A couple of things on the Nets coaching search, which I would expect will be the first big off-season news to be announced in the coming weeks.
It looks like the New Orleans Hornets are prepared to make Tom Thibodeau an offer, though it’s unclear if he’s going to accept, as he’s still waiting on offers from other teams, namely the Chicago Bulls and the Nets.
Meanwhile, Dave D’Alessandro asks Rod Thorn about newly fired coach Mike Brown: “Maybe,” he said with a telling laugh.
While Dave D. praises him as a “good coach,” I’d say a franchise that is trying so desperately to turn over a new life, would be wise to steer clear of a guy whose team spectacularly choked in the postseason.
Meanwhile, perhaps Dave D. should go into coaching or scouting. In addition to calling Mikhail Prokhorov “NBA dumb” over the weekend, he has, what might be, the most simplified breakdown of how to stop Dwight Howard ever:
Let Dwight Howard catch the ball anywhere and anytime he wants to catch it, because:
1. His postgame is about as robotic and rudimentary as you’ll ever see in a franchise player, and frankly, just bad enough to get Patrick Ewing fired.
2. He’ll never make an opponent pay for the hacks you’re going to slap on him at point-blank range.
3. His left hand is something out of Geek Middle School Follies.
4. Once the doubles and digs arrive, he can’t find shooters if his life depended on it.
After reading all that, you got to wonder how this guy was ever an all-star. Or how his team, the past two seasons, was so successful. Or maybe it’s just that Dave D. seems a wee bit too glib and sarcastic lately for comfort. Great writer, but perhaps this collapse of print media thing is starting to get to him.
