Coaches

[IcSyU]

So I'm bored at work and it's Monday morning no and we were talking about coaches. If you were the GM of a professional franchise, what currently active coaches would you want in each sport, and who would be your last picks?

First option baseball: Joe Torre -> Didn't do much with a bunch of all-stars, but made not very good teams a lot better than they should've been.
First option basketball: Phil Jackson -> The guy wins. Period.
First option football: Mike Tomlin -> He's young, but I think the sky is the limit for him.

Last option baseball: Joe Girardi -> Brought in a lot of hype, and has done nothing except underachieve. Caught lightning in a bottle with the Marlins and hasn't done much since.
Last option basketball: Vinny Del Negro -> I just don't understand why he thinks some of the things he does.
Last option football: Brad Childress -> He might be the only person more conservative calling plays than Dan McCarney on the planet.

 

[CRcyclone6]

I like all of your picks. 1st option in baseball I would put in LaRussa, he seems to do quite a bit with less talent on some other teams. for last option in football, I would put in Josh McDaniels at Denver. I know he hasn't coached a game yet, but ever since he got there, it hasn't been smooth sailing.

 

[acrozier22]

First pick baseball - Tony LaRussa, and that is incredibly difficult for me to write consider I hate his guts.
First pick basketball - Phil Jackson, agree all he does is win.
First pick football - Bill Belichick, once again, all he does is win.

Last pick baseball - Dusty Baker, absolutely awful.
Last pick basketball - Vinny is still learning and he did make the playoffs so I can't go with him even though he has had some WTF moments. I'm going with Flip Saunders. He couldn't get it done with damn good TWolves and Pistons teams.
Last pick football - Anybody coaching the Detroit Lions.....haha... actually I'm going with **** Jauron or Wade Phillips.

 

[mplscyclone]

1st Baseball - Ron Gardenhire. It seems like the Twins overachieve almost every year
1st Basketball - Rick Adelman. I realize it's going to be popular because of waht the Rockets did last night, but you have to look further than that. Look at how the Kings looked before and after him. Look at how the Rockets looked the couple of years before Adelman took over. I think he's very underrated in a sport that has some very overrated coaches. I've always wondered what Phil Jackson's coaching career would've looked like had he NOT coached MJ, Shaq, and Kobe all in their primes...
1st Football: Bill Parcels. I realize he probably won't coach again, but you can't deny what he did. If he wouldn't come back, then I'd probably go with Shanahan.

Last Baseball: Dusty Baker. Enough said, and I'm not a Cubs fan
Last Basketball: It's a tie: Don Nelson and Larry Brown
Last Football: Jon Gruden. He's just so full of himself it isn't even funny

 

[gocubs2118]

First baseball: Tony LaRussa
First basketball: Gregg Popovich
First football: Mike Tomlin

Last baseball: Manny Acta
Last basketball: Vinny Del Negro
Las football: **** Jauron

 

[Clones85']

Last Football: Jon Gruden. He's just so full of himself it isn't even funny

He has won a super bowl! And there are a ton of coaches who are full of themselves

Baseball- Bobby Cox (I may be biased! :yes
Basketball- Phil Jackson
Football- Tomlin (hate Bill B to much)

Baseball- Dusty Baker
Basketball- Can I still say Isiah Thomas?
Football- Norv Turner by a mile!

 

[CylentButDeadly]

Best

Baseball: Tony LaRussa, but Francona or Gonzalez in Florida are respectable seconds (the Cubs would have a ring by now if LaRussa had been managing there the last ten years)
Basketball: Greg Popovich - Best in-game coach around
Football: Jeff Fisher or Bill Belichick (although I'm very interested to see how good Mike Singletary is)

Worst

Baseball: Dusty Baker - His decisions just baffle me
Basketball: Mike Dunleavy - Anyone who reads Bill Simmons knows what I mean
Football: Wade Phillips - Dallas has more talent on their roster than any team in the league. How can you mess that up?

 

[CycoCyclone]

How has someone not mentioned MIKE DITKA?

Who would win in a fight DITKA vs. GOD?


Trick question, DITKA IS GOD

 

[mplscyclone]

He has won a super bowl! And there are a ton of coaches who are full of themselves

Winning a Super Bowl has as much to do with the players. He took a Tony Dungy team and beat his old team in the Superbowl...

You hear the stories from his former players and you realize how much of a tool he is.....

 

[Clones85']

Best

Baseball: Tony LaRussa, but Francona or Gonzalez in Florida are respectable seconds (the Cubs would have a ring by now if LaRussa had been managing there the last ten years)
Basketball: Greg Popovich - Best in-game coach around
Football: Jeff Fisher or Bill Belichick (although I'm very interested to see how good Mike Singletary is)

Worst

Baseball: Dusty Baker - His decisions just baffle me
Basketball: Mike Dunleavy - Anyone who reads Bill Simmons knows what I mean
Football: Wade Phillips - Dallas has more talent on their roster than any team in the league. How can you mess that up?

Very solid list! I woud like to change my top NFL coach to Jeff Fisher. Love that guy

 

[Clones85']

Winning a Super Bowl has as much to do with the players. He took a Tony Dungy team and beat his old team in the Superbowl...

