Bob Weiss will be the next head coach of the Seattle Supersonics. This has been widely speculated for the last week and will come to fruition today at a 1:30 press conference.
As 950, KJR and Locked on Sports reported on Thursday night Howard Schultz and Weiss had dinner. That dinner was the final hurdle for Weiss to become the new head coach. A night earlier Schultz dined with Wally Walker, Rick Sund and other major players in the organization and was convinced that Weiss was the correct choice for the job. Schultz always wants to grasp as much marketing as he possibly can and had to be convinced this was first the correct basketball move and secondly could be sold. After meeting with the major players and Weiss he was entirely convinced.
Weiss became the lead candidate when he received a ground swell of support from the Sonics players and namely Ray Allen. As we reported on Thursday the players universally talked about trust and understood that Weiss had been the innovator of the Sonics offense.
After the press conference I will file another report and tune in tonight at 7:00 pm for more information and opinions.
Seed Newsvine
10 comments:
I am sure Bob Wiess is qualified and will be at least solid if not great. I like that the players like him but, did the sonics really do a full search? Did they even interview other possible candidates like Paul Silas or Mark Ivaroni?
Bob Wiess is a weak and dissapointing move. It's a move that required very little risk on the Sonics part and I think you'd be fooling yourself if you view this as anything but a temporary situation if the Sonics don't play above 500 ball.
I agree, it seems like they were almost forced into this hire. What happens if the players turn on Wiess? What if they get off to a bad start, or don't like one of his decisions? I fear giving players too much influence on coaching decisions is a recipe for disaster. That being said, Weiss could turn out to be great. I like the idea of some continuity, and he does really know this team, it's personality, and should be able to start right in without the feeling out period that another coach would have to endure.
I would make the case that this is a very good signing for a couple of reasons.
First, the Sonics still have a bunch of people that are free agents, at least one of which - Vladimir Radmanovic, a legitimate 6th man of the year award candidate, is a more likely resign here with Weiss than with someone he doesn't know. To me, that looks alot better than having to face him as part of Minnesota's front line when Latrell Sprewell self - destructs again. we're already losing Antonio Daniels in conference, how many more of those do we want to face?
Second, the Sonics are playing a style, and are suited to a style, which is unusual in the NBA right now. A focus on mid range shooting, score early or score late, 3 guard, 2 post with a focus on the pick and roll game vs. an isolation and penetration is not really typical in the NBA right now. A new coach is going to either: a)try and continue that style without knowing really how to do so, or b)completely change the style which is guaranteeing a 30 and 52 record while people unlearn what they spent 3 years under Nate learning to do. With Weiss there can be some continuity there to see if this can continue to build. Just as in the era with Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp there is a window available for success. The Sonics probably have 4 maybe 5 years with the current core to make a serious run before having to do some retooling of All - Stars and making a strategy shift now would likely set that back again.
Guys, this is the best fit for this orginization. Bob Weiss fianlly will have talent to coach for the first time when he has taken of the 1st chair. Who Weiss will put around him becomes very interesting? Dean is gone to Portland and Duane is going to do a great job in Minnesota. Who he puts around him to teach some of these young players will be the key.
I think that for continuity sake, this hiring is good since we have the core of players from last year. Paul Silas would have been the only other coach that the Sonics should have even talked to if they were going to take this team to the next level. I hope that just because the players endorsed him openly that this isn't like a buddy buddy thing where players will take advantage of his easy going demeanor.
I don't like the draft picks that the Sonics made this year however. They are nonimpact players and are not even NBA ready. They should have drafted a Turiaf or a point guard (traded up to get Nate Robinson). Look at the summer league stats. (Yes, I was the guy that was saying draft Nate Robinson during the draft) You know it alls out there who said he is too small and won't fit better pray that whoever backs up Luke can hold his own jock) Nate Robinson should have been a Sonic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even though I was saying the Sonics should have drafted Nate Robinson doesn't mean I was a softycentral.com regular.
The know it alls out there who didn't want us to draft Nate better line up to get their tickets to see Johan Petro (the next Tim Duncan) ha ha ha ha ha
This is a great hire. For all the kvetching about Weiss, there's nobody else on the list in the Supes's price range with as much experience, both in the league and with the Sonics.
Anybody who thinks that any coach makes a 20 win difference in a team is out to lunch.
Good Hire. I do wonder how he will handle things. Will he start Vlad? Try and maintain a 9 man rotation?
Now that Swift signed with Houston, is Seattle in the running for other big men?
Hope we don't shrink the rotation.
Just to be completely fair about the comparison to Keith Gilbertson ...
I just looked up that Bob Weiss's coaching statistics, 3 playoff runs with 2 different teams, San Antonio in '88, where the best player was Alvin Robertson, and Atlanta with Dominique Wilkins in '91 and '93.
As much as I loved Dominique Wilkins, that was the era of some better players and teams in their prime - Jordon, Bird and Ewing in the same conference off the top of my head.
I would say the Weiss has a bit better track record than Gibertson did as a head coach.
Oh, and one other thing ... the Sonics had very little low post presence last year. I mean 5.5 point and about 5 rebounds a game for Jerome? Almost no points a game from Reggie? With Fortson, Collison and possibly Reggie coming back for the 2005 - 2006 season, how much worse can the low post presence be? At this point I would be more concerned that Vlade signs somewhere else because the Sonics were largely able to create the most matchup problems with Ray, Rashard, Vlade, Antonio and either Fortson or Collison on the floor at the same time. I think that Luke can have the driving toughness that Antonio did with another season, but having that third perimeter scoring threat makes an enormous difference in the flow of the game.
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