The Ball Briefing: The Atlanta Hawks Never Gave Lloyd Pierce A Chance
Two NBA franchises fired their coaches this week. The Minnesota Timberwolves are (rightly) getting a lot of heat, but the Atlanta Hawks deserve some as well.
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Who Did Their Coaching Change Right: Atlanta or Minnesota?
There were three extremely bad breaks in the NBA coaching world over the past week or so. First, the Minnesota Timberwolves fired Ryan Saunders after two woeful seasons and a 7-24 start to this season. Second, I lost my bet that the first head coach to be fired would be Lloyd Pierce of the Atlanta Hawks. Third, the Hawks fired Pierce 34 games into his third season anyway. The lesson, as always, is never bet on people losing their jobs. Rooting for misery should not be--and usually isn’t--rewarded.
More important than my stupid bet is how both coaches were replaced. The Timberwolves immediately hired Chris Finch, an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. Minnesota GM Gersson Rosas faced a lot more questions for who he hired than why he fired Saunders.
One concern came from Rosas overlooking Wolves Assistant David Vanterpool, a black coach with impeccable qualifications, to go outside the organization to hire Finch.1 Clearly, black coaches and executives are getting passed over for white coaches with enough frequency that the most likely explanation is racial bias. Something has to change to give black candidates more leadership opportunities in a league built by black people.
The other concern is the timing of Finch’s hire. As with the end of my relationship from my senior year of college, I’m left questioning the timeline of when the Wolves ended their relationship with Saunders and moved on to Finch. Rosas explained that the team didn’t make any decisions before firing Saunders and hired Finch based on the strength of his interview from 2019.
The whole thing seems fishy, though. It took less than 24 hours to contact Finch and get him on board in the middle of the season. The move is not unprecedented. The Memphis Grizzlies hired Lionel Hollins from Milwaukee in the middle of the 2009 season to replace Marc Iavaroni.2 And it really worked out for Memphis! However, the Grizzlies at least waited two games before bringing in Hollins.
While the Timberwolves caught flak for their replacement plan, Atlanta has seemingly flown under the radar for replacing Pierce with assistant coach Nate McMillan.3 The Hawks brought in McMillan this offseason after the Pacers fired him. McMillan has been an assistant coach before, but all three of his previous assistant jobs led to the team hiring him as the head coach. When the Hawks brought in McMillan, many NBA observers surmised that he was insurance in case Pierce couldn’t get it together and we have been proven right.
My question is which team did their head coach dirtier? The Wolves were probably flirting with Finch before Saunders was gone, and immediately moved on. That’s pretty shitty, but Minnesota at least gave Saunders a chance to succeed before hiring his replacement.
The Hawks brought in Pierce’s replacement while he was still working there! They had McMillan breathing down Pierce’s neck, which is neither’s fault. To extend the dating analogy, Atlanta asked someone to move into Pierce’s house then broke up with Pierce for the new roommate. While this path is more common in the NBA (ie--Ty Lue taking over for David Blatt in Cleveland), it seems worse to me because the team is expecting the coach to fail and setting up for that eventuality.
From an organizational perspective, I would choose the Timberwolves path. Bringing in a new coach mid-season limits the team’s upside in that season because the coach has no familiarity with the players and vice versa. But if you’re firing your coach, you have very little chance of success anyways.
On the flip side, the Hawks just wasted a good chunk of this season with a coach that they probably knew would not succeed. Moving on from Pierce in the offseason would have given him, the team, and McMillan a much better chance at success. Pierce could have had a new job in the NBA and McMillan would have had all offseason to install his systems.
The lesson is to just fire a coach when you realize it’s time to move on because dragging out the process is harmful to everyone. The Wolves moved on after giving their coach a chance to succeed and giving the organization a chance for a full evaluation. The Hawks seemingly already made their evaluation, brought in a replacement, created a situation where Pierce couldn’t succeed, and fired him after digging themselves a hole. Both franchises are in a bad place, but at least Minnesota had a fairer process in mind. Atlanta tried to hedge their bets and put everyone in worse positions than if they just moved on from Pierce this offseason. Let me know what you think.
Fast breaks
Sorry for the slight delay in the Ball Briefing this week. I was busy making tik toks. Yes, I’m being serious. Go follow us on there: @ballandorder. Here’s a tik tok I made about Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Alex is too much of a Boomer to get Tik Tok, please booo that man.4 *frantically tries a middle part*
North Dakota State’s football team finally lost a game. The Salukis of Southern Illinois shocked the Bison with a 38-14 victory in the second game of the spring season. Only two college football teams have ever won more games in a row than NDSU’s 39 straight victories: Washington won 40 from 1909 to 1914 and Oklahoma won 47 straight from 1953 to 1957. I wrote about how dominant of a dynasty they are way back in October 2019. The streak spanned three national titles and two head coaches. When the Bison last lost a game on November 4, 2017, Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece Lady Bird had just premiered. I know it’s not that long ago, but I mention Lady Bird as much as possible because it’s a great movie and I love Sacramento.
Speaking of Sacramento, it was Yolanda Griffith’s birthday yesterday. Happy birthday to Yo, one of the greatest players in basketball history. She was an absolutely dominant center who won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in her first WNBA season. Yo led the Sacramento Monarchs to their first and only title in 2005. She owns the WNBA record for offensive rebounds (5.1/game in 2001) and did it while leading the team in scoring. Basically, only Moses Malone has done something similar in basketball history. Griffith is already in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, but she deserves to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame and is eligible this year. If she’s not in this year, I will riot.
Lobbing Links
From us:
D.J Chark sees the light at the end of the tunnel for you by Tyler Dunne
A well-told story about a really courageous, genuine dude who happens to be a wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Chark talks about his depression and anxiety then gives you tools to beat it.
These Men Can't Dunk by Shaker Samman
A great look at some players who have never dunked in a NBA game and why they don’t do it. The craziest part is that the league invited Steve Novak to participate in the dunk contest during Linsanity. Who thought that was a good idea???
Finch also has great credentials and a really awesome story. He totally deserves to be a head coach, however, Vanterpool does too.
Who? Seriously, I have no recollection of Iavaroni. Is he an Italian dish?
Outside of not informing the players of their coach being fired. But that seems to be par for the course. Oh and also the fact that Pierce has been a social justice leader who spearheaded the charge to turn stadiums into voting centers. And he just had a daughter. Rick Carlisle stood up for him at least.
From Alex: I prefer to get my TikToks from viral tweets and group-chats the way God intended