The Hawks’ next coach? Put Dwane Casey on the case
Improved his team’s record each of the past five seasons; just coached his team to the No. 3 in the East; has made the playoffs three years running; has won two playoff series, each in seven games.
If you’re the Chicago Bulls and you’re hiring for a coach, Mike Woodson would surely be at the top of your list. But the Hawks aren’t the Bulls, and they’ve gone as far with him as they can. And let’s not sell the man short: Under Woodson, this team rose from abject misery to win 53 games.
But the postseason just completed surely represented the end of the road for the Woodman. The Hawks haven’t yet said what they’re going to do, but if they weren’t willing to re-up Woodson when his team was winning 53 regular-season games, there seems no chance they’ll do it after his team lost a playoff series by an average of 25.3 points.
From Jamal Crawford, speaking between Games 3 and 4: “It was like an NCAA tournament game — they were the No. 1 seed and we were the 16. Except that they’re the 2 and we’re the 3.”
It’s possible the Hawks would have been swept with Zen Master Phil Jackson on their bench, but they couldn’t have looked any worse under any coach. This wasn’t a case of an opponent just being better. This was a stark study in what happens when good players stop listening.
Assuming the Hawks change coaches, the next man needs to be one capable of getting and keeping his players’ attention. As Woodson keeps noting, these aren’t the inept Hawks of 2004-2005. At issue now is finding the man capable of taking this team from Round 2 ignominy to Round 3 and beyond.
Avery Johnson’s name arises often, but word in NBA circles is that he’ll get the New Orleans job. Byron Scott is another possibility, but he has had the benefit of having two of the era’s best point guards (Jason Kidd, Chris Paul) in his two coaching stops and got fired from both. And there’s always sentiment to recycle some TV coach — Doug Collins, Jeff Van Gundy, Mike Fratello — but with such big names we must ask: If they’re so great, why aren’t they coaching?
The man I’d hire was interviewed for this job when Woodson got it in 2004. (Also interviewed back then: Mike Brown, who now coaches LeBron.) The man I’d hire is Dwane Casey, who’s currently being sought by other teams — he has interviewed with the Hornets — but might have a greater interest in these Hawks.
Casey worked under Rick Sund, who’s now the Hawks’ general manager, for five years with Seattle as Nate McMillan’s chief assistant. He’s currently employed as Rick Carlisle’s assistant with the Dallas Mavericks. Casey got a chance to be a head coach in 2005 with Minnesota, but it wasn’t a real chance. Kevin McHale fired him halfway through his second season. (Casey’s record was 53-69, which was terrific if you note how the T-Wolves have since collapsed.)
Casey isn’t an exotic coach. He’s not going to go all Don Nelson on you. Where he’d be an upgrade is in relationships. The Hawks died in the playoffs because they stopped trusting one another. (When in doubt, shoot a jumper.) The next coach must handle feelings as much as X’s and O’s.
He must convince Joe Johnson — assuming Johnson stays, which I believe he will — to share the ball. He must convince Josh Smith not to compete with Johnson jump shot for jump shot. He must convince Smith, whose defense in the postseason was terrible, to make the basic rotations and not always play for the film-at-11 block.
Asked Tuesday if the team had stopped paying heed to Woodson in these playoffs, Al Horford said: “I think that’s fair to say to some extent. Some guys had mentally checked out.”
No, that doesn’t say much for those guys: How can you stop caring when you have, as Horford put it, “a chance to do something special”? But it also says they’re not apt to listen to Mike Woodson ever again. I believe Dwane Casey can make them listen. I believe he should be the Hawks’ next coach.
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270 comments Add your comment
Let him Joe
May 11th, 2010
2:08 pm
I want Doc to come back to the A.
Art Vandelay
May 11th, 2010
2:08 pm
Stotts, you want to back that up with some reasons WHY Ewing would be terrible?
Joey
May 11th, 2010
2:09 pm
Laimbeer can show the Hawks how to properly and professionally flop, even with no contact. I believe Kurt Thomas attended Laimbeer’s School of Flopping lately, judging by his ridiculous performance in the Hawks-Bucks series.
