George Karl and Nuggets part ways

jalfa

jalfa

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Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 31m Karl will not be brought back for the final year of his contract, source tells Y! Sports. He was informed this morning.
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what the hell is going on in Denver? firing the executive and the coach of the year in the same offseason? insane. wonder if that has an impact on Iggy resigning with them and if that might make him more available for the likes of us.
 
Has any coach ever been fired after getting coach of the year? Mike Brown maybe?

I really like George Karl, he would've been good for the Kings.
 
sometimes i get so confused by what goes on around the league. george karl was a perfect fit with the nuggets' present style of play, and squeezed more out of that roster than just about any other coach could. rick adelman might have been able to do so, as well, but we're looking at a short list of coaches who match up well with that roster. they overachieved this last season in a brutally tough western conference, and karl was rewarded with a coach of the year award. it's mind-boggling that they'd cut him loose...

likewise, lionel hollins was a perfect fit with the grizzles' present style of play, but memphis seems unlikely to retain his services despite unprecedented success for that small market franchise. given their meager offensive talents, it could also be said that memphis overachieved in arriving at the western conference finals after trading away their leading scorer. again, it's mind-boggling that they'd cut hollins loose. do these owners not like to win or something?
 
i'd also like to note that, while i've been impressed with mike malone's attitude and apparent philosophy thus far, and while i also look forward to seeing how he'll apply that philosophy in sacramento, it's starting to look like a pretty risky hire for ranadive, with so many top coaches hitting the market this offseason. george karl is available. lionel hollins has been granted permission to speak to other teams. nate mcmillan is still out there. jerry sloan has expressed interest in returning to the sideline. even jeff van gundy has had preliminary talks with the clippers regarding their coaching vacancy...

i have my opinions of each of the above, both positive and negative, as i'm sure everybody at kf.com does, but, honestly, it's a helluva time to be looking for a quality head coach. for seven years in the post-rick adelman era, the kings have waded through the detritus of such searches, always needing to bring in somebody credible with few coaches available who fit that bill. so the maloofs settled for cast-offs and upstarts. but now we might just be staring down one of the best crops of veteran head coaching candidates in recent memory, and the kings decided to go with another upstart...

granted, malone's credentials and success are infinitely more attractive than that of, say, reggie theus or kenny natt or keith smart, and i am genuinely excited that he's our head coach. i do have confidence that he'll smoothly transition to the big job, but a part of me is also a bit envious of the big names that are out there on the market...
 
We have picked our coach and
I'm happy. That isn't to say folks shouldn't discuss what could have been, even argue the comparative merits of this "superb" class of non-picked coaches, but for my part, please give it a rest.
 
I agree with both Karl and Hollins in regards of their teams compatibility. I thought it was Karl who instill the whole play style with the Nuggets that made them overachieving and a borderline playoffs worthy team.



As far as Mike Malone, well, Vivek said he isn't 99% sure...

So I guess we will see.
 
pshn80 said:
We have picked our coach and
I'm happy. That isn't to say folks shouldn't discuss what could have been, even argue the comparative merits of this "superb" class of non-picked coaches, but for my part, please give it a rest.
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it's only natural to express anxiety with so much change occurring all at once. we, of course, hope that these changes will occur for the better, but there are no guarantees. it's more than fair to address the exceptional crop of available head coaches as a whole, given their experience and success in catapulting their respective teams to the playoffs...
 
Wow didn't see that coming. Unfortunately, that Denver team just does not have the go to star they need to win in the playoffs. Changing coaches is not going to fix that. This might be an indicator they are planning on blowing it up.
 
What does a coach have to do to keep his job in the NBA nowadays. Karl makes the 3rd coach to be fired this off season with at least 56 wins on the season. Karl (Nuggets) won 57 games, Del Negro (Clippers) and Hollins (Grizzlies) won 56 games. I can't remember a off season when even 2 coaches with over 50 wins on the season have been fired.
 
so the nuggets hired brian shaw as their head coach last night. i just don't get it. don't get me wrong, i think shaw's a good hire. he's highly-regarded, having coached under a legend, and he's done everything possible to earn the big job on the bench after being passed over by several teams a couple of seasons in a row. that said, the nuggets overachieved to 57 wins this last season without a legitimate superstar. it's also a roster that nuggets' brass intends to keep together, so why fire the experienced guy who coaxed a ton chemistry from his team just to hire an inexperienced outsider who the players may or may not be prepared to trust? it doesn't make an ounce of sense to me...
 
