Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
From Griffin's End of Season stuff:
When was the decision made, and if we had made the playoffs would the conclusion be different: ''I've been asked that already by friends and family, I don't think it's safe to say that it would have changed anything ultimately. If you look at my history as a GM, the immediacy of what's happening in a given situation is less important than the process, and this was a process that, we looked at the totality of what felt like multiple seasons this year and felt like it was the right thing to do. It was absolutely not a result of the bubble results, and frankly had we been more successful in the bubble this could still have been the decision we made.''
How soon are they hoping to make the next job hire: ''We will not be quick with this at all. This is not a rush. We have a job that we believe is going to be the most attractive in the NBA, quite frankly, and with all of the candidates still in the bubble for the most part, obviously there are some which may not be, but for the most part the candidates that you want to talk to are still with teams in many circumstances, so I would say that the virus itself is going to dictate some of our timeline. This isn't going to be done solely via ZOOM, so depending on when we're able to sit down and get to know one another, we'll have more updates from then on.''
How did the conversation go with Benson, given the financial implications and whatnot: ''I don't think at any point during the time we've been here, money has been the driving force or a consideration of any substance to Mrs Benson, nor her leadership team. Her commitment to this is absolute and her partnership in this has been spectacular. As you all know, she very much cares about Alvin Gentry as well, so it was a conversation that revolved much more around the human component and far less around the finances.''
Thought process for the next coach regarding autonomy vs lockstep with the FO: ''It's not fair to say that someone needs to be someone who works in partnership with the FO but that they don't have autonomy. We walk in partnership with ownership and we have the autonomy to do our job, so it's our intention to deliver the same thing to the whoever that candidate might be at the end of the day. We're very very mindful of working in lockstep; this is all about vision and if the vision of ownership, the front office, and coaching is shared, and we can get buy-in from the players, then that's what all of this is about.''
Regarding Zion and expectations: ''The same thing we expect to see from all of our players, especially our young group, which is learning how to be professional and consistent on a daily basis is going to be critical for all of us. I think we expect the same from him that we expect from everyone, it's going to be a totality of commitment on the part of everybody in this organisation and Zion's no different.''
Status of the rest of the coaching staff: ''We feel very strongly about the assistant coaching staff that we have, very many of them we've already connected with, in fact I've connected with almost all of them, and we feel strongly about the quality of staff that we had. Some of those individuals potentially will be head coaching candidates elsewhere, Chris Finch certainly among them, and we feel strongly about Chris, he'll be part of our conversation moving forward, and its our intention that many of our staffers here will continue with the next regime.''
On the potential use of external search firms for the process: ''I would get into that later, I don't intend to really engage a search firm as we speak now, but we could certainly change course relative to that if we felt it relevant. Currently, I wouldn't say that that's our plan.''
How much does Griff plan on hiring for style: ''It's not as much about style, obviously Alvin and I won in the past with what was at the time very fast, that team's pace would be towards the bottom of the NBA right now, so it's much less about style of play and it's more about engendering a level of buy-in of what the future should look like and that's what we're focused on. Building towards the ethos that we discussed, you know, Won't Bow Down isn't something we used as a marketing campaign, we want that to be part of the fabric of our identity and we're going to continue to build towards that.
Will Chris Finch interview for the job, and is there any thought process towards the background of coach hirings: ''I think you just mentioned what is quite often the pattern, it's a copy-cat league, so when someone has success with a young unproven assistant, then everyone thinks that's the pathway that's now open. I think that our approach to this whole thing is to find the exact right fit and I think it's difficult to find the right voice with the right group of people with a shared vision. I would tell you that hiring a coach is the hardest thing we do, from a front office perspective, because it impacts every part of your organisation and it has the biggest impact everyday on your players and the culture you're trying to build so it's a big job, a difficult job. Finding the right person is going to be a thorough mindful process. We haven't ruled out any potential candidates of any type, and we won't rule any in for this moment either, but I will tell you that Chris Finch is going to be a candidate several places around the league, certainly.
Candidates still on other rosters or teams, how mindful does Griff need to be that next season is going to start soon?: ''I think the league has [December 1st] as a placeholder of sorts, this is an unprecedented time in the history of sports. We're going into a very important offseason here, an offseason that Trajan and Swin and our staff have been doing a great job of building for off of the floor. This is going to be unprecedented in terms of turnaround time, the lack of available salary cap numbers that we're building towards, you really don't know when the season will start or what the numbers will look like, so it's going to be challenging in many ways. That's a big part of the reason that we're going to be really slow to make a decision in this, because there's so many factors that contribute to the right fit that we need to have more information about next season itself before we can properly identify the right human being to lead the group.
TL;DR
- Bubble results did not play a big part in the choice with Alvin
- They are not in a rush to hire soon, especially given the uncertainties with next seas
- They are not ruling anyone of any background out
- Coach's playstyle is not the priority, it's more about fit with long term vision
- Says they do intend to try and keep some of the coaching assistants on
Beyond that, Griff refused to comment on specific names or specific traits they're looking for. He said that to list specific traits would imply that the last coach did not have those traits and it would be unfair and unprofessional to go into that.
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