Re: NBA coach needed

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> I understand what you are saying and to some extent agree; 
> however, we've seen the results of the past two seasons and they 
> haven't been very good. I guess if the Celtics were coached by an 
> "average" NBA coach, I might not feel this way. My whole point is 
> that Pitino--the $7,000,000/year Pitino--is supposed to be a special 
> coach. As a result, I hold him to a higher standard, just as Antoine 
> is held to a higher standard as opposed to someone like McCarty 
> or Overton.

I really don't have a problem with the idea of holding him to a higher
standard. If he really puts in an "average" NBA coaching performance
over his contract, then I will be disappointed too, no question. 
(I say over his contract because the size of his contract really does
protect him from being fired unless he puts in a truly abysmal
performance). I would dispute the idea that the past two seasons have
been disappointing - the last season certainly was, but were you
really disappointed by the first season? Did you expect playoffs that
year given the entire rebuilding of the team that was necessary, under
rather difficult salary constraints? I thought he did a fine job that
first season, and exceeded the expectations of most "experts" as well
as many on this list.

Anyways, I think that it's reasonable to let him coach for a full
season before talking like his whole regime is already a lost cause.
We can hold him to the high standard at the end of the season. Look at
the Spurs last season; they started 6-8 with calls for Popovich's
firing and ended up doing pretty well. Or the Knicks, for that
matter. I don't expect to see the Celtics in the Finals but my point
is that calling for the head of a coach this early in the season is
generally overreacting, unless you have a 3-20 team perhaps. I agree
with a high standard, but with the standard you are using (fire a
coach whose team performs poorly over a week or so), we could probably
reasonably justify firing about 70% of the coaches in the NBA already 
this season.

Alex

> -David
>