Mr. Obvious
May 11th, 2010
2:09 pm
RE: “Because Dwane Casey is very good with young players.” – Mark Bradley @ 12:27pm
So are prostitutes, Mark, but that doesn’t mean I want THEM coaching our Hawks.
Also, last time I checked, the Hawks are still employing a coach.
Let him Joe
May 11th, 2010
2:10 pm
Maybe we talk Magic or Barkley into coaching.
Reality
May 11th, 2010
2:11 pm
At this point I am just thrilled that Woody will be a name of the past!!
Tiger Woods
May 11th, 2010
2:14 pm
I know some prostitutes who are good teachers!
NewCoach
May 11th, 2010
2:21 pm
This would be the same Dwane Casey who put $1,000 in cash in an EmeryWorldwide envelope and sent it to bribe then high school kid Chris Mills to come to Kentucky? THAT Dwane Casey? The one who touched off the scandal that got Eddie Sutton (and Casey) run off of Kentucky? I don’t see the Spirit hiring a guy who’s on record as a cheater.
Ryder
May 11th, 2010
2:25 pm
The first question that Rick Sund should ask the next head coach in any interview is “Who is your strategy on offense?” Any answer outside of “running a low post offense around Al Horford” and Sund should throw them out on their a**. I really don’t know or care who the next coach is, but he needs to realize that the Hawks have a blue chipper, leader, and a future 20-10 guy in Al Horford who will come to play every night. Build around him and watch the other players follow a true leader.
Secondly, Sund should ask him how he’s going to deal with Josh Smith, who is ultra-talented but is still petulant.
Finally, they need a coach who can be a communicator and stress the importance of fundamentals like ball movement.
Remember, unlike Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, Atlanta has a bevy of talent that can contend for a championship now. They need a new voice that can take advantage of that talent.
Dwane Casey
May 11th, 2010
2:25 pm
Yep. That’d be me.
Kane337
May 11th, 2010
2:25 pm
Paul Hewitt as Hawks coach. He is also good with “young” players.
RobertNAtl
May 11th, 2010
2:29 pm
How about Detlef Schrempf? He seemed like a pretty good guy when he was doing a guest spot on the Pawnee cable access diabetes telethon last Thursday. And he used to play basketball!!! So there you go!!!
cdog
May 11th, 2010
2:30 pm
i keep telling everyone, coaching is not the problem with the hawks, its the fact the hawks don’t have physical quality big man to compete with teams like orlando and cleveland.any team thatb has a big man inside that is active and plays strong gives the hawks problems.rick sund should heed this and correct this this off season.letting joe go and woodson would set the team back.just watch this when it happens.he equipped the hawks to beat boston but forgot about cleveland and orlando.he should keep the current players and go out and get a bosh, stoudermier or dirk nortwitzki to go along with the 53 win group we already have..sund should use his head and not panic because we lost to orlando
Arthur Blank
May 11th, 2010
2:31 pm
Needs to leanr to use spell che”x” if you wanna be taknes seriously, geeez. PE, S I owns da falcooons.
KILJOY
May 11th, 2010
2:31 pm
If ever a group of guys needed Bob Knight,its this group!
OSCAR
May 11th, 2010
2:33 pm
What about Bobby Cox?
Dominique Wilkins
May 11th, 2010
2:40 pm
Josh Smiff have had a good season.
The Atlanta Hawks has been a disappointment.
GT Alum
May 11th, 2010
2:45 pm
I think it’s probably overstating to say that the players who quit quit on Woody. I mean, don’t they want to win in the postseason for themselves? Don’t they have more pride than to just let another team walk all over them while giving very little resistance? If so, don’t you still crash the boards for rebounds and dive for loose balls and cover an opposing player like a blanket on defense? Is that really stuff that NBA players have to be coached to do? (Actually, I know that, defying all logic, doing much of anything on the defensive end of the floor is something a lot of players need to be coached into doing.)
