Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am  |  34 responses

Does Byron Scott Have a Future in New Orleans?

by Marcel Mutoni

That’s the question on everyone’s mind in the Big Easy. And it’s not an easy one to answer.

One the one hand, you have a team that scratched and clawed its way into the Playoffs, only to play awful once in the tournament, and at one point simply just quit (their 58-point loss to the Nuggets at home will not soon be forgotten); on the other, the players insist that the coach still has their ear, and did a solid job.

It’s now up to management to weigh all of their options, and decide if Byron Scott will be roaming the Hornets’ sidelines in the 2009-’10 season. From the Times-Picayune:

Ten days after Hornets owner George Shinn said he planned to meet with his brain trust to evaluate the performance of his head coach, Byron Scott remains in limbo. Scott’s agent, Brian McInerney, said Monday afternoon that he has not heard from the Hornets about whether they want Scott to return for the last year of his contract next season or if they’ll grant him permission to pursue another job.

Scott’s agent, Brian McInerney, said Monday afternoon that he has not heard from the Hornets about whether they want Scott to return for the last year of his contract next season or if they’ll grant him permission to pursue another job…McInerney said Scott was not aware of any issues involving the team’s management and his performance until Scott read it in The Times-Picayune during their playoff series against Denver last week.

When Shinn was asked to assess the job Scott had done and if the coach’s job was safe, the team’s owner said it was a loaded question and Scott would be evaluated like everyone else at the end of the season.

The former Coach of the Year is slated to make $6.5 million next year.

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  • German Reignman Posted: May.5 at 9:09 am
    6.5 million for standing on the sidelines with crossed arms ? damn, I am in the wrong business

  • Fred34 Posted: May.5 at 9:12 am
    don’t forget a well waxed dome . . .

  • ktokyo Posted: May.5 at 9:13 am
    bye bye Byron. don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. I’ll never forget he was supposed to come speak at my highschool when he was still playing, but he cancelled on us.

  • Ryne Nelson Posted: May.5 at 9:18 am
    Sacramento will snatch Scott up in a second. Sad, though, that the Hornets might let him go. The Hornet’s troubles are not as much his fault as it is his team’s.

  • Mo Charlo Posted: May.5 at 9:23 am
    He also had to deal with new players, injuries, and a trade that got vetoed for an integral part of the team. The team did quit, but that’s more because they’re not that great, and Denver is an elite team.

  • Tavoris Posted: May.5 at 9:26 am
    The Hornets can’t afford 2 pay Scott NOT to coach…heck, they can’t even afford 2 pay the players they have (at least that’s Shinn’s story-and he’s stickin 2 it).

  • LeoneL Posted: May.5 at 9:27 am
    It’s not his fault players were injured. Management might have forgotten last season already. Pft

  • littleshotlarry Posted: May.5 at 9:37 am
    Byron Scott is not as bad a coach as everyone is making it out to be. But at the same time this seasons failure was not about injuries. It’s not completely Byron’s fault, but he would just make a better impact somewhere else at this point. Really though, they’d be justified either way.

  • Gerard Himself Posted: May.5 at 10:09 am
    German Reignman: you rather have SVG screaming on the sidelines? I’d rather have a cool cat (yeah i said cool cat) like Scott coaching my team.

  • cdef28 Posted: May.5 at 10:16 am
    He should stick around one more season.I don’t extremely care for his coaching because his defensive philosophy sucks, but another year wouldn’t hurt.

  • toney blare Posted: May.5 at 10:18 am
    Dude refused to call timeouts in the first half of games for, oh, 70 of 82, even though they consistently started games flat; he never settled on a rotation; he ran down his two stars–not just down the stretch, but from the beginning of the season, although one had played all summer–so they had nothing left; yes, his bench sucked, but he never tried to give them an identity, like, say, rebound and defend; clawing and scratching? did you watch the last 15 regular season? more like sliding and falling; he has developed exactly no young players in the last 2 seasons; they lost the biggest home game of the year by 58 and he never said “i take some–ANY!–responsibility.” Tell me, if this man hadn’t lucked into Magic, Jason Kidd, and CP3, where exactly would his career be? Because of the $, i don’t know that they’ll fire him, but that was me screaming “worst coach in the league” from press row when he let Tyson pick up 3 fouls in the 3rd qtr of the only playoff game they won, and i stick by it. Fck Byron.

  • YusufCelticfan Posted: May.5 at 10:40 am
    I say Keep him…who else can they replace him with that anyone can say – without a doubt- this next coach will take us to a NBA Championship appearance. I say keep and try to move forward for one more year. They’re only one player away from maybe making it to NBA’s western conference championship…go get David Lee or better yet Ben Gordan and they’ll be alright.

