Re: Here's what I see

[Kestutis.Kveraga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
This is interesting. Let's all turn our minds back to the last days of
Pitino. If I remember correctly, Mark, you were ripping the players,
especially that guy currently in Dallas. A lot of us were arguing at the
time that it was actually the right thing for the players to do. Pitino was
a loser, an ego freak, and proved himself incapable of winning in the NBA.
You weren't buying it. You continued to make a lot of references (over a
long period of time) to how Walker selfishly quit on Pitino and got him
fired. I certainly hope you're going to rip Paulie if this team quits on
O'Brien. You certainly don't think that it's good in "this" situation that
the team quits on O'Brien, do you? There is one big difference between
O'Brien and Pitino. O'Brien actually has shown he can coach a team and they
can be relatively successful. You give the guy an actual point guard - I
didn't like Kenny but he's better than anything they've had since - and a
couple of decent offensive threats - Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk - and this
team can actually win a little.
--- end of quote ---

That Obie is a better NBA coach than Pitino doesn't mean he's the right coach
for this team. The team that went to the ECF was built around Obie's wishes,
configured to play the style that both Obie, and more importantly, Toine,
wanted to play. Defense, shooters on the perimeter, and the Toine-and-Paul
show. But that team could only, as you so aptly said, "win a little", and then
only under the right circumstances (i.e., weak conference, the right matchups
in the playoffs). Now the duo is broken up and we're going in a different
direction. Obie hasn't shown he can adjust. Neither has Pierce, really, but
Obie is a lot easier to replace than Pierce, and it's Obie's job to enable
Pierce to play well, not Pierce's job to enable Obie to coach well. 

--- You wrote:
But more than
anything else, I'd love to see Danny try to clean up his own mess and coach
this team. He talks about running all the time. He talks about a motion
offense. He spent years ripping Antoine and O'Brien and this miserable
offense. He obviously knows what needs to be done and how to do it. He
should coach the team, and then his grip on the franchise will be complete
--- end of quote ---

You argument has this base appeal: "Yeah! Let him show what he can do if he so
smart!". But DA doesn't have to be able to implement this offense better than
Obie (although he probably could) to be   critical of the job Obie's doing. As
a basketball executive he should be evaluated on his ability to find the coach
who can do that, not on being able to outcoach his coach. 
Kestas