It seems like the only way these players only quit on Woody is if they said let’s play so badly there’s no way they’ll keep him around. Otherwise, it seems like they just plain quit, and that says some disturbing things about the character and the competitive drive of some members of this team.
Anthony Jerome Webb
May 11th, 2010
2:49 pm
Give me a shot!!
Clayton Bigsby
May 11th, 2010
2:51 pm
I say hire Meadowlark Lemon as the head coach and Curly Neal as his assistant. It would definitely make watching those clowns (Hawks) more fun..
Kel Varnsen
May 11th, 2010
2:53 pm
Terry Pendleton, he is so good at teaching players not to have any solid surface make contact with the ball, every shot will be nothing but net.
pluckthehawks
May 11th, 2010
2:53 pm
Stan pushes very hard and he never stops coaching. I sit by the Magic bench (21 yrs.) and egg them on when the game is a blow out and Stan is going over what people are doing wrong. The players roll their eyes and snicker….I always thought he coached too much but we are all seeing the results.
GIVE ME A BREAK
May 11th, 2010
2:53 pm
The players that quit need to go. No one can coach lazy players. These guys are millionaires not children. Sad for Atlanta. I wish the games hadn’t been on TV for everyone to see.
Nate ArchiBALL
May 11th, 2010
2:54 pm
Most ex coaches sound like John Wooden when doing game analysis on TV. Remember all of them that you hear on TV were fired several times (Jeff Van Gundy, Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello, Doug Collins) and usually for good reason). Hell, if Mike Woodson was on TV we would probably want him to coach the Hawks.
Jeff Van Gundy – his offenses in New York and Houston were as predictable as Woody’s.
Hubie Brown – besides the fact that he damn near 80 years old, I don’t think most of the bloggers here remember when Hubie coached the Kentucky Colonels, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks. GREAT X and O guy but he has some major personality issues.
A little Hubie history….. http://lexnihilnovi.blogspot.com/2009/11/hubie-brown-bill-russell-is-moron.html
Delbert D.
May 11th, 2010
2:54 pm
Laimbeer’s socks! Laimbeer’s socks! Laimbeer’s socks!
Fan of the game
May 11th, 2010
2:56 pm
I hear that one of the assistants in Cleveland, is good with younger players. Plus he has worked with Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant and now Lebron James. Don’t know if he will leave Cleveland but hey if you going to go with someone who is good with players I would def give him a chance.
pluckthehawks
May 11th, 2010
3:00 pm
Laimbeer is still the only player I’ve ever seen in person who could shot a long 2 and punch you in the face at the same time.
Mr. Turnip-Green Jeans
May 11th, 2010
3:03 pm
Casey sounds kinda like basketball’s version of Bobby Cox.
Hawks players who didn’t show-up for the playoffs need to be gone, no matter who they are. It’s a shame Horford had to take the floor with some of these quitters. He pretty much had to go it alone. They should build the team around Al. He’s actually got the guts it takes to play championship basketball. Joe and Josh have proved to be losers; effort, guts, and force-of-will, can’t be taught.
Kenbud
May 11th, 2010
3:03 pm
Mark — It just feels like the players need someone they can relate with. Someone who they look up to (for ANY reason) and someone who can bring touch love mixed with a dose of player love. Even though he has never coached, I would say that person is …… Mark Jackson. I think he would be a great fit for the team. They know him from TV. They know he knows the game (from listening to his observations). They know he was a GREAT leader as a point guard. It’s a risk, but a gutsy one.
Gordon
May 11th, 2010
3:03 pm
Paul Hewitt is the man the Hawks need. He is clearly committed to the city of Atlanta. I don’t care what Tech does to try to keep him, the Hawks should go get him.
Whopper Dawg
May 11th, 2010
3:06 pm
I would make Skiles say no.
Fan of the game
May 11th, 2010
3:06 pm
Mark Jackson would not be good. He has not coached at any level. Coach Hunt with the Cavs would be a great pick.
