The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Bullet. Dodged.

While nobody has ever accused Peter Vecsey of being the most accurate, reliable reporter in the world, it’s still worth noting that he is reporting in the New York Post that Doug Collins has turned down a $5 million/year offer as the GM/Head Coach job of the Milwaukee Bucks, as well as $4 million for the GM job alone.

Apparently Collins, who didn’t want anything to do with the Bucks in 2003 or 2005, either, would still rather work in television.

It’s a good non-hire. Collins’ reputation as a coach was made by his handling of the young, developing Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Funny how it is then forgotten that Collins was run out of Chicago because his constant browbeating of his young stars made Jordan so sick of him that he went to management and had Collins forced out.

In an excellent 2001 article for Slate.com, Bryan Curtis made the case of why Collins was a bad hire at the time for the Washington Wizards, and his article points directly at the two reasons he should not join the Bucks:

(1) He can’t coach big men:

What should worry the Wizards is that Collins has yet to develop a big man from scratch. Between 1986 and 1988, the Bulls spent three high draft choices on posts to take the heat off Jordan. Brad Sellers busted, Will Perdue languished on the bench, and even Horace Grant didn’t break out until two years after Collins departed. In Detroit, Collins larded the roster with slashers””Hill, Houston, Lindsey Hunter, Jerry Stackhouse, Malik Sealy””but never could locate a center. (Theo Ratliff, an awfully good one, sat at the end of the bench.)

(2) He is so high-strung as to make people fear for his sanity:

More troubling is Collins’ propensity to unravel in front of his team. As one Piston explained, “He was smart, but when he took things personally, he lost it.” Problem is, Collins takes everything personally. Often, after regular season wins and losses, he broke down in front of his players. (According to Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules, MJ once told a group of players, “You may think you’ve got problems with your coaches, but, well, mine cries every day.”) After chasing Allan Houston out of Detroit, Collins told a stunned Pistons’ locker room, “As far as I’m concerned, Allan Houston can rot in hell.” He so poisoned the atmosphere in Detroit that Grant Hill””as unlikely a mutineer as you’ll find in the NBA””went to Pistons owner Bill Davidson and recommended that Collins be fired.

Vecsey’s Milwaukee source also says that Rick Sund (gag gag gag gag) is still the leading candidate to replace Larry Harris, while other candidates include the Wizards’ Tommy Sheppard (A Ernie Grunfeld disciple? Didn’t Grunfeld screw things up enough?), the Spurs’ Dennis Lindsey (now you are talking) and the Suns’ David Griffin (sure, why not?)