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Why is everyone so excited about this Avery Johnson hire?
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:00 am
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:00 am
I'm not impressed at all. He's an out of work NBA coach. Look, I'm a huge basketball fan, I truly believe its the greatest sport ever invented just because of how dynamic every player on the court has to be as opposed to your position having 1 maybe 2 jobs and thats it. But basketball COACHING in the NBA isnt rocket science. A lot of the most important stuff is done for you by your general manager. You take players, plug them into offenses and defenses, decide who starts and who doesnt, and you call plays and yell at refs. And sometimes, depending on your roster, managing conflicting egos. There's a good amount of X's and O's, but thats basically it and Avery Johnson wasnt exactly spectacular at the limited duties an NBA coach has.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone can do it, and to be REALLY successful (winning championships) it takes more than that, but just being a decent coach in the NBA isnt a very dynamic job.
Now to college....
Everything an NBA coach has to do, PLUS recruit, develop players, often times reteach fundamentals to players who were recruited as pure athletes, many times complete change offensive or defensive philosophies depending on the talent you were able to recruit, and then you have to be able to go out and promote your team, ESPECIALLY at a place like Alabama where football is king and you need someone to really push basketball to the masses.
I do not have faith that Avery Johnson can do very many of these things at any decently competitive level.
Bill Battle dropped the ball last year when he didnt get rid of Grant THEN and get one of the best coaches currently in the business, AT A DISCOUNT no less, and instead let him go to our arch rival. I am not impressed with Bill Battle's performance as an AD so far. He is a penny pincher CEO, which is NOT what Alabama needs. When you have an athletic department that gross's as much money as ours does, you dont need someone to pinch the pennies, you need someone to spend the money you have on the assets you need to be competitive and I just dont think his mindset is capable of that.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone can do it, and to be REALLY successful (winning championships) it takes more than that, but just being a decent coach in the NBA isnt a very dynamic job.
Now to college....
Everything an NBA coach has to do, PLUS recruit, develop players, often times reteach fundamentals to players who were recruited as pure athletes, many times complete change offensive or defensive philosophies depending on the talent you were able to recruit, and then you have to be able to go out and promote your team, ESPECIALLY at a place like Alabama where football is king and you need someone to really push basketball to the masses.
I do not have faith that Avery Johnson can do very many of these things at any decently competitive level.
Bill Battle dropped the ball last year when he didnt get rid of Grant THEN and get one of the best coaches currently in the business, AT A DISCOUNT no less, and instead let him go to our arch rival. I am not impressed with Bill Battle's performance as an AD so far. He is a penny pincher CEO, which is NOT what Alabama needs. When you have an athletic department that gross's as much money as ours does, you dont need someone to pinch the pennies, you need someone to spend the money you have on the assets you need to be competitive and I just dont think his mindset is capable of that.
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Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:01 am to ThaKaptin
Big name, splash hire, helps recruiting
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:02 am to ThaKaptin
I think Bama did as good as they were able to with this hire. At least he's a big name that kids will recognize. But definitely didn't do as well as Tennessee, Texas or State IMO.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:02 am to ThaKaptin
Because they know the name.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:02 am to ThaKaptin
Will bring excitement to the program, but that will fizzle when people realize he's just not a very good coach.
Great human being though so I'll never say I hate AJ or anything like that. He just has no college experience and is not a great coach.
Great human being though so I'll never say I hate AJ or anything like that. He just has no college experience and is not a great coach.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:03 am to TheCaterpillar
I don't know much about his coaching abilities. I just know he had a loaded Dallas team and that was the peak of his career.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:04 am to ThaKaptin
Didn't read. Prolly some good shite though. I'm just glad our AD is trying. All I want is to have the ability to get excited about basketball again. I'm not say Avery is gonna wreck shite. But maybe he can swing a couple one and done guys. That would be fun. 
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:04 am to genro
quote:
Big name, splash hire, helps recruiting
Not if he doesn't know how to recruit.
Not saying he doesn't, but we have no idea. Recruiting is hard fricking work.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:04 am to genro
You never know. I always wait for the results. You knew Saban would be good, same Calipari, Urban, some of these guys but NOBODY thought Carroll would do what he did at SC. NOBODY thought Belechick would do what he did in New England, Harbaugh at Stanford. It's a crapshoot. Could be perfect fit, stars line up, recruits come and fit the schemes or it could be a trainwreck. We'll know next March.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:05 am to Roses of Crimson
You should know well before March.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:06 am to cas4t
quote:
I don't know much about his coaching abilities. I just know he had a loaded Dallas team and that was the peak of his career.
Greg Popovich thinks he's a very good coach and has stated that fact publicly as has Dirk Nowitzki. I'll take their word over anyone here. No offense of course.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:06 am to ThaKaptin
I'm with you Kaptain. Just seems like a face saving hire. Maybe he can land a few recruits in a year, but for his first time recruiting is for an SEC team not named Kentucky. Good luck. Then he also has to develop relationships with camp circuits, coaches, shoe company's and AAU circuits. It's a greedy mess, and he's all new to it.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:07 am to Robin Masters
Saban said LSU should have hired Nutt To replace him. I'm sure you'd take his advice too right?
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:08 am to TheCaterpillar
quote:
Will bring excitement to the program, but that will fizzle when people realize he's just not a very good coach.
Great human being though so I'll never say I hate AJ or anything like that. He just has no college experience and is not a great coach.
I agree with all of this. I would never knock him as a person, as you said, he just isnt a very good coach. Especially knowing what we COULD have had last year had Bill pulled the trigger when every one else in the country knew he should have.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:08 am to cas4t
Pros: big name, pro experience
negatives: never coached or recruited college kids, defense is much different in College.
Good hire for Bama, how good will be determined.
negatives: never coached or recruited college kids, defense is much different in College.
Good hire for Bama, how good will be determined.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:08 am to TheCaterpillar
quote:
He just has no college experience and is not a great coach.
List me the current "great" SEC basketball coaches. If your being honest there is just one. To me "great" means universally thought of as a championship caliber coach and outside coach Cal nobody in the SEC has that. He doesn't have to be great to be successful at Bama. No one at Bama expects multiple final fours. We just want a competitive team that is fun to watch that consistently makes the tournament. Bama had that under Wimp and no one is going to call Wimp a "great" coach.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:09 am to ThaKaptin
quote:
When you have an athletic department that gross's as much money as ours does, you dont need someone to pinch the pennies, you need someone to spend the money you have on the assets you need to be competitive and I just dont think his mindset is capable of that.
Huhh???.....we went out and offerd to make Marshall a top 5 coach as far as compensation as well as all the support he wanted...and in case you haven't been following, there are a dearth of candidates right now...and the ones like Marshall have their eyes on the established programs that will likely have openings in the next few years. Frankly, we are lucky to get AJ.
I also completely disagree with your assesment of AJ on the X' and O's side. He is personable and should be able to recurit well. The risk of course is he is a career NBA guy not a college coach with everything that enatails.
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:09 am to Aman
So does bama now have two of the shortest male coaches in College athletics?
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:10 am to Aman
quote:
List me the current "great" SEC basketball coaches
Calipari
Posted on 4/6/15 at 10:10 am to Aman
Donovan is a great coach as well.
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