a season.

I honestly think there are two candidates I'd prefer over Cal and another two or three that I think are just as good of candidates if not better. It'd be idiotic to pay Cal 8M when you could get anyone for significantly less.

https://twitter.com/MurphyKeith/status/600725445965844480

Apparently Scott Brooks and Mark Jackson are out of the search (if they were ever in), anyways point being I find it hard to believe the Pels can mess up this hire now.

Jeff Van Gundy and Sean Miller are aggressively pursuing the job.

I can't really see JVG ever coaching again tbh. He seems like he loves the job he has now. Also feel like he would want some GM power like his brother.