Charlotte Hornets: 5 goals for the upcoming 2018 offseason
5. Find a good coach
While I understand the need to make changes to show that the team is starting anew, the Hornets’ decision to fire Clifford baffled me. Sure, the team didn’t have a great record, but Clifford was a good coach that got the Hornets to play with discipline.
I’m not saying that he was an all-time great coach, but he was better than a lot of other ones (even a couple that are in the playoffs). Clifford didn’t force the team to overspend on mediocre players, but he was part of the exodus nonetheless. Now that he’s gone, the Hornets had better hire a replacement of equal or greater value.
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They appear to be on the right track in that regard. According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, former Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale and San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina will interview for the job within the next few days. Both men have strong coaching reputations.
Fizdale led the Grizzlies to the playoffs in his first season before getting the ax 19 games into this season, essentially for benching Marc Gasol. Memphis went 7-12 with Fizdale this year, but with Mike Conley out, they weren’t going to be that good anyway.
Meanwhile, Messina was regarded as one of the top international coaches before joining Gregg Popovich’s staff in 2014. He filled in for Popovich during the final three games of the Spurs’ first-round series against the Golden State Warriors, after Popovich took a leave of absence following the passing of his wife, Erin.
San Antonio assistant Ime Udoka will interview for the Charlotte Hornets coaching vacancy later this week, league sources tell ESPN. Udoka joins Spurs assistant Ettore Messina and David Fizdale among candidates scheduled to meet Charlotte this week.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 22, 2018
In addition to Fizdale and Messina, the Hornets will also interview North Carolina alum and G League head coach Jerry Stackhouse and Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka. So it appears that Charlotte has a plan in place to nab a quality head coach.