Justin Jaudon

I'm fond of both Thibs and Skiles. If it were me, I wouldn't make up my mind until I'd interviewed them both at length.

Agreed, I was just clarifying that there was an outlier in the group.

I think you are either missing the point, or you are assuming none of Orlando's current core will improve any from this point. Vuc has already proven he can be a 20-10 guy. If one of the other two show even marginal improvement, and the other doesn't horribly regress, we are looking at two guys scoring close to twenty a game with a third getting over 17. The only core you mentioned who would then be better scoring is the LeBron, Love, and Kyrie core (and Love is not going to be part of that core moving forward). Even this year Orlando's top three compares well to those of three of the Conference Finals teams. The Atlanta Hawks had the best record in the East. They did not have a single player who averaged 17 points per game. Orlando had three. Houston was the 2 seed in the West. Their top three scorers combined for 56 points per game, and that's understanding Dwight only played half the season, so for the other half they combined for 52.2; average those two numbers and you get 54.1 ppg from their top three throughout the season. The mighty Golden State core of Curry, Thompson, and Green scored a combined 57.2 points per game. Orlando's big three of Vuc, Vic, and Harris combined to average 54.3. Now I'm not saying Orlando has a terrific core to build around. I'm just saying that with marginal improvement from the core players they could. It's certainly not a "terrible core to build around."

Which of the Detroit Pistons team that won a championship under Larry Brown would you consider "one of the generation's best players?"

I absolutely agree with this. I like Frye, in the right situation. He just cannot be allowed on the same unit as Vuc. His three-point shooting is very valuable to this team. His minutes just need to be managed creatively.

That is not to say he is a great coach. I think he has that potential. At worst, he helps build a culture of hard work and preparation, something he has done at every stop.

He has shown to be a good coach in some really bad situations. It seems pretty obvious he was building a contender in Phoenix before management traded Kidd for the team-killer Marbury (and he was still doing a solid job, .500 team through fifty games, with marbury, Matrix, and the rotting corpses of Penny and Tom Gugliatta, when they fired him because reasons). In Chicago (who doesn't?) he clashed with management and never had much talent at all. In Milwaukee, he legitimately worked a miracle winning 46 games in one season with a roster built around Andrew Bogut, Brandon Jennings, and half a season of the mighty John Salmons. He was in the middle of another playoff-bound season with Milwaukee when he resigned because he hated coaching a team full of chuckers. I've already mentioned other coaches who've had similar up and down success with their first few teams only to find consistency and the greatest success when they finally found their NBA home. Besides Carlisle and Brown: before getting handed a championship roster in Boston, Doc Rivers had coached as many non-playoff seasons as playoff ones, and he'd never won fifty games. Going back further, Lenny Wilkins was on his third stop before winning a title with Seattle, and he'd only ever before had one winning season. It is ridiculous to say that, at 51, we know what Scott Skiles is and that he will continue to be that.

I kinda have that same feeling. I'm comforted by the fact that it is possible this pick is really just to sure up the bench. People assume we need to somehow get a superstar with this pick, but I'm not sold on the impossibility that Vic, Vuc, and Harris aren't a good enough core to build around. I'm certainly not sold on any notion that they are, either. I just don't think it's known. If Elf and Gordon improve their shooting (Gordon actually could end up a pretty effective stretch 4 if he can find a consistent 3-point shot, around 35%, which is doable for him; Elf really just needs to get better from the line and just respectable from deep, somewhere in the 30% range would do well enough), then all three of the scorers improve with them. If Orlando can find just a little outside shooting elsewhere (creative minutes for Fournier, Hezonja/Porzingis, Frye), Vic doesn't need to be a world-beater from deep. He's shown flashes as a scorer, and understanding and consistency usually come to guys like him who work really hard like he does. Harris and Vuc will both me more effective with a more developed point guard and a versatile 4, which will open up the low block for Tobias and the elbow and P&R game for Vuc. In a world where Elf can keep guys honest and Gordon can become marginally effective as a stretch 4 (wishful, but not exactly pipe dream thinking), I could see Vic, Harris, and Vuc averaging nearly twenty apiece. That's plenty of scoring and no need for a dominant 25-a-night guy. I don't really want Porzingis. He's my least favorite of the guys I think there is a chance of Orlando getting (well, maybe not if there really is some chance Henny drafts WCS). But he just might be worth the risk, if we think the above scenario is possible. Imagine for a moment he actually does put enough weight on to not get pushed around. Imagine he meets the potential some people seem to think he has. Even a poor man's Dirk would make this team very competitive.

