The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

In ESPN.com’s Daily Dime, Marc Stein reports that Larry Krystkowiak “has roughly zero chance of keeping his job beyond this season, no matter who gets brought in to replace Larry Harris as Bucks general manager.”

This isn’t much of a surprise, as Krystkowiak has shown no ability to tailor his coaching style to his players. He was successful in college. I mean no disrespect when I say he did well at Montana, and that’s where he belongs. After all, he went 42-20 in two seasons there and won a game in the NCAA tournament. He clearly can coach, just not so much coach professionals.

Whoever the new coach is depends on who the new general manager is. Stein also writes:

“Harris’ successor, I’m told, will be charged with finding a coach with more experience after a run of younger coaches: Terry Porter, Terry Stotts and Krystkowiak. Job No. 1 for the new man thus will be making a clear determination on what kind of talent Milwaukee really has.”

Let’s not forget that Kohl has a track record of making the expensive, splashy coaching acquisition. Mike Dunleavy was a hot coaching commodity when Kohl outbid several teams for him, and George Karl was the highest paid coach in the game for a while (at $7 million a year).

So, who will the main targets be?

John Calipari: I know I’ve spent all season pounding Krystkowiak as a college coach, but in defense of Calipari, by working at UMass and Memphis, does that really count? Calipari’s first NBA gig with the Nets was a failure, but he also had to deal with the Stephion Marbury factor. At Memphis, Calipari is running the Dribble-Drive Motion offense, which sounds uniquely suited for the Bucks’ personel. It basically involves spreading the floor to an extreme, with four perimeter players stetching the defense and the center setting up on the weak-side block. This is supposed to open driving lanes and create easy drive-and-dish opportunities for the penetrators. The Nuggets and Celtics have both installed parts of the offense into their packages, with quite a bit of success. Apparently Calipari had problems relating to his players with the Nets, but since then he has spent time as an assistant with the Sixers, and remember that he did have the impossible task of dealing with Marbury. Marc Stein’s story also says that the Bulls are hot after Calipari, and they would also have good personel for the DDM offense.

Larry Brown: He sure would be expensive, but should the Bucks hire Donnie Walsh then Brown would likely be the main target. Bringing Brown in, though, would probably herald major changes in the roster. For his reputation as a “teacher”, Brown has never succeeded with a young team and has spent his last several jobs constantly campaigning to trade young players to bring in role players “who play the right way” like Dale Davis and Eric Snow. Lets not forget that he blew the Olympics a few years ago by burying Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James on the bench. Should Brown be hired, I’d guess that Andrew Bogut would get a nice contract extension and everybody else would be on the trading block immediately.

Rick Carlisle: He has only accomplished two things in his pair of previous head coaching stints: racking up wins and annoying management. He overacheved with the Pistons, but was so rude to Joe Dumars that he got fired. He built the Pacers into contenders, got them into the playoffs even after the Palace Brawl, but was so hard to deal with that when the Pacers finally slid into mediocrity last season, his two best friends — Walsh and Larry Bird — seized the opportunity to fire him. The New York Daily News, in their stories about Walsh to the Knicks, claim that Carlisle would not be a likely Knicks head coach should Walsh take over at Madison Square Garden.

Jeff Van Gundy: Honestly, I hope they don’t go in this direction. Van Gundy-coached teams play the most boring clutch-and-grab style I’ve ever seen. Sure he gets results, but he also would have a ton of growing pains as he, like Brown, would complain to no end until the entire roster, besides Bogut, is shipped out for players who can defend. Plus, Van Gundy has quit on both of his NBA jobs, citing burnout. I’d rather not have a coach about who you have to wonder whether he will show up.

Scott Skiles: If he’s interested, you’ve got to think he’s like the chance to come in and try to stick it to a division rival. Skiles would probably not be a very good fit with most of the personalities on the roster. He has gotten pretty good results in the past, though.

And one dark-horse who I’d like to see considered:

Jeff Bzdelik: He turned the Nuggets around from 17-65 in 2002-03 to 43-39 the following season, and never seemed to get a fair shake in Denver. He was always on the hot seat for no good reason (basically he won too much with a rookie Carmelo Anthony, while management wanted another high draft pick and a big-name coach) so when Karl became available, Bzdelik was forced out. He is a good coach who deserves another shot.