  • Zabba Posted: May.5 at 10:41 am
    Toney Blare: if Byron hadn’t lucked into Magic, period, he wouldn’t be here today. Gametime opened the doors to JKidd and CP3. That’s how lame he is.

  • nate the great Posted: May.5 at 10:52 am
    i like him. i say keep him!

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: May.5 at 11:07 am
    No. Next question.

  • Caleb Posted: May.5 at 11:08 am
    “I don’t extremely care for his coaching because his defensive philosophy sucks” Huh? The Hornets managed to be a top 10 defensive team this year despite having Hilton Armstrong and Sean Marks as their primary post defenders. And his Nets teams that went to the finals finished first in defensive efficiency. When it comes to X’s and 0′s I think Byron’s problem is not defense, but an inability to adapt his offensive schemes to chaging circumstances. For instance, even though Chandler was out most of the year, Byron still ran an offense predicated on Chandler’s ability to set solid screens and run the pick and roll.

  • Caleb Posted: May.5 at 11:10 am
    For an excellent analysis of Byron take a look at http://www.atthehive.com. Wonderful writeup there…

  • cdef28 Posted: May.5 at 11:23 am
    No his defense sucks buddy.

  • Caleb Posted: May.5 at 11:30 am
    Well, in fact, it does NOT suck by any objective measure… but okay.

  • cdef28 Posted: May.5 at 11:34 am
    It’s not that the defensive numbers are bad, it’s that he always plays undersized. When the game gets close, the opponent can post up their best post.

  • Caleb Posted: May.5 at 11:41 am
    With Tyson Chandler out… the opponent can ALWAYS post up NO’s best post player, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about. And “he always plays undersized” is not really true anyway..

  • ciolkstar Posted: May.5 at 11:45 am
    His defensive schemes are actually pretty good, but he’s too rigid, terrible at developing young players and hurts his teams by not playing the guys he doesn’t like. Sacramento will fell REALLY dumb if they pay him long term.

  • Caleb Posted: May.5 at 11:47 am
    “hurts his teams by not playing the guys he doesn’t like.” SEE: this season, MORRIS PETERSON. The guy is a starter for last year’s 56-win squad, and this year he can’t get off the bench… a bench that is struggling and could use an offensive weapon. What did he do to piss Byron off? Inexplicable.

  • Mo Charlo Posted: May.5 at 12:02 pm
    They should be talking about who they can get for Posey and West.

  • Tiffany Posted: May.5 at 12:24 pm
    I say way our options. His bench rotation truely, truely sucked. Look at the people he let go because their personalities clashed, B Bass, J.R., Birdman. I bet he wished he still had Birdman when Chandler was out. Weigh our Options

  • Tavoris Posted: May.5 at 12:32 pm
    dang Zabba, you forget that the Lakers ran a lot of plays for Byron Scott in the Showtime era…he wasn’t some bum as a player.

  • Cizzo Posted: May.5 at 3:02 pm
    Let’s see if the NO can find a better coach that B. Scott email if they do! Other than that they better stay with what got them to this point!!!!!

  • Will Ram Posted: May.5 at 4:13 pm
    This guy is a clown. How are you going to let the Nuggets stamp you with a washout like that. This guy sold the store in New Jersey, let’s not forget.. History seems to repeat itslef doesn’t it…. Ashcan his bald ass 4real

  • doyouwantmore Posted: May.5 at 5:18 pm
    Keep him New Orleans. Make him your Jerry Sloan. Keep him for twenty, thirty years.

  • LBJ23KILLA Posted: May.5 at 8:52 pm
    if the lakers dont win the title this year or next year, which is phils contract year, i could see the lakers scooping up byron scott and keep it in the family

  • Dacre Posted: May.5 at 9:08 pm
    I think it’s come down to inconsistent nature of the arm crossing. Last year it was right over left, this year he was trying to mix it up and keep other teams guessing, a little left over right and at one point he even threw out a hand on hip and point formation…he really should get back to basics and work with what he developed from last season.

  • what Posted: May.5 at 11:40 pm
    I haven’t seen enough NO games this year to know for sure whether Byron sucks as a coach, and definitely the coach deserves some blame when you lose by 58 in a home playoff game, but on the real pretty much everyone on that team other than CP3, David West (who is pretty overrated himself) and James Posey is either washed up or a scrub. That roster doesn’t compare to the other top-9 teams in the West when it comes to talent.

  • bolletrie Posted: May.6 at 10:29 am
    byron should go. I’ve seen too many games where NO has a chance to win the game but ends up losing because of some knucklehead decision made by this guy. I say can his ass and get mike d’antoni in there

  • Luke Posted: May.6 at 9:27 pm
    ”One the one hand”??? Lol nice. GoodBy-ron

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