Collins "will not be retained" by Wizards

[Colin]

Washington Sports and Entertainment Chairman Abe Pollin announced today the franchise would not retain Doug Collins as head coach. Pollin and Wizards General Manager Wes Unseld personally spoke to Collins by phone Friday afternoon.
“Several weeks ago, Doug and I spoke and we promised each other we would be fair in whatever happened,” said Pollin. “With seven head coaching positions available in the league and with his future here in Washington in doubt, I felt that it was only fair that Doug be given a chance to pursue other interests. Doug was our head coach in a very unique situation, and I know that he worked very, very hard to prepare our team for every game.”

Collins compiled a 74-90 (.451) record in two seasons with Washington. The team did not appear in the playoffs in his two seasons.

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Hey MJForever, if 2004 has hire/fire you want need to bother firing Doug Collins.

I think it's good, he doesn't seem to have much confidence in the young players. And this must be a record, there's something like 8-9 teams wihtout a coach right now.

[Power And Proud]

CYA Doug. Don't come back!

[Andrew]

Good move by Washington. Collins is not a terrible coach, but he's not a great one either. I think he's more suited to an up and coming team, rather than a team that's rebuilding - it will be interesting to see if any teams show interest in him.

[Dert]

I think the main reason Colins was fired was so that the Wizards can hire Larry Brown... I read somewhere that Larry refused to even interview witht the Wizards while they still had a coach. I also think that maybe management never really liked Colins and he was there because of Jordan. So now that Jordan is gone, they can get a good coach. I dont think people are going to be puttin Colins on their top choice as a coach...

[Andrew]

It might be a move made in vain though, even though it wasn't a bad move any way you look at it. Perhaps Brown was just finding a polite reason to decline a job with the Wizards. Still, he hasn't been firmly linked with any other coaching positions, so anything is possible.

[benji]

He's firmly linked to the Pistons, Andrew

Collins is gone because it's part of the Jordan purge...first Jordan, then Collins, probably Stack, then Lue...if they get takers for the rest of the team, they're probably gone...there is an adequate core there (Kwame, Etan, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Bobby Simmons (the most underrated player in the league?) even Juan Dixon and Brendan Haywood) that could be developed...but they're gonna suck quite a bit this upcoming season unless a Basketball Jesus comes along...but I think everyone knew that post-Jordan Washington would be a wasteland....

[Andrew]

When I posted that, I hadn't seen the report about Brown being close to taking the Pistons job. Guess Carlisle's dismissal wasn't in vain after all.

[Nel]

Collins is good in benching young players.

[scubilete]

Jordan is bad for any franchise. When he came back I thought he wanted to teach Kwame about the game, instead he would ask Collins not to let him play so his boss would be wasting the money there, , no wonder he got fired.

Now it cost Collins job as well but after all Collins got there cause MJ asked him, so we were not expecting the malicious MJ plan continue. Let's hope Kwame can play a whole season with numbers like the first 2 games he had this last season, he might be gone after next one and hopefully he understands he needs to play better to ask for more $$$$.

[Andrew]

Michael Jordan's tenure with the Wizards, as both an executive and player, wasn't as successful as hoped, but I don't think it was the total failure that is being suggested. Consider that he was able to move Juwan Howard's contract, got rid of Mitch Richmond, and was able to put together a couple of decent teams the last couple of seasons - teams that won 37 games, better than the seasons leading up to his comeback.

However, I think MJ's methods of pushing his teammates his a little outdated. Back in the day, chewing out teammates and making them all but fight for minutes might have resulted in the competitive spirit and development the Wizards were hoping for. But it didn't work out that way.

[scubilete]

We have to remember those movements Michael did were the also the reason why he was forced for a comeback. After getting rid of those guys (true: Howard was useless compared with the money he was getting) & Rod Strickland, he didn't have anyone left so he had to find out how to make a team again, that's why he came back. But what I thought about all this is that MJ coming back was supposed to teach the young guys and work together with them to get to the playoffs, something I already argue with you is whether that team was a playoff team or not, I truly believe it was but it didn't work the way it was expected, .

P.S. I really admire the way you are a MJ fan cause not all the MJ fans around have any logic or are able to talk about MJ without talking crap.

[Andrew]

Of course it didn't work out as planned - at one point or another, the Wizards were projected as being the 4th/5th seed in the East - certainly lofty expectations. Making the playoffs was a possibility, and they did not achieve it - so it's safe to say, the Wizards didn't go as far as they could (should?) have.

As I said, I think MJ was trying to teach the young players something - competitive fire, will to win, etc - but the method of tough love is a little outdated in today's NBA. MJ probably expected Kwame Brown to adopt an "I'll show you!" kind of attitude after chewing him out (to put it nicely ). Positive reinforcement would probably have been the better way to go; a pat on the back rather than a kick in the butt.

As an executive, not every move was a great one. And it's easy to say "Well, the team wasn't going anywhere, so it's not like he ran a successful franchise into the ground" - in a way that's true, but it's a cop out. Some decisions didn't work out as planned, some were ill-advised, but some were good.

The best way to look at it, I feel, is that his tenure with the Wizards as VP and a player was far from a huge success, but it wasn't a grand failure either.

P.S. I really admire the way you are a MJ fan cause not all the MJ fans around have any logic or are able to talk about MJ without talking crap.

I try to be objective as possible, which is naturally difficult when there's a discussion about your favourite player and/or team. I admit, I see MJ in a positive light rather than being absolutely neutral but hey, he's my favourite player.