and another stomach punch to wolves fans!

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

So Mitchell gets 47 wins out of a team who's top-5 scorers were: a 22 year old Bosh, rookie Bargnani, Anthony Parker, TJ Ford, and Juan Dixon...and we're convinced he's no good?

Seems like management blamed him to keep Bosh happy, but that team looks terrible on paper.

[thedoper]

So Mitchell gets 47 wins out of a team who's top-5 scorers were: a 22 year old Bosh, rookie Bargnani, Anthony Parker, TJ Ford, and Juan Dixon...and we're convinced he's no good?

Seems like management blamed him to keep Bosh happy, but that team looks terrible on paper.

That was the height of the awful east and pre- Ford's spinal injury. I think Mitchell is a good motivator and a mediocre systems guy. I think we could do better to really look for or take a chance on a defensive specialist.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

I keep hearing mediocre guy, decent motivator, but I don't know anybody who has actually broken down the types of offensive/defensive sets he's run that are successful/unsuccsessful, how his in-game coaching adjustments were, what kind of practices he ran, what kind of rapport he had with players, etc.

To me, it sounds like a lot of generalizing that may or may not be true, but really the main complaint is that he just seems like a boring choice.

[Monster]

The thing is with Mitchell is he hasn't done much coaching since leaving the Raps and that troubles me. In fact he barely coached for the nets as an assistant before being reassigned to be a scout. Maybe Sam has learned something since his stint with the Raps and maybe he would be a decent hire but it would be a letdown for sure if he was the guy. I'd rather have Mark Jackson for example. Of course Sam may have been somewhat happy doing the broadcasting thing if he didn't get a good situation. Who knows, but he certainly isn't a hot name anywhere. I still think he could end up being a decent hire (even Randy Wittman turned out to be a good coach right?) I won't be excited about it, but I won't be burning down the Target center either.

Blatt is pretty interesting and not becasue he woudl do something with Shved. That woudl be a nice bonus, but if he really has won at every level in the 2nd best basketball in the World maybe he would be an interesting hire. My guess is that there is a worry that just like many players from overseas it could take him at least a year to adjust to the league and thats not what you want if you want to keep Love.

The reality is no matter what Love has said or hasn't said the bottom line is he isn't going to stay here if the Wolves don't win. Thats going to keep some guys away from coaching this team. You can't get around that. A guy like A guy like Nate McMillan isn't going to come here the way things are right now. Flip and the wolves are in a tough spot, but it sounds like they have been looking more extensively than we though a few days ago. What if they have to settle for George Karl after all this? LOL

[Lipoli390]

Sam Mitchell coached 4 full seasons in the NBA as the Raptors'' head coach. He finished with a .457 winning percentage and only one season above .500 when he was named coach of the year. Sam had Bosh, Bargnani, TJ Ford and Jose Calderon during that one plus .500 season playing in a typically weak Eastern Conference. Not a bad team in the weak Eastern Conference at the time. The team quickly reverted the next season to its typical sub-.500 ways and remained there for a couple more seasons before Sam was fired. His one successful season as head coach sure seems like an anomaly to me. I've also been told that most of the team revolted against Sam and didn't have much respect for his basketball acumen. I think that was fairly widely reported at the time.

Bottom line is that hiring Sam to coach the Wolves would be a sad disappointment.

[Coolbreeze44]

Thanks Lip for that post, Why is it so hard for this board to call a spade a spade once in a while? We always have that faction that finds a sliver of positivity about someone/something, and then builds a case from that sliver to try and convince that it could/should work.

NO, Sam Mitchell is not a championship quality coach and never will be. It should be as plain as the nose on your face, and no Wolves fan should be happy or satisfied with such a potential hire. Haven't we been through enough? Demand excellence for once as a fan base, it's the only way you're ever going to get it.

[worldK]

I don't think Sam is a true leader. He's never won big as a player or coach. He has a ceiling as head coach and we've seen what that is. Flip has been to the finals. He's not the greatest coach in the league but he has big game experience and has been to the playoffs many times. Nothing is hurt while Flip coaches. It just bides us time until the situation turns around and we can bring in the right guy.

We have a difference of opinion here about Sam's leadership. You make a fair point about Flip having more playoff success, but Sam never had anything like Garnett/Cassell/Spreewell to work with. Before evaluating a coach's performance, first look at what he has to work with (cough, cough...Phil Jackson). The reason Sam was coach of the year in 2007 is because the voters saw how much he overachieved with a mediocre roster. I'm not giving up on the team if Flip coaches (although I have never thought it was going to happen), but I think Blatt or Mitchell will do more with a team in transition.

Im with cool. At this point I will be okay with letting flip coach for the next season and see if someone (maybe joerger becames available for real?) becames available after the season rather than sam mitchell.

Lst, the mitchell getting body slammed by carter story is probably true. Its been collaborated by players and others and of course denied and played down by mitchell and the team officials.

