Dunlap Fired

[4Corners]

He's a college coach. Not fit for the NBA game and personnel. He's probably going to be able to parlay this into a head coaching gig somewhere at a respectable mid level university. UNCC?

Just off the top of my head - you gotta think Patrick Ewing is going to be the leader in the clubhouse now for the job.

Bonnell said on WFNZ that he believes it would have been hard to attract expensive FAs with him here. Probably a good, mutual split for both parties involved.

[4Corners]

Jerry Sloan might be an option again.

Then they'll be going through this same process in a year or two.

Sloan is/was an excellent coach but if they were going to hire him for 1-2 seasons as a stop gap they should have done it last year.

I don't know why stability is always disregarded in pro sports.

[OchoNueve]

Bonnell indicated in interview on WFNZ that the players definitely are not as upset are the fans are...

I think that about says it all... Hate it for Dunlap, I thought he had a good system for our young team.

[MadHatter]

I give Jordan credit. He couldve been cheap and kept him around another 2 years even tho he knew he was gonna fire him anyway like another local ownership group and franchise. Props

Smart decision to fire him.....brought on by a God Awful decision to have hired him in the first place.

Interested to see who he goes with now.

[4Corners]

I have a feeling that Dunlap will rebound quicker from this than the Bobcats.

He's now an ex-NBA coach and would certainly provide an asset to a college coach in recruiting. I still think he's going to be able to get a mid level NCAA head coaching job from this. If not this year than next.

[4Corners]

Also - when is Rod Higgins going to be fired?

[King Taharqa]

The team is saying they want to attract VETERAN FA's and keeping Dunlap around would've prevented that. To justify this move they need to get a credible coach who has experience in the NBA. Nate McMillan is a name I threw out there last year. He's worth a call.

[chknwing]

I think the Ben Gordon situation sealed his fate. Also Mike Dunlap did not have a clue on what a rotation was. I swear every game it was like inny minny miny mo on who was starting.

[ZB1224]

Wooooooooooooooooooooow

I cannot believe that Dunlap was actually fired. Granted he wasn't a great coach or anything, but I thought that he did a good job this year developing our younger players and also more than doubling our win total (when you account for last season being shortened). I kinda feel bad for Dunlap, but I never did think that he was the coach of the future and I've always thought that we needed to hire someone to grow with the team, kinda like Brooks with OKC.

[PantherBrew]

The team is saying they want to attract VETERAN FA's and keeping Dunlap around would've prevented that. To justify this move they need to get a credible coach who has experience in the NBA. Nate McMillan is a name I threw out there last year. He's worth a call.

Id be down with that.

[4Corners]

I do not like this move. He was brought in to develop the young players, not to win a lot of games right away. He accomplished that task as Kemba and Henderson had great years and Bismack showed some progress. It will be hard to bring in a new guy and tell him he has time to build a winner when they told that to Dunlap then fired him after one season. The new coach will probably be a Jordan crony....

Yeah I can see why some Bobcats fans are a little upset - Dunlap appears to be a good coach but like I said man he just isn't a pro coach. You're dealing with grown men, adults, and most importantly a lot of money is involved with the pro clubs.

However, it felt like a "reach" when they hired him last summer but TBQH - I don't know if it was in hindsight. With Brian Shaw going on record that he turned the job down, there wasn't much left to pick from:

1. A washed up, disgraced college coach (Quinn Snider)

2. An 80 year old man (Sloan)

3. An unproven assistant coach who happens to be one of the best centers in NBA history (Ewing)

4. A life time assistant coach who is known as a great teacher to young college kids and would also be cheap. He also got the ringing endorsement from a head coach with ties to UNC in George Karl. (Dunlap)

I read somewhere else that Jacque Vaughn was also a candidate. That probably would have been a mistake, too.

EDIT - Forgot to mention this about Ewing, but we've seen this with coaches, especially in the NBA and NFL....but the great players rarely make great head coaches.

[carpanfan96]

Means that they broke down to the fans bitching about not winning and aren't following Cho's draft method for getting better through the draft. The Bobcats are going to go after a couple of big time free agents and try for the playoff's this season.

[ZB1224]

I do NOT want McMillan. I think that he's a solid coach, but not a big upgrade over Dunlap. He's never really accomplished a lot, granted he's never had completely healthy rosters either. The main reason why I don't want him is because he doesn't fit our style of play. His whole coaching philosophy is "slow it down and play defense". It's seriously the most boring basketball to watch and would kill a PG like Kemba, who needs to play in a fast offense to be fully utilized. It also wouldn't help MKG either. Hiring McMillan would be like going back to Larry Brown (style wise), and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it doesn't fit our current group of key players.

[ZB1224]

Sidenote: I wonder if our roster is interesting enough for Brian Shaw to consider coaching in Charlotte? It sure looks a helluva lot better than it did last season. Kemba is now a rising star, Hendo has proven that he can be a good scoring option, MKG is a rising star, Biz has improved, and overall our outlook definitely IS better than last season. Not to mention all of the cap room that we have, he'd be able to offer input on players that he'd like to bring into Charlotte -- so that's got to be a bit enticing (picking his own high quality free agents).