Pacers fire coach Rick Carlisle; should they have fired Bird or Walsh instead?

Um, Carlisle and Wally have the Virginia connection, but that won't do Carlisle a lot of good since Wally is no longer an executive with the Sonics.

 

Carlisle did the Sonics on radio--or was it TV?--for a year, if I recall correctly. Don't know how well he gets along with Lenny Wilkens. If Wilkens doesn't have his own eye on that ball, Carlisle is as good a bet as any.

In as far as he's the anti-Karl, he would have his followers and detractors around Seattle.

If he could bring Gary Payton as his assistant, he would have a large fan following and hell to pay.

 

Have them change jobs. Let Bird coach and Carlisle try his hand at GM, see if that works.

 

That might not be a bad idea--Carlisle is a great evaluator of talent, but not really the warm and fuzzy type when it comes to dealing with players--but I still don't think Bird would do well with the day-to-day grind of coaching anything less than a functional, veteran team.

 

Carlisle looks like the ultimate over-controlling coach. Look around, the successful coaches in the NBA right now are those that let their players play. He's Showalter to Brown's Torre/Brenly. Don't think the Pacers are going to win it anytime soon though.

Bird got hammered on the Harrington/Sjax trade, right now, and as a Warriors fan, hard to see Dunleavy and Murphy morph into world beaters.

 

I have no idea what justifies Donnie Walsh's 22-year reign as Pacers GM/President. They treat him like he's Red Auerbach in Indiana for no good reason.

Sure he helped make them a contender, he's also made several moves that have stunted their growth (Isiah Thomas as coach, for example) and kept them from ever cashing in on his good moves.

 

No GM is perfect, but Walsh made many, many great moves for the Pacers that far outweigh his bad decisions.

Nobody thought Rik Smits would develop into an excellent starting center except Walsh, and that did happen. He also drafted Reggie Miller when everyone in the state wanted him to take Steve Alford. That one alone gets him into the Indiana Hall of Fame. He also had a great eye for bringing in the right veteran role players to keep the team in contention for many years.

During his tenure, the Pacers might not have won a championship, but they were always in the playoffs and had a chance to win a couple of rounds. Every other top NBA team (except Utah) had peaks and valleys, going way down for a couple of years before coming up again.

Walsh has earned his reputation with good draft choices and good trades. Most NBA GMs today are trading off their playing careers.

 

Yes, Walsh had a good run in the late 80s and early 90s with trades and drafting. How's he done in the last 10 years?

 

If Larry Bird were to morph into the form of Isiah Thomas, he would be lauded for ushering the Warriors into the playoffs in that one-sided trade.

He should thank Boston-SPN for keeping the coals lit under Isiahs ass rather (they're still angry at his comments made 20 years ago) than focusing on his history of bad trades.