G'Vegas Dawg
May 11th, 2010
3:06 pm
The Hawks will be broke after I form my class-action lawsuit against them for not fulfilling their end of the bargain on Saturday night. I am suing for $154 (my price for 3 tix) + $42 (2 beers) + $14 (cabride from Westin) + $128 (Westin for 1 night) + $167 (dinner at the Westin). In all seriousness, the Hawks need a coach that can develop Jeff Teague, tell Josh Smith to grown the he11 up, make signing Jamal Crawford the utmost priority and tell Joe Johnson to hit the road! At this point I don’t care who it is. I have said before that I am very appreciative of Woody, but, his progress has hit its high point and he no longer has control of his team.
Casey???
May 11th, 2010
3:07 pm
Hire dwayne casey? Lay off the weed for awhile. Why hire some castoff who got fired from the minnesota timberwolves? His record in his year as an NBA head coach: 43-59 record (.422). WOW!!!!!! That sounds like the coach the hawks need, with a losing record!!! But, the morons that own this team will probably hire him and give jj max money!!!! Keep on atlanta, there’s a reason the team always sucks!!!!!
A. Teesman
May 11th, 2010
3:07 pm
Kevin Loughery, he’s so 80s. And, I like that. Saw him once in the Eckerd in Dunwoody Village. Saw Terry Forster once there, too.
Hire Tiger!!!
May 11th, 2010
3:08 pm
The new coach: Tiger Woods! He’s proven that he knows how to really score in Orlando! He’s the man!!!!
Bob Cranston
May 11th, 2010
3:10 pm
I do not believe the Hawks’ coach is the problem. Woodson did as much as he could, maybe more, with his team. Let’s face it, the Hawks do not have a real center or a quick point guard – and cannot compete with teams that have stars at those positions. Al Horford is very skilled and has tremendous heart, but has been playing out of position since he joined the Hawks. Mike Bibby, never known for his quickness, is basically in the twilight of his career. Another starter, Josh Smith, while possessing incredible raw talent, still shows immaturity and a lack of focus far too often. In my opinion, the Hawks should forget about a new coach and get some players that can help take the team to the next level.
Bill Russell
May 11th, 2010
3:10 pm
Bill Russell—he’s rested and ready—he’ll take these young hawks to the top baby!!!!
steve brown
May 11th, 2010
3:13 pm
fyi
This, in a nutshell, is the surprising (?) result of a quick Q & A session I did with Dave/College Wolf of TWolves blog, the site covering Minnesota of the Bloguin network.
For your pleasure (?), here is the complete transcript, I think it should work as a warning for Ed Stefanski and all of us Sixers fans.
(S4G): Casey’s record as T’Wolves head coach in 2006/2007 was 33-49 and was 20-20 the year after, when Mc Hale fired him and put Randy Wittman in his place (Wittman went 12-30 the rest of the way…). What do you remember of that stint, other than they were surely troubled seasons in Minnesota, and that coaching Szczerbiak, Olowokandi, Ricky Davis, Marco Jaric etc surely wasn’t an easy task?
(CW): Yes, we had bad teams, but don’t forget though that we also had KG near his absolute prime. Those seasons he was one of the (arguably) Top 5 players in the league. With that said, the Casey Coaching Era (CCE) was quite a while ago, so I apologize for not being to elaborate with tons and tons of details for you and your readers.
However, a few things stick out in my mind, and I can assure you that they were not good things. First off, Casey was nearly an epic fail at coaching X’s and O’s. At times, some of us Wolves fans wondered if he had any idea if he knew what he was doing at all. He was especially terrible coming out of timeouts.
It might not have been as bad as I am making it sound, but our playcalling/execution coming out of timeouts was absurd and horrendous. It seemed like we would never score, and most times it resulted in a turnover or terrible shot.
Again, it probably wasn’t *that bad*, but the fact that it is something I’ve never forgotten about the CCE has got to mean something. Casey’s substitutions were illogical and nonsensical. We fans were pulling our hairs out because his lineups and distribution of minutes made absolutely no sense.
