NJ Nets GM Rod Thorn's biggest mistake:

[chet]

Firing coach Byron Scott- was it three years ago? Now he's taking another team to the Finals:

Hornets' big season earns Scott NBA Coach of Year award
ESPN.com news services

Updated: April 28, 2008, 8:35 PM ET
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As recently as the 2004-05 season, the New Orleans Hornets were an NBA joke with an 18-64 record. It looks like the coach of that team, Byron Scott, will get the last laugh.


Fast Facts

• An all-rookie selection in 1983-84, Byron Scott averaged 14.1 points in a 14-year NBA career.

• Scott was a part of three Los Angeles Lakers championship teams.

• Scott has a 300-316 record in eight coaching seasons in the NBA, leading the Nets to two NBA Finals appearances.

-- ESPN Research

Before the Hornets take on the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Tuesday, Scott will be named the NBA Coach of the Year, according to multiple media reports. ESPN.com confirmed the reports on Monday night.

New Orleans sent a media advisory Monday afternoon, saying it planned a "major announcement" at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday following the Hornets' game-day shootaround.

Other front-runners for coach of the year included Boston coach Doc Rivers, who led the Celtics to the best record in the NBA (66-16), as well as Houston coach Rick Adelman, who oversaw the Rockets' improbable 22-game winning streak and helped his team stay competitive after a season-ending foot injury to star center Yao Ming.

Rivers agreed with the choice of Scott.

"He should," Rivers said before the Celtics played Atlanta in Game 4 Monday night. "He really should. You look what they've done."

Scott led the New Jersey Nets to consecutive trips to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 but lasted only 42 games the next season. He was hired in 2004 to guide a New Orleans team in transition.

A series of moves over the next few years drew as many jeers as cheers. The Hornets traded All-Star guard Baron Davis, drafted undersized point guard Chris Paul, signed aging veteran Peja Stojakovic to a long-term contract and acquired Chicago Bulls castoff Tyson Chandler.

A 16-game improvement in 2005-06 and a run at the playoffs the next season quieted some of the criticism, but few thought Scott would last to see the project through … until this season.

For much of the campaign the Hornets had the best record in the conference and finished with a franchise-record 56-26 mark, good for a No. 2 seed in the West. That drew a matchup with Dallas, who many thought would expose the young Hornets. But Scott and New Orleans have kept proving the doubters wrong.

They go into Game 5 with a surprising 3-1 series lead and their eyes on the Larry O'Brien Trophy which goes to the NBA champ. Scott takes home some hardware of his own first.


Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

[chet]

He should've traded Jason Kidd back then and kept Scott.

[morroben]

I remember thinking that the Kings should have gone after Byron Scott when Adelman left...he had been an assistant there for a while.
Byron Scott was always my favorite Laker back in the Showtime era. I'm glad he's having success.

As a side note...how about the Dallas trade to get Jason Kidd? Doesn't look so good when Chris Paul, the opposing point guard, is pretty much embarrassing Kidd on a nightly basis.

[chet]

Scott shows he's still great
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Pat Riley laughed and told his former player, "Welcome to the wonderful world of coaching." This was four years ago, back when the Nets decided the man who led them from irrelevancy to two straight NBA Finals was no longer good enough to be their head coach.

Byron Scott was out of a job, a three-time world champion dealing with failure for the first time. He would show up most mornings at the Montclair YMCA, find an empty Stairmaster between the housewives and senior citizens, and sweat off his anger as he waited for another chance.

"Sure, he was upset," Riley, who coached Scott to three titles with the Lakers, said from his office in Miami yesterday. "He was disappointed, discouraged, and probably a little angry, too. What you want as a coach is the opportunity to be able to grow with your team."

Scott never had that chance with the Nets, but if you believe in karma, these NBA playoffs have become one long episode of "My Name is Earl." There he was yesterday, collecting his first Coach of the Year trophy a few hours before his New Orleans Hornets eliminated the Dallas Mavericks in the first round.

And yes, playing for the Mavericks was a diminished Jason Kidd, the All-Star point guard who helped run Scott out of the Meadowlands -- and who apparently has traded in his triple-doubles for a walker since moving West.

For a Nets fan, the series offered one long reminder of that brief but wonderful window when the Nets actually mattered, the one that has now slammed shut. Scott, as much as Kidd, was the face of the franchise during that run. Unlike Kidd, he never received the credit he deserved.

Perhaps this is the only vindication he needed: The team began its slow decline from the top of the Eastern Conference soon after he was canned. Was his departure the only reason? Hardly. But it was the first domino.

"What he did in New Jersey was a credit to him -- absolutely a credit to him," Riley said. "He did a fantastic job there. But sometimes, dynamics and personalities can get in the way."

For Riley, yesterday was Day 1 as a retired head coach, one who insists he has no intentions of returning to the sideline. Even now, after a disastrous 15-win final season with the Heat, he is held up as what head coaches in this league should be -- smooth, confident and damn good at drawing up plays.