Now this is something worth talking about. Who will Skiles help most (if he is indeed hired)? I think there's a chance Moe is positively influenced, but it really depends on Moe's focus. Skiles is a tough guy by all reports. Moe needs that, but Moe is also very raw and clearly pretty emotionally sensitive. All the reports I've read say that Skiles is very patient and willing to teach, when he knows you need the coaching. When he blows up at people is when he has to tell them the same thing over and over again. With Skiles, you just don't continue making the same mistakes, or you will not play, and you will get yelled at when you do. If Moe is mentally focused, and learns to have some thick skin, Skiles will like his defensive talent. You may be right about Fournier. To me, Fournier is one of the most intriguing stories for Orlando this year. He could develop into a very good player this year (like 6th man award candidate good) if he's healthy and keeps improving, especially with this team's need for shooting. I think we all know that Elf and Vic and AG will be much improved under Skiles, with their main issues being two things he's apparently good at (teaching and consistency). The guy I hope will improve the most is Vucevic. If Skiles can get Vuc to play better interior D (He'll always be slow, but playing smarter and with more energy on D would go a long way with Vuc), that is a HUGE plus for this team.

I think it could work. Borrego was always an interim head coach, and he didn't significantly improve the team (though they did improve a bit). The team knows that, and I think they would appreciate him still being there. Borrego is a good fit to be a smoother if Skiles gets under guys' skins, so long as he understands his role and backs Skiles up. Why? Because Borrego actually has some similar makeup to him, in that both are guys who like to focus on Defense and accountability, but Borrego is in a position as an assistant to elaborate when Skiles barks at someone for a mistake. It reminds me of when I was just starting out working, years ago, when I was an assistent manager at a Blockbuster Video. My boss was a hardass who tended to bark at people and throw fits when they made mistakes. But I was there to remind our guys that he was really just looking out for them, because he wanted them to succeed as much because he cared about them as because he wanted the store to do well. We both were open to teaching and helping people get better, and we both were big on personal responsibility. It worked out really well, as we were consistently the number one store in our district and we had the least amount of turnover because all our employees were well-coached and responsible.

Exactly. Mike Scott>>>Channing Frye

Carlisle had much the same reputation as Skiles before going to Dallas. He was a defensive coach who supposedly struggled to connect with a locker room and had clashes with management. Skiles' first year would have been a 50-win season as well (.645 winning percentage), but he was not the head coach at the beginning of the year. Carlisle did win 50 games in each of his first three seasons, then managed to win only 120 over the next three combined (that's an average of 40, meaning under .500 in an 82 game season). The comparison is not perfect, because they are in fact two different people. But the comparison is apt, whether or not you refuse to see it.

You know that. Holy crap, hire this guy immediately, Henny! He knows the future.

Crap like things that actually happened instead of conjecture about what might happen because YOU don't think he's a good coach. Yeah, you might want to get some Pepto for that nausea man.

Signed, angry 2003 Detroit Pistons fan/2008 Dallas Mavericks fan

Of course he is. It could not possibly be that he is the best available option.

Myself, I'd believe LeBron to be one hell of a basketball player.

Maybe Orlando should hire Reggie Miller. Or Chris Webber. Better than giving Skiles another chance to pull a team out of the bottom of the league. I mean, if history repeats itself with Skiles, we all know Vuc will start getting hurt every time he steps on the floor, then get traded for J.R. Smith, or Vic will start jacking up every shot he sees, or Hennigan will trade Payton for Trey Burke. That's what we know from historical evidence will happen with Skiles. Better to hire a guy with no coaching experience. It worked for Golden State.

I so hope that AG can be a stretch 4. He certainly answered the FT question for year one. Here's hoping he can start knocking down threes consistently.

I'm not sure the difference between Booker and Michael Frazier II from Florida is any more than the two inches of height. Devin Booker is solid, but he's not in any way Klay Thompson.

Yes, I'm sure if Phoenix, Chicago, and Milwaukee had gone with other coaches they'd have each won a few championships by now. Stupid Skiles, only turning three previously bad teams into winning franchises when clearly if he were a really good coach he would have won at least one championship with the star-power of Stephon Marbury, Ben Gordon, or Andrew Bogut. Yea, I'm sure those franchises would do it differently if they had it all to do again. What were they thinking? Now if by microwave burrito you all mean that his teams get hot really quick (like first year, every single time), but never end up quite what you were hoping for, sure, I can see that analogy being spot on.

Aw, don't be like that. I'm just having fun bandying words around with you guys.

Just because he will be fired also does not mean that he is attainable. Perhaps his relationship with SVG has soured him to the Magic organization, and perhaps Hennigan knows this. It would be like if that person looking for a meal was black, in the 1950's, and the nice hibachi place was whites only; it wouldn't really be an available choice. Just so we're clear, the preceding was also conjecture.

Yes. Yes it was. That was kinda the point, like when I said conjecture is easy, then put a colon to indicate that the following was conjecture. It was all conjecture. It is still all conjecture. . . Conjecture.

The analogy was meant to reduce the view of Skiles' hiring as settling to absurdity, not actually compare the situation. Prime made a good analogy in rebuttal, though I would amend his to a starving man choosing between a nice hibachi restaurant and a "good enough" place. In truth, it doesn't matter who Orlando would rather have, if Thibs and Brooks are unavailable, someone still has to get the job done.