Hoops

Sydney Kings coach?

Anon #3981: nail right on the head... I know not a lot of other stuff has been happening with NBL (re-)signings, etc, but as I keep saying, leave it much longer and there's going to be no decent NBL FA players left, and if you choose the wrong (possibly no-name) coach, you're not going to be able to attract anyone good either local or from OS...

I just wish Boti's rumour of Longley applying was true and they should just give him the gig, but the key factors working against the Kings (ownership meddling, very public drunken owner fight with Heal, poor front office) might still have had him requesting certain terms that they might (unreasonably) baulk at...

Did anyone else notice that the non-NBL summer league thing that is still going ahead (http://www.wsminvitational.com/2014-rosters/) has Dmac and Liam Flynn as fill in coaches for the Kings and Wildcats? I guess just fill-ins for this thing, but still, would have been tempting to like what Dmac could bring...

Yeah, the Hawks certainly have their challenges, not to mention probably still question marks about their major sponsor?

They're quite lucky that they have a fairly loyal player and coaching staff, although leaving it too long I think would even stretch those friendships, surely?

Not that I would mind TERRIBLY if Gordie needed a job...

Pretty sure you can't get much whiter than Gordie? ;)

I thought last season that Rhys Martin had an option for this season and that Tyson was signed for 2 seasons...

That, or they could just be a prick and welcome the negative attention ;)

Either way, it's the end of the week and there's still been no announcement or even a snifter of anything from the Kings...

I try to remain positive, but each day, week, goes by and I get less and less so...

Wookie is such a real name

I think it's completely relevant... The amount of BS posted from anons is a LOT higher than from non-anons... Being anon allows some freedom in posting actual facts that aren't supposed to be released yet, but those are actually few and far between...

Anons posting anything about the Kings doesn't mean anything in relation to being good for the team or not, a lot of people on here post things completely unrelated to their team loyalties...

Each day that the coach isn't signed, is another day that teams have to negotiate with their top level free agents to re-sign them. There isn't enough talent OS that would consider coming back to the NBL that they can afford to not go after existing top NBL talent...

Won't be Cotter. Will be another name mentioned in this thread. Announcement likely end of the week.

@Bowtie - probably not much in it, not sure what would be the motivation, maybe he sees it as a stepping stone? Maybe he'd prefer jumping straight into the NBL pool instead of the lower leagues? Dunno (just playing Devil's Advocate, and sort of trying to distract myself from the possibility of another coach with still no NBL experience, but less chance of drawing top name players here)

Starting to agree with anons more and more, this is getting scary... the longer this no news stuff goes on, the worse off it's going to be for the team... Can't be waiting around for ages, all the top quality players are going to be gone and we will get yet another bargain basement team, suffer poor crowds, poor results, and it will all be undone by these few weeks months before tip off...

I think we can all agree that we're not going to get a top level NBL qualified coach...

As D4squared has said, is an experienced coach at semi-pro level enough?

I guess it comes down to the individual person, but at what point does success at a much lower lever outweigh a Boomers (and AIS?) assistant coach who played for Phil Jackson with NBA experience and quite possibly the ability to draw top level talent to the team. Would we be a better chance to retain AJ if we sign Luc? Luc has been holding coaches clinics, he's experienced playing as a big man and will no doubt be able to get the most out of someone like AJ... Are they actual positives that could work in his favour?

Pretty much the biggest criticism of the Kings on court last season was they didn't get the most out of or look to AJ enough... Pretty sure Luc could do that, and from AJ's perspective, learning from someone like Luc would certainly be a huge thing as well...

Just trying to take a positive out of what could still very well be a negative...

The no news about a coach is what is worrying me most at the moment... If things are happening behind the scenes, just give us a tiny tidbit of info or something... an update on the search, maybe something about narrowing options, hopefully name a candidate in a week or two...

See, now that's the perfect, reasonable, unable to argue against post... Obviously a passionate Kings fan, it's just whenever posters are overreacting to general fluff pieces when there is all that to worry about, I find it frustrating and comical...

An honest question, who in your thoughts, realistically, would be a reasonable coach? Bevo isn't interested, Gorj, even if he WAS interested, is contracted in China and earning craploads more... There would be no other reputable coaches out there willing to do the job, surely?

Because Anons want something to bitch and moan about, Isaac ;)

Don't post anything, they bitch, post regular stuff, they bitch...

I'd rather bitch about the lack of a coach :(

To be fair though, what coach has ever come into a team with a fresh slate and able to pick every single player? Bevo had a lot of Wildcats already on board when he took over, Anstey did in Melbourne, Glesson would have maybe picked one player? He had his team picked for him in the off season, so all of this "already half the team selected" whinging is a waste of time, especially since there are plenty of other things to be critical of!

Mark Dickel was a member of the Kings early in their rebirth, got injured but could be seen giving instructions from the bench regularly... by all reports a good basketball brain and the players responded well to him (hell, compared to Moose he was probably a shining light!) and I think he coached the Albanian National Team as well at some point before coming to the Kings?

He's got more coaching experience than either Nielsen or Longley, but not enough that he'd outweigh their possible pulling power to get talent in...

That's the trade off isn't it, surely you'd hope that having either Matty or Luc on the sidelines would draw some talent in (or maybe help keep AJ?). But we've seen what having a head coach with very little or no actual experience can lead to, locking them into an assistant role would be the easiest decision ever, but head coach?

At what point do you prefer them and does their name and reputation as a player make them the preferred choice though? Cotter is apparently not really wanting to give up his national gig for only 1 season guaranteed, and most other better qualified NBL-expereinced Head Coaches like Bevo would really not be interested in this madhouse of an organisation... Do you go with a candidate who has coached at lower levels for a few seasons, or do you go with an international/NBA experienced basketball great (Nielsen voted the all-time great King and recently had his banner raised) which you'd think would draw some talent, especially bigs, maybe even help keep AJ and actually get him to develop and live up to his potential instead of fading away?

My preference would be to get an experienced HC in and have either quite happily as an assistant, but would I be displeased to see either in the spot of it meant recruiting was more successful? Probably not...

It's a case of damned if you don't, damned if you do with some people, Isaac... They'll get criticised for nto doing anything if they wait for a coach, and if they sign people, they'll get criticised for not waiting for the coach to select their own team...

I have to think though that NOT having a coach would hampering their chances of recruiting top talent away from established situations... What players what to trade even the devil they knew for a team that doesn't have a coach and who they might really not like?

The delay in signing a coach is getting a bit worrying actually... I know they couldn't probably approach and actively interview people before the end of their season, but it's been over 5 weeks since they chucked their last game, and they should have been on the phone the next day trying to get people in after Hammer's punk move the night before...