Billy Donovan
- Thread starter JohnnySolo
- Start date
Well, if he could follow the path of success laid by Spurrier that would not be a bad thing.
It worked for us once.
It worked for us once.
Probably not. He's been in the NBA 11 seasons. However, 5 of his last 6 seasons have been sub-.500. I'm not sure why an NBA team would hire him. The only real success he had was his very first season with OKC.
I mean I kind of get that. But he went to the playoffs every year when we was with OKC (the years that Golden State ran the world). And he was coaching a Bulls team that was pretty much gutted after his first year there. Their rosters for those last few years are terrible.
As a guess hiring Donovan would likely require about 20 -25 million per year to hire him.10 million in salary and 10-15 at a minimum in player acquisition.Somebody will pay him that if he wants to come back to college.As an aside if Steve Kerr leaves the Warriors they will look hard at Todd Golden..
You sure about that? OKC's new coach has done a much better job with that team's roster than Donovan did and Donovan has sort of been a disaster in Chicago. I think the move for him is to come back to college to build his reputation back up. NBA Coaching is closer to College coaching these days due to NIL, but there are still different skill sets needed to being successful in the pro game. In the NBA, you have to convince players that think they know more ball than you to follow the program.
That OKC roster is nothing like it is now. SGA was a second year player and Lu Dort was a rookie. He wasn’t in for a rebuilding franchise that just dumped Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Jerami Grant to end the season. Both ended disastrously because the front offices went full rebuild modes on him. OKC didn’t want to pay anyone moving forward and the Bulls couldn’t put a healthy team on the floor for a full season.
I don't think Donovan forgot how to coach in the NBA any more than Spurrier forgot how to coach when he went to Washington. Remember what happened to Bud Wilkinson in the pros, and Lou Holtz, and Urban Meyer?
The professional level is a different animal. The coach doesn't build the roster. He gets what the GM and ownership provide him and what the salary cap will allow. The best coach in the world can't win without the pieces that make winning possible at that level.
The professional level is a different animal. The coach doesn't build the roster. He gets what the GM and ownership provide him and what the salary cap will allow. The best coach in the world can't win without the pieces that make winning possible at that level.
I don't buy that. So, Donovan is not in it for a rebuilding team that had good pieces yet goes to Chicago. The Bulls were never going to be beyond mid with the pieces they had. The worst place an NBA franchise can be is mid with no prospect of getting franchise pieces.
In a heartbeat I would take this guy and rejoice to the heavens after doing so. Let It be so.
UK looking at him now. Gonna miss out on another potential good coach. I'm sure we'll hire the coach from another school that took an unexpected team to the second or third round of the tourney next year.
I don't disagree with that fact. But the Thunder were obviously not giving him much to work with. They couldn't agree on an extension, and he wasn't going to survive the next 2 years of the bottom of the west anyway. Chicago was willingly to spend money and was closer if they would've stayed healthy. No one in the east was a world beater, so yes, the move to Chicago seemed smarter then. You can't think anyone thought they would be able to rebuild that quickly. SGA and Lu Dort weren't the megastars or looking to jump that quickly. They were able to parlay it more quickly trading away the major draft capital they had accumulated.
This is true to a point. Coaches are involved in roster decisions especially with the draft.
SGA was a good up and coming player man and Lu Dort was showing he was going to be an elite defender. Didn't have the jump shot yet, but giving offensive players from other teams fits even as a rookie. That's a good starting point. Further, Sam Presti had already shown that he was one of the best GMs in the league. Just a master at manipulating picks and the draft. Donovan is a very good coach, but he will probably admit that leaving OKC will go down as the worst decision that he will ever make.
For an athletic department that had to be subsidized to the tune of $42 million by the University last year just to keep our heads above water, this is not do-able.
Just read that they are in talks if Pope has to go, which is highly likely if he can't bring UK what they want.
There is wide disparity in the NFL, and I assume in the NBA also, as to the leverage a coach has in putting together a roster. Owners ultimately call the shots. Money and ego enter into it. Look no further than the Cowboys - or even the Panthers. I'm sure the coach has a voice, but it is frequently not the deciding voice. College coaches face constraints, but in terms of selective roster management, fewer than pro coaches.
UK Basketball is like football for most everyone else. They will pay whatever is necessary to keep that program in the mix as a contender. Don't know anything about them contacting Donovan, but would not be surprised. With a guy like Donovan out there, Pope is on the clock.