I dont think sam commands respect among the players as much as you think. Players today barely knows him and his credentials as coach isnt impressive. Players he coache before certainly didnt respect him much. He got the respect of kg as a teammate because he was a vet and was serious with the game. (kg has always respected the vets on the team). But outside of kg, he wasnt nearly as respected and I dont think he will be a good fit.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

He went .500 the next season and then was fired for starting 8-9 in '08-'09 (replaced by Jay Triano, who went 25-40). I'm just saying making the playoffs 2 out of 4 years in Toronto and winning Coach of the Year once is not a disaster, so I'd like to know more about him. There's not a coach in the world that would have been championship caliber with that team.

I hope they find somebody else, but other than a couple general comments about him seeming mediocre, nobody really seems to have an idea how qualified he was as a coach.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Thanks Lip for that post, Why is it so hard for this board to call a spade a spade once in a while? We always have that faction that finds a sliver of positivity about someone/something, and then builds a case from that sliver to try and convince that it could/should work.

NO, Sam Mitchell is not a championship quality coach and never will be. It should be as plain as the nose on your face, and no Wolves fan should be happy or satisfied with such a potential hire. Haven't we been through enough? Demand excellence for once as a fan base, it's the only way you're ever going to get it.

As a proud member of that faction that looks for a sliver of positivity. let me try to speak on behalf of my group. Sometimes the negativity on this board becomes so dominant, that elements of truth tend to get obscured. I have been saying for close to a month now that Mitchell should be considered as a candidate, but to me he has always been one of several candidates that I would have been satisfied with. I don't see any of the candidates out there as being perfect. Even though I was completely on board with Joerger once it seemed we were going in that direction, I have to admit I had some concerns about a 40 year old coach that the Grizzlies were willing to give up on. I am a Hoiberg advocate, but I do have concerns about someone with no NBA coaching experiencing. And the same goes for David Blatt...intriguing candidate, but no NBA track record.

And there are arguments in favor of and against Mitchell too...it's not all black and white like the "black cloud" faction tries to argue. On the negative side, his winning percentage is not strong, he had a public dispute with Vince Carter, and he has not coached much since he left Toronto. But your faction conveniently ignores the positive facts. He led the Raptors to the playoffs in 2 of the 4 seasons that he coached them, even though he inherited a team that was in shambles, and in one of those years he won Coach of the Year honors. In none of his four years was he given a roster anywhere comparable to the roster Adelman had to work with last year, and his COY award I believe was the experts recognizing how he had overachieved. And he is a proven leader. I first became aware of the high regard in which the league held him when his leadership helped avert an NBA strike several yeas ago. Without Mitchell's strength and leadership, the NBA players association would have almost certainly gone on strike.

While I appreciate the basketball wisdom on this board and I am a daily reader, sometimes I think the truth gets smothered by an avalanche of pessimism. A little more balance would be a good thing to aim for sometimes.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Thanks Lip for that post, Why is it so hard for this board to call a spade a spade once in a while? We always have that faction that finds a sliver of positivity about someone/something, and then builds a case from that sliver to try and convince that it could/should work.

NO, Sam Mitchell is not a championship quality coach and never will be. It should be as plain as the nose on your face, and no Wolves fan should be happy or satisfied with such a potential hire. Haven't we been through enough? Demand excellence for once as a fan base, it's the only way you're ever going to get it.

As a proud member of that faction that looks for a sliver of positivity. let me try to speak on behalf of my group. Sometimes the negativity on this board becomes so dominant, that elements of truth tend to get obscured. I have been saying for close to a month now that Mitchell should be considered as a candidate, but to me he has always been one of several candidates that I would have been satisfied with. I don't see any of the candidates out there as being perfect. Even though I was completely on board with Joerger once it seemed we were going in that direction, I have to admit I had some concerns about a 40 year old coach that the Grizzlies were willing to give up on. I am a Hoiberg advocate, but I do have concerns about someone with no NBA coaching experiencing. And the same goes for David Blatt...intriguing candidate, but no NBA track record.

And there are arguments in favor of and against Mitchell too...it's not all black and white like the "black cloud" faction tries to argue. On the negative side, his winning percentage is not strong, he had a public dispute with Vince Carter, and he has not coached much since he left Toronto. But your faction conveniently ignores the positive facts. He led the Raptors to the playoffs in 2 of the 4 seasons that he coached them, even though he inherited a team that was in shambles, and in one of those years he won Coach of the Year honors. In none of his four years was he given a roster anywhere comparable to the roster Adelman had to work with last year, and his COY award I believe was the experts recognizing how he had overachieved. And he is a proven leader. I first became aware of the high regard in which the league held him when his leadership helped avert an NBA strike several yeas ago. Without Mitchell's strength and leadership, the NBA players association would have almost certainly gone on strike.

While I appreciate the basketball wisdom on this board and I am a daily reader, sometimes I think the truth gets smothered by an avalanche of pessimism. A little more balance would be a good thing to aim for sometimes.

Yeah yeah yeah. Pelfrey still sucks. :thumb:

Always appreciate your posts, LST. Well-thought and generally long enough to gain a full sense of what your opinion is.

I too believe hiring Mitchell would be a mistake, though.