Also, it didn’t seem like Casey had “control” of his team at all. Granted, we had a few bad apples back then, but he was far too passive and timid to be the leader of our team at that time. Now, it could have been simply that these things were factors of Casey being a rookie head coach. I don’t know.
Perhaps he has gotten better the past two years as a bench coach for the Dallas Mavericks. For his sake I hope that he has learned a thing or two.
(S4G): Why did Minnesota decide to give him the team that year? Was it another “Randy Ayers case” (=lack of better options) or what?
(CW): I am not entirely sure. Glen Taylor and McHale were doing their best to “win now”, and I think they viewed Dwane Casey as a hot-shot up and coming assistant coach, in the same mold as someone like Nate McMillan.
It’s not that they had a lack of better options, because they went out and actively recruited Casey. It was just a complete swing and a miss, because it was obvious that Casey was in way too far over his head. At the time, I had thought he was one of the worst coaches I’d ever seen. Little did I know what to expect from the Randy (Dim)Wittman era…
(S4G): Which were Casey’s strengths as a coach, and what was he missing?
(CW): I honestly cannot remember any “strengths” besides the fact that he was a nice guy. Also, I think he did a decent job getting our players to play defense during his 20-20 second season, although the stats might say otherwise (I didn’t check).
He was missing everything. Namely: experience, presentation, advanced game knowledge/strategy, good assistants, and good players.
(S4G): Can being fired by Kevin Mc Hale be considered a plus in a coach’s resume?
(CW): No comment
(S4G): Would you recommend the Sixers to give the helm to Casey? Why? Any other team where he would be a good fit?
(CW): No, I would not recommend him being the new head coach of your team. He just doesn’t strike me as a guy that will ever be a truly successful NBA *head coach.* I think his ideal position is that of an assistant coach for a veteran contending team. Those players would be much more likely to listen to him and his ideals, rather than a rebuilding team full of youngsters.
I realize that the Sixers are a veteran, contending (hopefully) team, but I wouldn’t want you guys to waste your championship window because a coach like Casey was hired. I think you guys could do much better.
I don’t think he would be a good fit as a head coach anywhere in the NBA. As an assistant coach, yes. You could probably do worse with the plethora of no-name assistants that have been floating around the league for years.
Thank you for enlightening us, Dave…
Conclusion: please say “NO” to Dwane Casey !!
Next !
Bill W.
May 11th, 2010
3:15 pm
How about Scott Skiles?
Z
May 11th, 2010
3:15 pm
One name I am surprised hasn’t popped up. Sam Mitchell, former NBA Coach of the Year with Toronto, already living in Atlanta.
D.W.
May 11th, 2010
3:15 pm
OK for Casey, OK for Joe Johnson if he stays, but Josh Smith needs to go!!
BuckCommander
May 11th, 2010
3:17 pm
First??
BuckCommander
May 11th, 2010
3:17 pm
Second??
JSS
May 11th, 2010
3:17 pm
@Casey???
Because Kevin McHale was up North’s version of Billy Knight…
BuckCommander
May 11th, 2010
3:17 pm
Crap!!
GEORGIA97
May 11th, 2010
3:18 pm
Bill Laimbeer deserves a chance instead of some retread hack. One thing’s for sure, no one on his team would quit like the Hawks just did.
steve brown
May 11th, 2010
3:20 pm
More:
Casey played college basketball at the University of Kentucky between 1975 and 1979. While he served as an assistant coach there, Emery Worldwide employees discovered $1,000 in cash in an envelope mailed by Casey to recruit Chris Mills.[1] The resulting scandal contributed to head coach Eddie Sutton’s resignation and Mills’ transfer to the University of Arizona.
steve brown
May 11th, 2010
3:21 pm
Mark,
Doesn’t seem like a guy I would go after or want to pull for.
pluckthehawks
May 11th, 2010
3:25 pm
Nick Nolte….he won alot in the movie Blue Chips.