Coaches

fizdale

This board regurgitates the same 5 threads everyday

These threads are better left to the offseason. That is the soonest we will be seeing a coaching change and so much depends on the direction of the team at that point.

I agree the roster has more to do with the defense than the coach.
I have never liked the hire of Gentry, and i still do not think he's a good coach, and it would be very dumb to fire him mid season, but i have no idea who to replace him with. I'm just not familiar with the coaching names out there right now.

Jerry Stackhouse is making a name for himself as a coach for the Raptors G-League team. Was Coach of the year last year.
Article on Stackhouse from August
From the few articles i've seen about him, he's expecting to be an NBA head coach soon. I liked what i've read about him.

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NoFox threw out Boston's assistant GM, and Boston's status is high enough now that he'd probably carry some weight. Plus if the worst happens with AD he'd know where Ainge buried the bodies so could get maximum value out of him.

Hinkie has been vindicated with The Process in Philly and before Philly he was Morey's assistant in Houston and is a big analytics guy. He's someone that I think could sell making the Pels a modern organization that AD/DC would want to stay with.

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Mike Zarren is probably the premier GM candidate out there. Prying him from Boston would be a coup. He is in the Hinkie/Morey absurdly intelligent, analytics mold having been hired by Morey as an non-paid intern originally, but has gained a lot of basketball knowledge working with Ainge. Morey and Hinkie have consistenly praised Zarren and said he should be a GM.

Zarren is a really bright guy with vision. Also as you mention if the need comes to blow it up and start over, he knows exactly how much Ainge is willing to give up.

The big problem with Zarren is that he is a lifelong Celtics season ticket holder and huge fan of the team. He flirted with the Sixers positions before Hinkie, but stuck around and hasn't taken another interview since. They may have outlined a succession plan for him with Ainge.

But I agree with you. It is such a complicated offseason that you cannot go with an out of left field pick.

In my mind, Cousins is gone this summer. However that goes down, I'm pretty confident it happens. Given that the Pelicans are pretty much bottom third in the league in every major way (media, revenue, attendance, wins,payroll, etc), we need to find a young visionary that will reshape the culture of the organization. Its cool to talk about all these top names, but the team isn't going to pay staff top dollar. That has never happened. I just don't see any big splash hires going down..

The NFL is just different from the NBA. It has extreme parity and the Saints are a proven winner. They are rewarded by constantly investing in the Saints. The Pelicans are a totally different situation. The Bensons got a sweetheart deal and took advantage. Now they are bidding their time to flip the team to someone else. Every team is the league will have the same type of money to work with, if not more. To expect the Pelicans to start outspending major market teams seems unrealistic..

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it'd be unreasonable to expect a good GM to build a strong organization

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so there are 2 different things you're talking about in your post:

1) getting a name like Hinkie or Zarren to come on board

2) finding a lesser know/proven, but still smart, capable GM to make the Pels a more competent organization than Demps has been able to do the past decade

i highly doubt #1 happens w/o a big payday, near complete control/autonomy, and assurances that spending for infrastructure will meet expectations

#2 is, indeed, not unreasonable at all

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near complete control/autonomy

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What is one of the complaints about Demps? Lack of oversight and accountability. Now there do appear to be certain limitations like the Pels appear to have taken one for the team and kept an Ochsner doctor, and Duane Brooks must know where all of Payton's Vicodin is buried, but outside of "forced" organizational synergy, I really don't think an incoming GM would feel a lack of control.

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spending for infrastructure will meet expectations

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They built what immediately became one of the better practice facilities in the league. People act like Benson is cheap when he isn't. He may not throw money at problems like Cuban, but he certainly isn't cheap like Shinn was. There is enough money in the system with the new league economics that a good GM should have enough to work with.

How much do y'all think a top GM costs? I honestly don't know if I've ever seen a GM salary figure outside of the Coach/GMs. If a guy like Thibs gets $10 per year I would imagine the top GMs are more in the $5ish range. They were paying Gentry + Demps together at least $5 before the new TV money started rolling in. So I don't think it's crazy for the team to pay $10ish for the next GM/HC combo with all of this new money.