• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

OKC Fired Scott Brooks

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
The Dion Waiters effect. I swear that kid has been through more coaches at his age that I can remember any player so far. Okay anyways I found this as a shock Brooks does not seem responsible for the bad year. I guess a statement had to be made. Harden was key for them and losing him made the team a very fragile so called elite team.
 
I thought they should have fired him after their finals debacle when they were so easily shut down by the Heat.

Agree on the Harden trade. Cheaping out on a finals roster is the worst thing to do. Even the Heat dumping Miller had repercussions. Only finals team that should have been broken up was Cavs 2007 team. We got a better team out of it.

You know what it worked out for everyone in the end. I mean we are still waiting for ours but it should come. I look back and think how that move we all were so pissed about might have been the only way to get a title in Cleveland. It is so mind blowing.
 
yes, it was a long time coming. i'm actually a little surprised though - between durant and westbrook they almost missed an entire seasons' worth of games yet their playoff chances still came down to the last game of the season. while playing in the much tougher conference, too.

they wouldn't fire him when the team underperformed while healthy, but now they fire him when they basically overperform while unhealthy?

yea there's really no reason to read into this....well, at all, re: durant leaving.

When did they ever under perform?
 
Two years too late, imo.

I felt the same about us and Mike Brown back in the day. He should have been fired after the Orlando series when he was badly exposed as a coach who had no idea how to make adjustments.

I thought Mike Brown should have gotten canned in 2K7, so we could make a run at Adelman. Instead, LeBron turns into Superman on Steroids, takes the team to the Finals, makes Mike Brown look better than he is, and we have 3 more years of Brown, before the whole thing gets blown up.

A real tragedy. There is a real cost to hanging on to mediocre coaches too long. Weak-minded GMs can be tricked into thinking the winning coaches are good coaches, when they are really along for the ride. Presti made the right decision HERE, but it is still not clear why Presti doesn't have to lie in the bed that he made.
 
I thought they should have fired him after their finals debacle when they were so easily shut down by the Heat.

Yep; they should have never gave him that 4yr extension. That move, and the Harden trade, will go down as the defining factors in their "what could have been".

Starting Perkins for as long he did, playing 38yr old Fisher 20+min, failing to develop roles for PJ3, Lamb, etc. You could go on but the guy never did himself any favors.
 
Durant would be perfect for that Wizards team. Westbrook would be perfect for any team that wants to have a guy in the MVP conversation every year while bowing out in the first round.
 
Jones, Lamb , morroy or even mitch would of been a better option to start than Singler.

I think Brooks would of been gone though regardless if the Thunder made the playoffs.

On the flip side Brooks didnt trade away harden (not that I think it would of made a difference nor did he have Ibaka, Durant and Westbrook suffer major injuries at bad times in the playoff seasons following the final appearance.

Coaching also wasnt the difference in the finals as The Heat exploited an inexperienced young team that got there based on Athleticism.
OKc faced a Mavs team that was a shell. A lakers team on its last legs and a Spurs team that was out of gas in a strike shortened season
 
Zach Lowe agrees.

They had the talent to put up explosive regular-season numbers within that rote non-system — they always did — but postseason defenses in 2013 and 2014 ground it down. Those defenses were more prepared to pounce on the Thunder’s pet sets. They took an extra step or five away from Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha, to the point that the Thunder’s starting lineup became borderline unplayable. Predictability can win in February, but not in June — not in a smarter NBA more attuned to spacing and shooting on both sides of the ball. The Thunder under Brooks were doomed, and they should have known it after those 2012 Finals.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/scott-free-the-thunder-imagine-a-future-without-scott-brooks/
 
A franchise that was so great at acquiring talent has been equally inept at retaining it.

Losing Harden, Green, and Reggie Jackson with nothing to show for it (save Kanter) is terrible.

Keeping Brooks around this long was the icing on the cake.
 
I don't care who they end up hiring as their coach, if that team stays healthy next season they have as good a shot as anyone to come out of the Western Conference.

I'm also not buying this talk that Kevin Durant is dying to leave a team that has Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka on it either, but that's another story.
 
The window to win can be so small. You would have thought that team was built to compete for a decade, and now it just seems middle of the pack. Wow.
 
San Antonio started out with a 2-0 series lead. it was Brooks adjustment on the home trip that put OKC into the finals

Lets not pretend San Antonio didnt improve as a team the following two seasons
 
Skip Bayless thinks this is an obvious sign Love is headed to the Lakers...

Could see this coming. No it's not his fault that team lost Durant but they have been underperforming their talent level for a few years now. I think it can end up being much better fire them in the long run.

I don't think they've been underperforming for their talent level. If you continuously make the conference Finals, I'd say that's about the most that can be expected of any team. Once you've reached that point, the talent is even, or close enough to it.

I just don't think Scott Brooks added anything to that team. If you removed him and just replaced him with a guy who let Durant and Westbrook do whatever they want, you'd get about the same results you've gotten over the last 4-5 years. That's to say Scott Brooks neither added to nor subtracted from that team.
 
Dion Waiters has had his coach get fired at the end of the season his first three years in the league.

2013: Byron Scott
2014: Mike Brown
2015: Scott Brooks
 
I don't care who they end up hiring as their coach, if that team stays healthy next season they have as good a shot as anyone to come out of the Western Conference.

I'm also not buying this talk that Kevin Durant is dying to leave a team that has Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka on it either, but that's another story.

Agree on all fronts. Everyone points to Washington, but the only thing they would have over Durant's current situation is that they are in the east. Nobody on the Wizards is anywhere near as talented as Westbrook, and Ibaka easily outclasses any big man Washington has.

This Thunder team hasn't had a healthy playoff run since 2012. Granted, that was when they had Harden, but nobody remembers that OKC was the 1 seed that first season without Harden, and they were poised to make another Finals run before Westbrook got hurt. Then they had the Ibaka injury last playoffs, and it's been straight downhill from there.

Truth be told, the Thunder have sported one of the most talented rosters in the NBA over the past 3-5 years, but sadly injuries (and imo, coaching) have prevented them from really reaching their potential.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top