You hear the stories from his former players and you realize how much of a tool he is.....

Completely disagree. Look at Gruden's resume and tell me he isn't a top 5 to 7 coach in the NFL.

The NFL isn't college. Tony Dungy didn't recruit those players to Tampa Bay and Tony Dungy couldn't win at Tampa Bay. Heck he was a choke job coach until the Colts made that huge 2nd half comeback against the Pats and ended up winning the Super Bowl.

Gruden may be a jerk, but he wins. There is no way you can rank him as a worse coach than Turner, Childress, Phillips, etc

 

[mplscyclone]

Completely disagree. Look at Gruden's resume and tell me he isn't a top 5 to 7 coach in the NFL.

The NFL isn't college. Tony Dungy didn't recruit those players to Tampa Bay and Tony Dungy couldn't win at Tampa Bay. Heck he was a choke job coach until the Colts made that huge 2nd half comeback against the Pats and ended up winning the Super Bowl.

Gruden may be a jerk, but he wins. There is no way you can rank him as a worse coach than Turner, Childress, Phillips, etc

Here's my question: Is this thread to say who is the best or worst? Or is it a thread to say who you'd rather have? I wouldn't rank him as the worst coach, but if I were an owner or GM, I wouldn't want to hire him at all.

For example, Gruden is probably an average NFL coach. His problem is he makes things too complicated, and his offense isn't all that. He's supposed to be this offensive Guru, yet Tampa didn't ever become fearsome offensively.

I also will take away what he did in 2003 for sure. Was it his coaching that allowed the Bucs to return 3 INTs for TDs?

Gruden walked into a championship caliber team and they played to their potential, fine. But since then, he hasn't been any better than a Denny Green.

Gruden is one of those guys that's firey and it works for a year or two, then he becomes a ****, and no one on the team respects him. He tries to come off as this flashy, offensive expert, but in reality pisses his players off and makes his schemes too complicated for them..

 

[Clones85']

Here's my question: Is this thread to say who is the best or worst? Or is it a thread to say who you'd rather have? I wouldn't rank him as the worst coach, but if I were an owner or GM, I wouldn't want to hire him at all. Good question. I took it as best or worst but I could be wrong

For example, Gruden is probably an average NFL coach. His problem is he makes things too complicated, and his offense isn't all that. He's supposed to be this offensive Guru, yet Tampa didn't ever become fearsome offensively. Name their QB's while he was there. WR's? He had very little to no talent

I also will take away what he did in 2003 for sure. Was it his coaching that allowed the Bucs to return 3 INTs for TDs? A whole 3 TD's?!?! WOW :wink:

Gruden walked into a championship caliber team and they played to their potential, fine. But since then, he hasn't been any better than a Denny Green.

Gruden is one of those guys that's firey and it works for a year or two, then he becomes a ****, and no one on the team respects him. He tries to come off as this flashy, offensive expert, but in reality pisses his players off and makes his schemes too complicated for them.. You could say that about most coaches. Some players love Gruden, some players hate him. Don't they say the same thing about Parcells?

 

[mplscyclone]

First off, those 3 TDs were all in the Superbowl, which is what I was referring to.

Secondly, the NFC South hasn't exactly been a powerhouse, especially during most of Gruden's tenure there.

Also, most of the players who dislike Parcells were just not classy guys. I think in Retrospect guys like Keyshawn respect Parcells now that they are out of the game.

Gruden didn't develop a lot of rapport with players. He honestly reminds me of a diva like Larry Brown. He thinks he's all that, when he's average...

 

[Tornado man]

Gruden didn't develop a lot of rapport with players. He honestly reminds me of a diva like Larry Brown. He thinks he's all that, when he's average...

Larry Brown "average"...that's a new one.

 

[mplscyclone]

Larry Brown "average"...that's a new one.

His earlier work = above average
His more recent work = average at best

IMO he's an average coach right now...

 

[Clones85']

His earlier work = above average
His more recent work = average at best

IMO he's an average coach right now...

Larry Brown may be a diva and an arrogant POS, but he is still a Hall of Fame coach anyway you look at it. Basically you can call him a lot of names but average isn't one of them

 

[gocubs2118]

His earlier work = above average
His more recent work = average at best

IMO he's an average coach right now...

Uh, what are you talking about? What Larry Brown did this year with the Bobcats was nothing short of amazing. They were supposed to be bad but he made them into a playoff contender.

 

[Tornado man]

Uh, what are you talking about? What Larry Brown did this year with the Bobcats was nothing short of amazing. They were supposed to be bad but he made them into a playoff contender.

Agree. They didn't win many more games than the year before, but watching the diffference in the team was startling. He got them playing extremely hard with an unselfish, team-oriented offense and a physical, shut-down defense. There is no question who the boss is.
I know a few Pistons fans who thought that GM Joe Dumars was a genius, but now realize it was all Larry Brown...

 

[Clone5]

NBA- Greg Popovich is the coach I'd want and without question Vinny Del Negro is the one I'd like to have the least.
MLB- Want Bobby Cox and don't want Jerry Manuel.
NFL- Bill Belicheck and Josh McDaniels.
College Basketball- Roy Williams and Doc Sadler
College Football- Urban Meyer and whoever the UNLV coach is.