It was only after years in the league that Riley, the tactician, could fill the shoes of Riley, the sideline presence. "My reputation was always that of a motivator and a driver," said Riley, who won his first of four titles with the Lakers as a 36-year-old rookie in 1982. "The Xs and Os came to me on the fly."

That was always the knock on Scott here -- that he didn't spend enough hours breaking down film, as if a head coach had to drink 47 Diet Cokes each day and sleep on his office floor to win. Scott let the Nets play basketball and got out of the way. They breezed through the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2003 before running into an immovable force in Spurs center Tim Duncan.

Then, midway through the following season, Kidd was openly challenging Scott on the floor and in the locker room, and Scott was a goner. He would get his second shot with another disaster of a franchise in New Orleans -- and another star point guard dropped in his lap.

Chris Paul, unlike Kidd, loves his coach. He is the type of out-of-the-world talent who will have the Hornets compete for championships for years, and nobody in New Orleans is complaining about Scott or his work ethic any more. He is the one that shepherded this team through the draft lottery and the Katrina disaster, the one "whose spirit and attitude has spread throughout the team," as general manager Jeff Bower said yesterday.

Nobody expected the Hornets to do much at the start of the season, and many around the league waited for a collapse that never came. Now, the praise comes from everywhere, including one unlikely source.

"I'm happy for him and his team, because they've done it all year when people thought they were going to fall off, they finished with the No. 2 seed and they had a great run."

That was Jason Kidd talking, a few hours before the coach he wanted out of New Jersey ended his championship hopes. Karma? Maybe. Or maybe Byron Scott was just a pretty good basketball coach all along.



Steve Politi appears regularly in The Star-Ledger. He may be reached at spoliti@starledger.com

[chet]

Originally Posted by morroben

I remember thinking that the Kings should have gone after Byron Scott when Adelman left...he had been an assistant there for a while.
Byron Scott was always my favorite Laker back in the Showtime era. I'm glad he's having success.

As a side note...how about the Dallas trade to get Jason Kidd? Doesn't look so good when Chris Paul, the opposing point guard, is pretty much embarrassing Kidd on a nightly basis.

Kidd has let his ego get the best of him for years now.

The reason he got all those triple doubles with the Nets is because he was playing with guys like Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, Kerry Kittles and Vince Carter.

I was hoping that the Mavs would get swept- especially since it was coach Scott's team that they were playing.

[allen st. john]

I always thought Scott's contribution with the Nets was underrated, and it must be sweet for him to take out Kidd's Mavericks.

For all of the team's great accomplishments this season, I'd say it would be a very long shot for the Hornets to get past the Spurs and then likely the Lakers to make it to the Finals.

As for the coach of the year award, Scott is now tied with Phil Jackson, and Greg Popovich, who have one award each. And 13 championships between them.

[chet]

The Spurs almost got beat by those same Phoenix Suns last year. It appears the Suns made a mistake by trading for Shaq.

I'd say that the Hornets are an even bet to get to the Finals.

[morroben]

Originally Posted by chet

I'd say that the Hornets are an even bet to get to the Finals.

+1 I think they have as good a chance as anyone. Chris Paul is my new favorite NBA player...I'm more impressed every time I see him play.

I was glad to see the Mavs lose...never really liked them and Kidd made me like them less.
I'd have to agree about the Shaq trade not working for the Suns, but I can see why they did it. They needed to do something.
They've been banking on Steve Nash for too long. Nash is overrated. They need to overhaul that team. Everyone's trade-able except Amare.

[chet]

Steve Nash is one of my favorite non-Net NBA players. He has a lot of heart- I think he plays even though he has back trouble.
The Suns lost mainly because of thier poor foul shooting and the "Hack-a-Shaq" tactics.

[morroben]

Originally Posted by chet

Steve Nash is one of my favorite non-Net NBA players. He has a lot of heart- I think he plays even though he has back trouble.
The Suns lost mainly because of thier poor foul shooting and the "Hack-a-Shaq" tactics.

I wouldn't question Nash on heart...he has plenty. I even think he's a good point guard, but not as great as he's made out to be. All the assists are great but he's good for 3-4 turnovers a game as well...and they always seem to happen at the worst times.
I agree that the "Hack-a-Shaq" played a huge roll in the outcome of that series.

[Ptrallan01]

was the least objectionable of the show time lakers! Great coach and he proved it again.

Poor Steve Nash got exposed against the Spurs. His age is showing big time. He could not defend Tony Parker even minimally. Tony did whatever he wanted when he decided to and as great an offensive player as Nash is he didn't have the stomach(?), strength or speed to handle Parker. Shame when you get taken like that time after time. I've been on both sides of that deal, great to do the taking, embarrasing to be took!

[chet]

Every team in the league gets taken by Parker. He slips by every teams game plan. You don't expect it but he does it every game.

The team that beats them will have a Walt Frazier-type guard who will shut him down. He's the key to the Spur's success- not Duncan.

[chet]

Hornets 1
Spurs 0

Looks like coach Scott has the Spurs number...

[morroben]

Yeah...I think the Hornets are for real. I'll be rooting for them.