Q: When you told Terry Stotts you were making a move, was he surprised?
A: "You’d have to ask him whether he was surprised. Terry’s a class guy. He understands the situation. First of all, I put him in a very difficult spot. I didn’t do what was best for Terry Stotts by changing the team around in the middle of the season. Frankly, I didn’t do what was best for Billy Knight either. I did what was best for the franchise, and that’s what I’m supposed to do. It was unfortunate that it happened that way. Terry wasn’t really given a chance to show what he can do. Terry’s a class man and I also think Terry’s a good basketball coach. Just at this particular time, in the situation that we’re in, I felt it was best to move forward and go in a different direction." Q: What’s you’re timetable for finding a new head coach?
A: "I don’t have a timetable. Obviously, I’d like to move as quickly as possible. I’d like to accumulate a short list of candidates and go through the process and make a quick decision. But a well thought out and well educated summation on what these guys can do for us (is our plan). This is a critical stage for the franchise. This is a developmental stage of what we have going forward. So it’s going to take some good thought and provide some insight into what we want to do going forward."
Q: Does the firing of (New Orleans head coach) Tim Floyd push that timetable?
A: "I didn’t know Tim Floyd’s situation before, and it obviously didn’t have anything to do with anything I’m thinking about or anything I’m doing. I can’t let another situation dictate – well, we’ve got to hurry up now because there’s two coaching jobs open or three coaching jobs open, we have to be the first one to sign somebody. I don’t look at it that way. I’d rather do a situation that I think is the best thing for us. Hopefully that won’t be a long drawn out, protracted process and we can get that done as quickly as possible."
Q: Have you contacted any potential candidates?
A: "I have not spoken to anyone at all about it. I’m not going to comment on anyone I that do talk to or anyone that contacts us, if it goes that way. But, no, I have not spoken to anybody. I’ve been in the office all morning, but I will not be commenting on any candidates or any possible candidates. There will be speculation, of course, but that’s fine. Everybody can speculate as much as they like, but I won’t be commenting at all one way or the other on the top candidate, the list of candidates or anything like that.
If you want to do something, you go ahead and do it. It’s sort of like the trades that happened in the middle of the season. Even people around the NBA said, 'Man, Bill, I didn’t even know you were talking to them. I didn’t know you were thinking about doing that.' That’s the way I like to do things. If you want to do something, you go ahead and do it. You don’t have to gauge the climate or the temperature. You don’t have to judge other people’s opinions about what it would be like if you did this. If you feel you want to do something, you do it and you stand by that. That’s the way I plan to look at this situation and not get into speculating on candidates or list or anything like that."
Q: What are you looking for in a head coach?
A: "Like I said, this is a developmental process for this team. Obviously we’re looking for what we think is the best situation. I’m not going to get into particulars about qualifications for a coach because then that’ll fuel more speculation. [The media] will think they can eliminate this candidate or add this candidate. I’m not going to help you in this. You guys will have to do this all on your own, if you’re going to do any speculating. I’m not going to list the criteria everyone must meet to be on the list, that’ll be up to you all to do that yourselves."
Q: What is your short list like?
A: "I don’t think you need to get into the number of candidates that you’re going to look at or the time that you should take to do this because you’re boxing yourself in too much with those sorts of things. If you just let the process go and we’ll see what happens and when we have something to tell everybody, we’ll tell you."
Q: You’ve got a lot of money to go after free agents, where does that stand?
A: "That we have a lot of millions to go after free agents, that’s the same place it stands. Free agency starts July 1. We’re not circumventing the rules and starting conversations already. I haven’t been involved in any sort of conversations about free agents. You can’t do that until July 1. So we’re still at the same place we were at the end of the season. We have money to spend on free agents, but we’ll see how that plays out. I can’t predict it, but maybe you all can predict it for me. We’ll see come July 1 how things go."
A: "You’d have to ask him whether he was surprised. Terry’s a class guy. He understands the situation. First of all, I put him in a very difficult spot. I didn’t do what was best for Terry Stotts by changing the team around in the middle of the season. Frankly, I didn’t do what was best for Billy Knight either. I did what was best for the franchise, and that’s what I’m supposed to do. It was unfortunate that it happened that way. Terry wasn’t really given a chance to show what he can do. Terry’s a class man and I also think Terry’s a good basketball coach. Just at this particular time, in the situation that we’re in, I felt it was best to move forward and go in a different direction." Q: What’s you’re timetable for finding a new head coach?
A: "I don’t have a timetable. Obviously, I’d like to move as quickly as possible. I’d like to accumulate a short list of candidates and go through the process and make a quick decision. But a well thought out and well educated summation on what these guys can do for us (is our plan). This is a critical stage for the franchise. This is a developmental stage of what we have going forward. So it’s going to take some good thought and provide some insight into what we want to do going forward."
Q: Does the firing of (New Orleans head coach) Tim Floyd push that timetable?
A: "I didn’t know Tim Floyd’s situation before, and it obviously didn’t have anything to do with anything I’m thinking about or anything I’m doing. I can’t let another situation dictate – well, we’ve got to hurry up now because there’s two coaching jobs open or three coaching jobs open, we have to be the first one to sign somebody. I don’t look at it that way. I’d rather do a situation that I think is the best thing for us. Hopefully that won’t be a long drawn out, protracted process and we can get that done as quickly as possible."
Q: Have you contacted any potential candidates?
A: "I have not spoken to anyone at all about it. I’m not going to comment on anyone I that do talk to or anyone that contacts us, if it goes that way. But, no, I have not spoken to anybody. I’ve been in the office all morning, but I will not be commenting on any candidates or any possible candidates. There will be speculation, of course, but that’s fine. Everybody can speculate as much as they like, but I won’t be commenting at all one way or the other on the top candidate, the list of candidates or anything like that.
If you want to do something, you go ahead and do it. It’s sort of like the trades that happened in the middle of the season. Even people around the NBA said, 'Man, Bill, I didn’t even know you were talking to them. I didn’t know you were thinking about doing that.' That’s the way I like to do things. If you want to do something, you go ahead and do it. You don’t have to gauge the climate or the temperature. You don’t have to judge other people’s opinions about what it would be like if you did this. If you feel you want to do something, you do it and you stand by that. That’s the way I plan to look at this situation and not get into speculating on candidates or list or anything like that."
Q: What are you looking for in a head coach?
A: "Like I said, this is a developmental process for this team. Obviously we’re looking for what we think is the best situation. I’m not going to get into particulars about qualifications for a coach because then that’ll fuel more speculation. [The media] will think they can eliminate this candidate or add this candidate. I’m not going to help you in this. You guys will have to do this all on your own, if you’re going to do any speculating. I’m not going to list the criteria everyone must meet to be on the list, that’ll be up to you all to do that yourselves."
Q: What is your short list like?
A: "I don’t think you need to get into the number of candidates that you’re going to look at or the time that you should take to do this because you’re boxing yourself in too much with those sorts of things. If you just let the process go and we’ll see what happens and when we have something to tell everybody, we’ll tell you."
Q: You’ve got a lot of money to go after free agents, where does that stand?
A: "That we have a lot of millions to go after free agents, that’s the same place it stands. Free agency starts July 1. We’re not circumventing the rules and starting conversations already. I haven’t been involved in any sort of conversations about free agents. You can’t do that until July 1. So we’re still at the same place we were at the end of the season. We have money to spend on free agents, but we’ll see how that plays out. I can’t predict it, but maybe you all can predict it for me. We’ll see come July 1 how things go."
No comments:
Post a Comment