NBA is more of a player-driven league. Owners, besides when Mark Cuban was an owner, usually don't meddle much when it comes to roster decisions. Usually a Tag-Team between the GM and the Coach. The issue coaches mainly have to deal with is the egos of players that make 4-5 times than they do. Make a star player that is winning unhappy and it's a recipe to lose your job.
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Also not all the divas on a NBA team respond well to the type of coaching they once got while in college.
I don't even think it's a diva thing. It's a power dynamic thing. Even going back to the days of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, both players got coaches that had won championships fired (Bill Fitch and Paul Westhead). Basketball is the type of sport where a couple star players can change the entire dynamic as to whether a team wins or loses. So, in the professional ranks those type of players are going to get catered to. It's getting that way on the college level now too because a college player can just transfer out if he does not like how he is being coached. So, the military drill sergeant manner of coaching of old is really not going to work in this environment.
Billy Donovan is NEVER coming here. Y’all don’t remember the process when we hired Darrin Horn? I forget the hot name of the coach at the time, pretty sure from VCU, that Billy Donovan flat out told not to take our job because you can’t win here. 95% sure he ended up at Alabama the following year. Don’t think he did great anyway.
That was when I realized just how poorly our basketball program is viewed…and it has gotten worse. We may eventually lure a decent coach here, but it will not be Billy Donovan. You can be sure of that.
As a side note: Donovan was UNC’s preferred choice but wanted to wait until the end of the season to decide. UNC moved on. Sources near Donovan said that at the time they moved in that he was prepared to take the job. I know it’s risky to wait 10 days or 2 weeks (whatever it was), but I feel they could’ve waited and still got the same guy if it didn’t work out. Of course I’m sure the Portal had a lot to do with it too.
** Edit: the coach was Anthony Grant and he did go to Bama.
That was when I realized just how poorly our basketball program is viewed…and it has gotten worse. We may eventually lure a decent coach here, but it will not be Billy Donovan. You can be sure of that.
As a side note: Donovan was UNC’s preferred choice but wanted to wait until the end of the season to decide. UNC moved on. Sources near Donovan said that at the time they moved in that he was prepared to take the job. I know it’s risky to wait 10 days or 2 weeks (whatever it was), but I feel they could’ve waited and still got the same guy if it didn’t work out. Of course I’m sure the Portal had a lot to do with it too.
** Edit: the coach was Anthony Grant and he did go to Bama.
Wouldn’t you agree the times have changed with NIL and the portal?
I could see peers telling Cignetti he couldn’t win in football at Indiana, too. But we know how that ended . . . and he did it with portal players.
Basketball is not much different in that teams can be built using the portal. The question becomes, “How much can you spend?”
Maybe Donovan thought players coach themselves in the NBA, since he avoids schools that present a challenge.
No. Why would he come to our low budget program when he can get a job at a basketball school that spends money on basketball. If anything, our job is worse than it was in 2008.
There is ZERO chance Billy Donovan comes here. Our fans need to get real…. This isn’t the same as our crappy football program that many thought could be a sleeping giant. Our basketball program is the worst program in the conference over the past 20 years and it isn’t close. Our facilities suck. Our budget isn’t in the top half. Just no…
Or maybe Donovan didn’t want to recruit and make more $$. Hard to blame coaches all the time in the NBA when teams have GMs that build the roster as well. I don’t follow the NBA, but as soon as Donovan went to OKC, all the good players left. The Bulls weren’t a legit contender. You could’ve put Red Auerbach on the bench and those teams weren’t winning anything.
Well, then, if a coach isn't marginalized in one factor, then he's possibly marginalized by another one. Either way, he's diminished.
I never once mentioned Donovan nor did I address whether he would come to USC. I could care less what he does.
But your premise that a coach can’t win here is false. If Cignetti can build a winning team through the portal at a school with a historically dismal program, I know it can be done here in basketball.
If we’re willing / able to put up the money. We aren’t. Until that changes, we cannot win big here. And to make it happen, we’ll probably need a couple of billionaire donors to appear. We used to have a very wealthy donor…we ran her off.
Money doesn’t grow on trees. We don’t have the $$. Indiana actually has some folks that have given generously there. Cuban basically took his $$ out of the Dallas Mavericks when he sold the majority share of the team and invested his interest in Indiana Football. We don’t have a Mark Cuban.
Shoulda called him and offered him the new "GM" job for the basketball team. That would either get Paris' a$$ in gear or get it out.