The old saying goes that coaches are hired to be fired and that adage was no more evident than on Thursday when the reigning NBA Coach of the Year, George Karl, was axed in Denver.
Karl had apparently asked for security from his bosses and they were intent on allowing him to play out the last year of his deal before considering a new contract. When Karl balked at that idea, they decided to make a change rather than have an unhappy coach patrolling the sidelines next season.
The frugal franchise also recently saw Karl’s old boss Masai Ujiri leave for better-paying pastures in Toronto last week, so naturally, people immediately connected Point A to Point B and assumed he might be the next coach of the Raptors.
As Sportsnet’s Michael Grange was quick to point out, Karl’s future likely lies elsewhere.
The obvious first issue with this thinking would be that the Raptors still have a coach in place. While Ujiri would not fully commit to Dwane Casey’s return during his introduction on Tuesday, it did seem like there was a strong likelihood that he was headed in that direction.
Casey is a protégé of Karl’s to boot as he was given his first NBA job in Seattle when Karl was in charge of the Sonics. Karl rescued Casey from No Man’s Land at that point and the two remain tight. The former Nuggets coach would probably be less than excited by the idea of replacing his good friend North of the Border.
In the longer-term, even if a good working relationship between the Ujiri and Casey was unable to materialize, Karl will likely be off the market.
Ujiri also has a solid relationship with his former boss in Denver, Josh Kroenke, and you have to wonder why the Nuggets were so quick to pull the trigger in letting Karl go.
Obviously his lack of success in the playoffs must have played a factor in the decision.
In nine seasons in Denver, Karl’s teams always made the playoffs but his Nuggets teams were only able to advance out of the first round once.
This past spring, they were upset in Round 1 by the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors. You could say that the team’s playoff hopes evaporated when “star” forward Danilo Gallinari was injured but their opponents also lost one of their top players early in the series in David Lee and still managed to survive.
At this point, Raptor fans would be pleased with a simple playoff appearance but all of those first-round knockouts go against what the new Raptors front office goals are supposed to be. Ujiri and his new boss Tim Leiweke aren’t just interested in a playoff appearance, they want to bring a title to Toronto.
Fox Sports columnist Chris Tomasson also sent out a series of tweets on Thursday which pointed as to why the Nuggets let Karl go which may help explain why the Raptors aren’t really all that interested.
Among the issues between Karl and management were his decisions to play veteran point guard Andre Miller and centre Kostas Koufas over youngster Evan Fournier and Javale McGee who was is paid handsomely in Denver.
They would have happily sacrificed a couple of the franchise-record 57 wins for more development time for youngsters.
Karl told Grantland’s Zach Lowe that he couldn’t play McGee over Koufas as the former had difficulty grasping Karl’s offence. While this is true, McGee would have also offered rim protection that Koufas couldn’t on the other end of the floor.
The rift in philosophies between the Nuggets front office and their former coach are the exact issues that Ujiri is hoping to avoid.
As Sportsnet’s Holly MacKenzie pointed out on Wednesday, Ujiri is expecting to be on the same page with his coach.
Ujiri wants to be on the same philosophical page with his coach in terms of player development and playing style.
The playoff-starved fans of the Raptors were understandably excited by the prospect of having a new coach with a history of success on board but in the unlikely instance that Ujiri does decide to make a change, Karl won’t be coming to town.