Padrino said:
so the nuggets hired brian shaw as their head coach last night. i just don't get it. don't get me wrong, i think shaw's a good hire. he's highly-regarded, having coached under a legend, and he's done everything possible to earn the big job on the bench after being passed over by several teams a couple of seasons in a row. that said, the nuggets overachieved to 57 wins this last season without a legitimate superstar. it's also a roster that nuggets' brass intends to keep together, so why fire the experienced guy who coaxed a ton chemistry from his team just to hire an inexperienced outsider who the players may or may not be prepared to trust? it doesn't make an ounce of sense to me...
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i think ownership felt that they had taken the run-n-gun use your 5k elv. to your advantage game as far as it would go. It looks like they plan to go smart, run the triangle and target specific players now that the draft is no longer their friend.
 
Padrino said:
so the nuggets hired brian shaw as their head coach last night. i just don't get it. don't get me wrong, i think shaw's a good hire. he's highly-regarded, having coached under a legend, and he's done everything possible to earn the big job on the bench after being passed over by several teams a couple of seasons in a row. that said, the nuggets overachieved to 57 wins this last season without a legitimate superstar. it's also a roster that nuggets' brass intends to keep together, so why fire the experienced guy who coaxed a ton chemistry from his team just to hire an inexperienced outsider who the players may or may not be prepared to trust? it doesn't make an ounce of sense to me...
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Not going to dig it up, but I think it was mostly contract-related. I agree with you, BTW. But I think Karl wanted an extension before the season started.
 
HndsmCelt said:
i think ownership felt that they had taken the run-n-gun use your 5k elv. to your advantage game as far as it would go. It looks like they plan to go smart, run the triangle and target specific players now that the draft is no longer their friend.
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'cept brian shaw has already said he won't be running the triangle:

Brian Shaw said:
Of all the years I played, I only played in the Triangle the last four years, and obviously I coached in that system under Phil. But in all the other years I was exposed to a lot of different systems. So no, I won't be coming in and bringing the Triangle to Denver.
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so what will he do?

Brian Shaw said:
I look at the positive things that [the Nuggets] did, the things they did well under George Karl, and try to continue to build on those. And in some of the areas where they could use improvement, try to improve in those areas. I want to put my own spin on things, push the right buttons and find the right combinations.
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http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9419087/denver-nuggets-agree-hire-brian-shaw-head-coach

now, that's about as vague as it gets, which is what i would expect from a first-time head coach who has yet to compose his staff or see court time with his players. but i'm not sure what the nuggets expect, either. as a team, they need defensive help more than anything else, so if shaw plans to slow the game down, that might be a start. but we really have no idea what his designs are, or how he'll perform with this roster. we don't know how he'll perform with any roster. and this isn't, say, the kings of seven straight losing seasons. this is a nuggets team that was successful under george karl, both with and without carmelo anthony...

my point is, with their front office cleared outta town and their head coach fired, the nuggets look like a mess to me. if i'm pete d'allesandro, it was an easy decision to take the sacramento job over the denver job. at least here there's really nowhere to go but up with the kings' new ownership group. denver, on the other hand, seems poised for a come-down. 57 wins and a first-round playoff exit is nothing to scoff at, particularly without a superstar to anchor the roster. if the nuggets fail to make the playoffs this coming season with a rookie head coach in a tough-as-nails western conference, they will have a lot to answer for in firing george karl...
 
Well that is a bit odd. Not so much that BS has no attachment to the triangle, but that he does not seem to see a particular change he would like to make to the offense. I would not call Denver a failure, but i can see where some might feel they were limited in terms of how far their system could go. To that end I would expect to see a clear plan for a new direction or at least improvement.
 
lets not forget that in the 1st round series against the warriors they were without their best shooter and floor spacer in galinari and their best frontcourt player kenith faried was out/limited for much of the series yet they still played very well, even in a non run and gun setting that is the nba playoffs. I think had they been healthy they would have beaten the warriors(regardless of currys health) letting go of karl who won coach of the year was a terible move, an adelmen firing type mistake.
 
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